DC tac hook up..?..

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j par

j par

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I've had this tachometer for a number of years and I posted about it when I first got it and there was a few different opinions on how to hook it up, but I never tried. It's just been sitting in my glass case for years now and I would really love to put it in my car... I posted this in the race forum hoping some old timer might know what's going on with it as it only has two wires??
Of course I got people just saying hook it to the coil and see what happens? I'm not looking to hurt it or hurt my car trying wild ideas.. one train of thought that it was a Magneto triggered tack?.. I just noticed it says Sycamore Illinois USA.... first has anybody seen one like this? And second how in the heck do I hook it up... Correctly?..
I appreciate everybody's experience and opinion...
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That's an Autometer tach. From the looks of the wiring it may be an inductive pick up. I've only seen those used on magnetos.

I'd call Autometer and see what they say.
 
yellow rose said:
That's an Autometer tach. From the looks of the wiring it may be an inductive pick up. I've only seen those used on magnetos.

I'd call Autometer and see what they say.
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Out of curiosity how would you know it's an autometer?..
 
Well I answered my own question by just doing a quick Google search... I'll be able to call them pretty early as I'm sure there a couple hours ahead..
 
Well I just called autometer and basically they said I had a paperweight..
Or so they didn't want to touch it because it was an original Chrysler item and altering it sounds like they could get in trouble... He said something about a generator distributor?... He also said it had a very primitive circuit board inside. I asked about altering the circuit board but they said they couldn't touch it and if I wanted to do something like that I was on my own.. maybe when I get time in the next couple weeks I'll dissect it and figure out what I can do.. maybe put the guts of a normal tachometer inside of it...
 
I had a autometer tach like that is used a mini generator that was ran by a tach drive dist, the generator screwed on the tach drive dist and the two wires hooked on the two studs on the generator, they worked really good. by buddy still has one in his coronet, but you need a tach drive dist to make it work.
 
silversedan said:
I had a autometer tach like that is used a mini generator that was ran by a tach drive dist, the generator screwed on the tach drive dist and the two wires hooked on the two studs on the generator, they worked really good. by buddy still has one in his coronet, but you need a tach drive dist to make it work.
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Yes that was it he was talking about a tach-drive distributor..
 
I have a direct connection tach drive electronic ignition dizzy....want to sell the tach?!? :D

I wouldn’t say it’s a paperweight, find the right stuff and these old gauges work just fine, might be a little off on the needle reading....cool tach you have there!
 
@j par

Autometer is notorious for not wanting to touch there own product. It is assembled here in the USA but it is a product of chink parts that are sent over and USA parts.

Basically, if your gauge doesn’t work OOTB, they’ll normally swap it out and call it good. In your case (& mine) they would rather bathe in oil and then set themselves on fire before they open it up, touch it, fix it and then maybe warrantee it.

If that thing you have is a Mag distributor then, IMO, your choices are display it as a ancient museum piece of history, sell it to some fossil running a Mag or you yourself run a Magneto distributor.
Same if it is a cable driven tach.

(Edit - Whoa! There ya go! Look at that ****! A potential buyer right away! Dang!)
 
66340SEDAN said:
I have a direct connection tach drive electronic ignition dizzy....want to sell the tach?!? :D

I wouldn’t say it’s a paperweight, find the right stuff and these old gauges work just fine, might be a little off on the needle reading....cool tach you have there!
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Thank you..
More so do you want to sell the distributor! LOL..:D.. (I think I know where we both stand there LOL)
Actually though I think I would really like to get inside of it and see if I can change the guts or the circuit board and converted to a usable tach..
 
I would never sell it straight out... Of course everybody has their price, but it would be like arm and leg..
Maybe a possible "collectors call" and a trade for other DC stuff....
 
j par said:
I would never sell it straight out... Of course everybody has their price, but it would be like arm and leg..
Maybe a possible "collectors call" and a trade for other DC stuff....
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I agree...This old DC stuff is like crack to me LOL
 
Well! Somebody buy the other guys stuff! Or trade out/swap for newer equipment.
 
66340SEDAN said:
LMAO!!
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The next time you display a picture of your DC air filter on your car could you do me a favor and just go over to the display case and spin the blue pentastar on it take the picture and then just put it back...
The blue should be reflecting.....
To me it almost looks naked without it...
 
I'm not sure I'd take it apart. You're going to the swap meet in less that two weeks. You may find a tach drive distributor there. Then you just get the generator and you're golden.

Or, you can buy a magneto. I can spin those in my machine. That would be cool.

That is similar to the tach I used for years. I found the inductive pickup was more accurate than convetional triggering from the coil. I used to send all my tach's somewhere back east that tested them. Most of them were off.

I'll be checking my new tach very close when I install it.
 
yellow rose said:
I'm not sure I'd take it apart. You're going to the swap meet in less that two weeks. You may find a tach drive distributor there. Then you just get the generator and you're golden.

Or, you can buy a magneto. I can spin those in my machine. That would be cool.

That is similar to the tach I used for years. I found the inductive pickup was more accurate than convetional triggering from the coil. I used to send all my tach's somewhere back east that tested them. Most of them were off.

I'll be checking my new tach very close when I install it.
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I don't even know what a tach Drive distributor looks like. I don't think I would want to get rid of all this matching New MSD stuff either..
there's an old man from Washington that always has a booth in the Southeast corner of the Expo Center at the big swap meet is always selling very old tachometers. A couple few years ago I brought it to him and he never seen it before. He gave me the card of some guy here in town who repairs stuff like that clocks and tachometers. I guess he's hard to get a hold of and is backed up pretty bad...
 
j par said:
I don't even know what a tach Drive distributor looks like. I don't think I would want to get rid of all this matching New MSD stuff either..
there's an old man from Washington that always has a booth in the Southeast corner of the Expo Center at the big swap meet is always selling very old tachometers. A couple few years ago I brought it to him and he never seen it before. He gave me the card of some guy here in town who repairs stuff like that clocks and tachometers. I guess he's hard to get a hold of and is backed up pretty bad...
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I have his card here somewhere. I'm sure he'll be there. I do know he is busy.
 
j par said:
I don't even know what a tach Drive distributor looks like. I don't think I would want to get rid of all this matching New MSD stuff either..
there's an old man from Washington that always has a booth in the Southeast corner of the Expo Center at the big swap meet is always selling very old tachometers. A couple few years ago I brought it to him and he never seen it before. He gave me the card of some guy here in town who repairs stuff like that clocks and tachometers. I guess he's hard to get a hold of and is backed up pretty bad...
Click to expand...
most tach drive distributors are for the cable driven tachs
 
If it's just a paperweight I guess it's not going to hurt anything to dissect it and try putting a pile of crap tachometer inside it...
 
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