hey, i hear its helpful to adjust ur idle speed if u have a "real" tachometer....but how do u hook it up? how much do these cost? is it really worth it cuz i know the dashboard ones arent accurate for measurements, thanks

 

I'm confused by your question... But, yes, the stock tachs are known to be not accurate. I was given a 5" Autogauge Tach with shiftlite, retails for $100 in Summit. You can hook it up anywhere, and basically you hook up wires for the power and the other wires go to the distributor.

 

i never really thought about mounting a new tachometer, thats actually helpful...sorry i wasnt clear...i mean like hooking up a tach to measure adjustments, etc...like when adjusting idle speed u can look at something under the hood...i dunno, thanks

 

Oh, I see now. I'm sure they sell some kind of tool for that, basically same idea, just hook it up to the distributor where the factory tach is for the tuning purposes, then undo it.

 

yeah i love my aftermarket autometer tach.... i dont know about the stock gauges being off.. i just like the looks of the big 5 inch tach with shift light. Installation is easy i think there was 4 wires, one was the green wire that goes to the distributer, black was ground, white was key switch, and blue was power up when you turn your lights on.

 

The wiring on my car is a mess, Where do I hook up the wire for the distributor I don't see a clip on it like most other cars I've worked on.

 

i just looked at all the small wires coming out of the distributor. you gotta find the white wire. mine were real dirty so i cleaned them off and when i got the white one i spliced the green wire from my sun pro 5 " tach into it and ran the power and ground wires. works great and also made me realize howw much off the stock tach was

 

how far off is the stock tach? I think mines off because it hardly stays running with a 500rpm idle...750 idles fine tho.

I like the gauge pod on the pillar. I want to do that soon with a new oil pressure gauge and tranny fluid temp.

BTW what guages are those inplace of the old ones?? I like the looks of them. and how hard was it to install?

 

I think this might answer your question, the tool you're looking for is called an engine analyzer. You hook one wire to the distributor (where the tach wire is now), and hook two cables to the positive and negative posts of your battery. You can get these at any parts store, and they read RPM accurately.

 

i have a Q...i dont have a factory tach...but want to add an aftermarket one...where would i hook it up at?

 

The two tachs I've installed both had a ground wire, a wire to the coil, and a few others, but those were the two important ones. They were installed on old points distributors though, dunno how they'd hook up to an HEI.

 

Ground wire to a good chassis ground. Power wire to an ignition switched source (probably something available in the fusebox). Tach wire to the Tach terminal on the distributor (it's marked).