What are y’all using for column mounted tachs?

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FlamesAreWicked

FlamesAreWicked

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I’m a fan of “Day 2” modifications and I found a vintage SST-70 tach on eBay I’d like to use. These use a separate transmitter box believe. There’s some on eBay also and they’re sold as untested.

There’s a guy online “Tach Man” that refurbishes the transmitters.. assuming buying a used one is a dud. They also run off a AA sized battery that seems to be not accessible anymore

Just wondering if it’s worth all of the hassle. While some people like the dog dish sized tachometers, I’m more of a fan of the smaller vintage or at least vintage looking ones.

I may just get a new Bosch Super Tach and call it a day. This won’t be a race car but again, I love the “day 2” mods. The cool parts that were the ones to have back in the day.
 
The AA batteries don't hold up well with constant temperature changes in an automotive application. There are plenty of electrical tachometers out there, let your wallet and common sense be your guide.
 
Those batteries they came with the transmitters are 3 V? Mercury good luck finding one. You can get the guts changed out for bucks but to me just something to look at find a Sun Super II that is calibrated. I still have a few left after Carlisle.
 
I like the old Sun tachs from the 70's and 80's for the old school look. But after 40 the large autometer is what I can see without my readers. And because my memory is just as bad I use the recall style.
 
I DO NOT think the original Sun's that used a transmitter used AA batteries! The used some oddball unobtainium battery.
Considering the prices I have seen for original Sun's, I would 100% settle for a modern retro-look tach.
Google retro tachs, there's probably a hundred different choices
 
Yeah it looked like a AA battery but was only 1.37v and yeah… unobtainum..

The Bosch Super Tach might be a good compromise. Not as cool as a vintage Sun Tach but.. far more feasible and practical
 
The 90° sweep Bosch retro tach definitely looks vintage, and it doesnt look like its got any name on the tach face.
That would be my choice for vintage look.
I use an autometer monster in one car and a VDO replay (not just recall) in the other car. I LOVE the recall tach!
 
ProjectBazza said:
Simple! Buy one of Hoppie's old Sun Super Tach's that he's gone through. The one I bought from him looks cool as hell (old school look) in my '68 F250, and it works absolutely perfect!
Click to expand...
Is something that has modern guts inside of an old housing ?
 
Oldmanmopar said:
I like the old Sun tachs from the 70's and 80's for the old school look. But after 40 the large autometer is what I can see without my readers. And because my memory is just as bad I use the recall style.
Click to expand...

After 50 I had to go to a dual range tach.

But I don’t drive with my glasses so that makes it a bit harder to see.
 
As for me, I made a strap to fit my dashpad, back in 1971. It hooks under the frontmost edge near the windshield, is form-fit to the pad, then the inboard end is bent down and around the padded edge. On it, I mounted a 3.75"/8000rpm tach with a 270 sweep . On the face, the tach has a shift lite and a dial-type rev limiter. They are not as accurate as the high-end systems but honestly, on the Street they don't need to be, cuz who ever looks at them anyway?.
This tack is wired and mine is set up so that I can slide the thing into view on race day, and the rest of the time it is parked more or less under the mirror. I use the rev-limiter as a poor-man's cruise control. I set to about a a mile or three over the speed limit and so, when the ignition cuts out, I know I gotta claw back some speed. The pointer is set to 5000, cuz who the heck can see it anyway when blasting thru traffic. and it prevents people from commenting on my 7200 shift rpm that they don't know about.
The Shift light?
Well, mine is set right on the power peak to alert me that sometime soon I'll need to shift, but relax, it just means soon. The tach is not my boss. I'll go to 7200 if I darn well feel like it. Besides, 65 mph, in First-over is only 6900 and change, lotsa time; the tires haven't even stopped spinning yet. Juswait. Second is gonna get me 86 and Second-over is 109. Third, if I needed it, would get me to 116
Fourth is not a gear I often use. and 4-od is for cruising. 65=2240.
But I digress, lol.
The tach is an old Autometer.
I like it up top, cuz I'm 71, and my eyes are just starting to get slow to focus/refocus. I wore eyeglasses from the age of 15 on. But around age 65, I realized that I could ask Jesus for stuff, and so, about 4/5 years ago, I asked for better vision, and received. An eye exam released me from the scourge of having to eyeglasses for driving any more. and of course I no longer wear then at all then. I threw them away.
but I digress again. sorry, lol.
 
