this is what my tach looks like now after i got it back from the shop who repared it after it was broken into. They totaly redid the steering column and installed an alarm, and im guessing by the wipe marks on the face of the TACH backing, they cleaned up the dash area. And while doing this they somehow broke my tack, the picture below is how it looks now, and when it starts goes to 0. and you can see wipe marks if u look closely enough at the photo where im guessing they cleaned up and messed with the needle with a rag or something..

NOw the reason the clear pastic piece that covers the guages is missing is because i had to take off the bezel infront of the guages a whlie back and broke the clear plastic piece, so i left it off and was goign to goto the junk yard and pick up another one, so all teh guage faces are exposed.

is there anyway to fix this? can i just get a new tach motor or do i need a whole new guage cluster? any clues?
And im not going bring it back to the place to make them fix it because they did such a bad job on many other things i know they will just screw it up worse, but whatever it does cost me i think im goign to give them the bill...

so is there any way to replace the tach without replacing the whole guage cluster?? maybe just replace the motor or something? if not how much will THEY have to pay for a new guage cluster?

also, which wire in the engine bay is for the tach?

 

The tach has a stop built into it somehow (never been curious enough to take mine apart) to make the needle sit on '0'. If you take the whole cluster out the gauge is removable by a couple of nuts from the back side of the cluster. The tach wire is the white one on the coil.

Have you physically tried to move the tach past 0 ? It might be stuck on that stop.

 

it'l move to about 200 when reving, its not that the tach is off, it just doesnt' work right

 

I grasp what you're saying but, if the needle was shoved beyond the 'internal' (it's not really a closed unit but,, you know...) stop backwards (counterclockwise), it may be jammed on that stop somehow.
That's why I ask if you've actually moved it beyond how far it will register by hand so you can see if it's physically being held to 200rpm.

Let me also correct myself about how it comes out, there are 5 phillips screws holding it in.. I think camaro gauges are held with nuts.

 

The plate that stops the tach at 0
(It's a crappy pic but what do you expect from a cheapie digi cam... better than nothing I guess )

*edit... the dash was already apart from me putting in blue glass lights

 

well, i can move the needle by hand to about 5500. then it stops, and i can move it about half an inch to the left of where it is now. and when idling, the highest it will goto is about 1000, when the engine is probably at about 5000.. and when regular driving the movement is really irratic, is there anyway i can test the tach? i think something eletrical is wrong.

which wire goes to the tach from the ignition??

here is a video of what its doing.
http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/3e9bb...h1Z18AMU0ULKg7

 

If the tach is working, it's getting a signal from the coil so the wiring seems to be intact. Here's a diagram
http://www.geocities.com/vtcamaro/Pi...rams/pg174.jpg (you'll have to cut & paste it)
for a camaro but a bird should be no different, the white wire off the tach goes to the - side of the coil.

I'd suspect something happend to the tach itself, you should be able to freely move it past 8k rpm & it should stop on 0 when off.

 

so am i looking at replacing the whole entire gauge assembly? or would i be able to goto junk yard and get a motor and just replac the tach motor?

 

You can remove just the tach. The 1st pic is of my tach out for the purpose of the pic & the 2nd pic I posted is the same one back in (the cluster was out because I painted all my needles white). Once the cluster is out, there are 5 phillips screws on the backside of the cluster, take them out & the tach will plop right out. Installation is reverse of removal. Note also, on the tach, it specifies what kind it is (8 cyl, 6 cyl) so if you hunt down a replacement and find one you won't have to guess what motor it's for. It's actually alot more work just getting the damm cluster out than it is replacing the gauge.