Tachometer Installation Questions

[rem7600]

I have been thinking hard about putting a tach in
my recently acquired '89 Jimmy. I got very used to it on
my last truck and now miss it... JC Whitney has some that
are extremely reasonable in price but what nightmares will
I face trying to install it? I'm strong on logic, weak on
electrical knowledge and as I understand it this is an
electronic hookup from the word GO. Any insight?

Thanx for tips you might be willing to share.

REM7600

 

[walrus101]

i personally never installed one, but i have seen tach's that are supposed to be simple. it hooked up to a sparkplug or the wire.put it thru the firewall mount it and your done. i am going to be putting one in my 88 next weekend. let me know how it goes; and any pointers you may have.
good luck and have fun

 

[88Jimmy]

On your 89 there is a white wire coming off your coil
that is for a tach.
you will have a harder time looking for the hot to the tach and if your want your light in your tach to be hooked up to your dash lights.

350 Vortec TPI D60 14Bolt 4"lift 35 BFG A/T

 

[rem7600]

As you can imagine, I never want to do things the easy
way! :-) I WOULD want to hook up to the lighting
system. I will have no problem finding "hot" and a way to
ground but suspect that tapping into the lighting system
is going to be easier said than done. I'll have a look
for that white wire off the coil... Anyone have detail on
tapping into the lighting? I have the Haynes manual with
electrical diagrams but I must say again... I'm
electrically challenged! :-) REM7600

 

[BurbinOR]

Relax, it is a pretty basic project. You should have four wires to hook up.......
1. Ground......simple enough, ground it to the body or frame.
2. Tach - on your HEI there is a hookup that says TACH on it, that is where you run this wire to. It is on the little "ear" that sticks out from the body of the cap, right next to the BAT terminal.
3. Power - use a test light, find a fuse/terminal that comes on with the key, hook it up to this.
4. Lights - find the dash light circuit on your fuse block with the test light, then hook the wire up to that.

There are pretty decent electrical plugs available at auto parts stores to make these piggyback connections clean and long lasting.

Good luck, let us know if you need any more help.

'79 - 406 w/IROC TPI - K5#5 - a <font color=orange>sickness

<font color=blue>you never get enough of!!

 

[79Cheyenne]

Tie into the wiper on your headlight switch. The "wiper" is the middle tab which allows you to dim your dash lights, this way you can dim the tach too.

good luck!

<font color=orange>1979 BLAZER Cheyenne

 

[**b**]

wHERE DO YOU PLAN ON MOUNTING THE BAD BOY???
IN DASH ? / BE SCARD...

I OPTED WITH A MOUNT ON THE CONSOLE USING A RADAITOR CLAMP.
WHEN IN PARK THE TACH IS @ ABOUT 8 O'CLOCK WHEN IN DRIVE ABOUT 11 O'CLOCK IN OD 10 O'CLOCK...

JUST AN IDEA 4 YOU..
GOOD LUCK

 

[**b**]

MY BAD DID I SAY CONSOLE / I MENT COLOUM
THE STEARING COLIUM

 

[**b**]

HOWEVER YOU SPELL IT !!!

 

[rem7600]

Was "Tach" a factory option on the 89's? I suspect
the answer is yes and if so, where did they locate
it? In the dash panel? I think I'm going to go
ahead with the aftermarket install from JC Whitney.
Sounds relatively straightforward. I appreciate the
input from everyone. It will likely be mounted on
the column. Again, thanx for all of the good
information.

 

[lew]

Hello,
Put one in my 86, ridiculously easy when you get it done.

I used a complete set of autometer white face gauges and replaced all of the dash gauges. mounted the tach where the monster factory gas gauge goes, and put a two inch auto meter gas gauge in the spare hole.
Like was said above, ran tach line to the HEI cap marked Tach. Then taped the light wire to one of the dash background light terminals so that the dimmer function still works. That was basically it.
I am not sure about the quality of some of the JC whitney stuff but really like the Auto meters. They seem to handle the bumps well, plus I only live 25 miles From the Summitt Racing warehouse in Reno and they have some pretty good prices.

Have fun.

 

[Bigd]

On my 76 there is a tab on the fuse block that reads park/lts this is what i connected to with a tab connector.Same for the power wire look for a tab labeled IGN.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hey guys. Anyone ever try to yank out the vent on the lower left-hand side of the dash, under the small factory gauges to put a tach there? I'm thinking about it and wanted to see if anyone had had major problems.

 

[Rob 85K5]

Just a look at where I put my tach. It may look like it gets in the way but not really from my vantage point.

Rob 85K5

<font color=orange>Bleedin' Chevy Orange</font color=orange>