I used a dash cluster screw to mount an Autometer tach under the dash pad of my 67 Barracuda. Easy to see, doesn't block any gauges or interfere with the shifter like a column mount would, and it's not too hard to reach under it to turn on the windshield wipers.

1725496644646.jpeg
 
65 Cuda 340 said:
I used a dash cluster screw to mount an Autometer tach under the dash pad of my 67 Barracuda. Easy to see, doesn't block any gauges or interfere with the shifter like a column mount would, and it's not too hard to reach under it to turn on the windshield wipers.

View attachment 1716299160
Click to expand...
I like that !
I have been wondering where to put mine in my 67.


Great idea !!!

Thanks.
 
AJ/FormS said:
As for me, I made a strap to fit my dashpad, back in 1971. It hooks under the frontmost edge near the windshield, is form-fit to the pad, then the inboard end is bent down and around the padded edge. On it, I mounted a 3.75"/8000rpm tach with a 270 sweep . On the face, the tach has a shift lite and a dial-type rev limiter. They are not as accurate as the high-end systems but honestly, on the Street they don't need to be, cuz who ever looks at them anyway?.
This tack is wired and mine is set up so that I can slide the thing into view on race day, and the rest of the time it is parked more or less under the mirror. I use the rev-limiter as a poor-man's cruise control. I set to about a a mile or three over the speed limit and so, when the ignition cuts out, I know I gotta claw back some speed. The pointer is set to 5000, cuz who the heck can see it anyway when blasting thru traffic. and it prevents people from commenting on my 7200 shift rpm that they don't know about.
The Shift light?
Well, mine is set right on the power peak to alert me that sometime soon I'll need to shift, but relax, it just means soon. The tach is not my boss. I'll go to 7200 if I darn well feel like it. Besides, 65 mph, in First-over is only 6900 and change, lotsa time; the tires haven't even stopped spinning yet. Juswait. Second is gonna get me 86 and Second-over is 109. Third, if I needed it, would get me to 116
Fourth is not a gear I often use. and 4-od is for cruising. 65=2240.
But I digress, lol.
The tach is an old Autometer.
I like it up top, cuz I'm 71, and my eyes are just starting to get slow to focus/refocus. I wore eyeglasses from the age of 15 on. But around age 65, I realized that I could ask Jesus for stuff, and so, about 4/5 years ago, I asked for better vision, and received. An eye exam released me from the scourge of having to eyeglasses for driving any more. and of course I no longer wear then at all then. I threw them away.
but I digress again. sorry, lol.
Click to expand...


Post up a picture please
 
Newbomb Turk said:
Post up a picture please
Click to expand...
Don't take this the wrong way, I would reply the same way to anyone who asked this.
>I'm on a fixed income, and need my pension checks to cover the ever-increasing cost of trudo-nomics in my area.
So
I'm not buying a camera to take a picture of a bent aluminum strap, that any person with an imagination should be able to imagine.
So
You pencil it out on a napkin, send it, and I'll tell you that Hyup, that looks just like it.
LOL!
 
Mines a 2" AutoMeter under the damned radio where I can't see it when the Hammer is down...

B4.jpg

Volts and Oil on the left/ Tach and Vac under the radio
 
eekvonzipper said:
Mines a 2" AutoMeter under the damned radio where I can't see it when the Hammer is down...

View attachment 1716299283
Volts and Oil on the left/ Tach and Vac under the radio
Click to expand...
Nice!

For my 65, I ordered a tach from J.C. Whitney back in the early to mid seventies and put it in the dash where a Formula S tach would have been. No idea what brand the tach is/was, but it STILL works after all these years. (150 mph speedo is from a 71 Duster 340; I was gonna rig up the trip odometer, but never got around to it).

1725517429757.jpeg
 
This is the old tach out of my Dart that was stolen and recovered. It was in the Dart for 17 years and it will be going on the column of the Duster soon.

1725530609652.jpeg
 
I painted the cover to mimic the Don Garlits tach. I have a fuel pressure gauge cover that is painted the same but yet to install it. Plan on putting that on the cowl.
 
Those real covers are $$$$ now. Had a sun tach original nos with it in the box. Two guys were basically bidding on it at Carlisle went for over 800! I was thinking 300
 
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