Tach?

[Artemis Entreri]

Did these trucks ever come with tachs?
For those who added one later, where did you mount it? I hate not knowing what rpm im at.

 

[dhcomp]

Some came with a factory tach, but for the most part, its an expensive conversion because they are fairly rare.

Super easy to wire up an aftermarket one. 1 wire from teh distributor, an ign wire, ground, and illumination (tap in at the stereo, no searching then).

I bought a cheap a$$ one, but it works. The needle doesn't light up at night though, so its not that easy to read when its dark. Only the backgroudn lights up :/

BUT, the price was right, about $40. I got the summit brand one, but can't find it online. A basic sunpro or auto parts special will do the job, just not the best necessarily.

I have a 3 3/8" 8000 RPM one. I got the 8k because the are the most accurate in teh middle, and once again, the price was right. A 5k would do it, hell, my truck never sees above 4k.

I mounted to the drivers side windshield pillar using the trim piece screw hole. Mounts about 1/4" off the dash, in the corner there after i bent the bracket. No drilling into dash, good visibility. Just bent the bracket they gave me to work.

Wish i had a picture. But pretty self explanatory.

Scott has his mounted in teh same place, maybe he has a pic.

Search, lots of ppl have done different things, but i liked this setup the best.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Correction, i don't have a tach installed yet. I was talking to you about mounting mine and you showed me how you mounted yours.

 

[86chevyk10]

It's been a while but i believe i installed mine on the sunvisor mount near the a-pillar. it was perfecr for driveing down the road, eyes barley had to move to see it. Then i ran the wires down the pillar and behind the dash.

 

[82355]

Steering column. With an SM465 it isn't bad. With an auto, it is mildly entertaining.

Martin

 

[82355]

Here is a side shot of it in my K30. You can see it on top of the column.

Here it is in my '88 V10 Suburban when it still had a TH700R4. It moved when you shifted, had it set though it was between the two guages in ovedrive.

Martin

 

[USSkoval]

My '77 has a factory tach, but it doesn't work. I put a cheap little "Super Pro" tach in my '88 Suburban. Screwed it right to the dash pad, at the base of the A pillar. It's a great spot for it, but if the dash pad wasn't cracked I would not have wanted to put it there.

 

[dhcomp]

Correction, i don't have a tach installed yet. I was talking to you about mounting mine and you showed me how you mounted yours.

Your right, i remember. Its a big autometer or some fancy one that was your friend's. I'm more than a little delirious today....

Crappy Cell PHone Pic.

 

[Randy92782]

I'd go aftermarket as well. I got this cheap (like $75) so i decided to hook it up. As Martin said it's pretty much only good if you have the manual cause when you try to shift an auto it moves all around

Heres where mine was on my blazer

 

[Blue85]

There are many options. Try the search function. I moved my fuel gauge to the small empty slot in the cluster and modified an aftermarket tach to look like a stock in in the other large gauge location. That's how the cluster should be: large tach and speedo.

An A-pillar pod is pretty simple and clean.


EDIT: This is an old pic. Since then, I changed the scale to 6000rpm and flipped the switch from 8 cyl to 6cyl to compensate.

 

[AZ79K5Project]

Here are some gauge clusters with aftermarket tachs installed. These are not mine. They are from other members on this board. I downloaded copies of the pics for future build ideas. These are some slick set-ups IMO.

 

[pauly383]

Mine is right where it belongs to me , on the left side using the upper bezel screw and the bent bracket I bent a different way ( but came with tach ) . I need to get a new picture , as the empty factory gauge spot below it got drilled down the center and my tach wiring is now under dash .

 

[dyeager535]

To mount a small fuel gauge in a '91 cluster, you'd have to do a fair bit of work as the cluster isn't even cutout there anymore. Keep your eyes open for my "gauge tuning" post. I will put it up as soon as I can upload the photos. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Best to just consider an aftermarket standalone piece.

I've gone from a tach dash to non-tach, and to be honest, with fuel injection, it doesn't matter, and I don't miss it. You need a scanner to see what's going on with the truck anyway, and that shows RPM, and ECM controls idle RPM, so the point is...?

But it's personal preference, I understand. Do what makes you happy.

 

[dhcomp]

Towing a lot, it helps to know the RPM. Especially with a 350. I feel like i'm driving wiht my eyes closed when i don't have a tach.

 

[Cubman]

I have a blank spot in the bottom left of the cluster where they put the clock or fuel gauge on some trucks, has anyone tried to put a small tach in that spot? O'Reillys sells a little tach (2-1/2"?) that I was thinking about trying. My truck is an auto, so I don't need to look at it very often, just for towing or if I ever put my truck in the truck pull. Will it physically fit, and will I be able to see it?

 

[Russell]

Another possibility for the new electric cluster is a medium duty truck tach. Many only go to 4500 rpm (plenty for most engines) but they have the fuel gauge integrated into the tachometer.

 

[TDS-MN]

I've mounted mine on the column, and a since I have the automatic trans, it does swing around when you shift thru the gears. I have it set so that it sits horizontal when I'm in OD, and I left enough slack that it never binds the wires when shifting from park all the way thru '1'.

Works well, and allows view of both factory speedo and gas gauge. Slightly blocks view of the dash directionals, but pretty easy to peek around the tach to see them when needed. I'm running what must be about a 3" diameter old Sun tach, using the mounting bracket that came with it, and a big band-clamp around the column.

 

[JOES89K5]

tach

az79k5 very nice setups. i kinda like allwhite backround. they look they came stock. i had a friend who ordered his 78 blazer back in the day. tach was optional. he ordered the stickshift and the very next day it came in we put a rancho 4 inch kit in.

 

[K10 KRAWLER]

I have a dash with the factory tach, I diddnt even know it was super rare! How much is it worth?

 

[4xcrazy]

lower corner of the windshield, on top of the dash, there is a screw in the A-pillar plastic trim you can remove, and install it with a longer one, it's out of the way, and really doesn't block any vision of the road, almost eye level too.

Jason4x4 mounted his there too, but says he mounted directly to the dashboard. Maybe he'll get a pic up on here of the location i am referring to so you can see what it looks like.