I just wanted to know why people use tachs w/shift lights at all in there 3rd/4th gen. cars....

 

I might be showing my ignorance here, but what does a shift light have to do with a MSD ignition set-up? If you are running a manual transmission, there is a shift light on your idiot panel at the lower right hand side next to the service engine soon light.

The Trickster!!!!!!!!!!!

 

well # 1 the stock shift light is for a stock engine which mine is not
so it comes on way too soon,so I unhooked it!
# 2 some MSD ignitions have a plugin for use with a shiftlight.
I was just letting people know what I had for an ignition unless they wanted to know to help me be able to find the appropriate shiftlight ..

I guess I should have worded it different sorry

 

Shift lights are for import "drivers", who don't know how to drive. They have no clue at what RPM the motor has reached its max power, and therefore need some stupid light ot come on that says "OK idiot, shift now".

We drive real cars, so we know what the max HP RPM of our motors is.

Therefore, those of us who drive Camaros and Firebirds, don't need shift lights, because we know how to drive.

Don't we?

Screw a bunch of shift lights. Learn to drive your car.

 

thanks so much for your input ......

So I guess all the millions of us that drag our cars or even street race and use tachs and shift lights dont know how to drive
I simply want the light at eye level when I drag my car for accuracy without the bulky tachs they sell...but maby you should have a sticky on how dumb people are that drive 3rd gen. and use lights and tachs

 

no need to get smartas$ about it... if you dont know when your engine has reached full rev by listening then you should take the advice, and learn to drive your car.

shift lights are most popular amongst the import world cause for some odd reason, they put a small turbo on a 4 cyn and feel they need to know how to drive it by a light..

your better off take a white-out marker and mark the revs on your stock RPM for each gear...


but, I think I seen summit brand RPM gauge that had LED indicator on when the motor is full capacity... very useless waste of $

 

wow your pretty brite too... Im the smart a$$
who started with the smart a$$ comments?
if someone has something to say wether saying its a waste of $$ or what ever thats completly fine...thats what we are here for,BUT when someone comes in with a smart a$$ remark they will get one back!

 

i would never ever in a million years give up my shift light. not like from sound you can tell 6200 RPM from 6000 RPM every gear shift now can you???

honestly i think it's invaluable when i'm trying different shift points at the track. i wouldn't want to look down all the time to the tach when a light can blink and then bang next gear. but hey i'll take any advantage i can on the street or the track to win.

 

thats what Ive been tring to explain...but the guys above will tell you you cant drive


I will start a poll right off as to
who uses only there stock tach,or plain aftermarket tach or tach and shift light together..

I guess we'll see how many dumb people here cant drive because they use a tach and or shift light

 

i was not in the least bit being smart about my comment.. sorry if i came off like that..

I did mention the summit RPM gauge that i'm 99% sure has a LED indicator but I dont know how hard it is to hook up..

now I will be a smarta$s

brite is not a word refering to someones level of smartness...

you would want to use the term "bright" for that, brite I think means something is to ripe

but dont mind me, i'm just a grump... Check out that summit gauge, a extra tach wouldnt hurt and you get your light to boot...

i got the summit catalog infront of me and if you want to spend a easy 100 bucks for a shift light, thats insane? lol but heres the info


part number: ATM-5333

 

Alright kids, lets all have a time out.

Now...There is NO need for a shift light on a street car. You just have to learn to feel when your motor is ready to shift. It takes a little while to get use to. But, when you learn how to feel and hear when it's ready, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Go out to a nice 2-lane road in the middle of nowhere and get the feel of your car and save the money you planned to spend on a shift light to put toward other power adding mods.

Edit: I don't even look at my tach. Yeah, it's an auto, but i shift it manually quite often and it doesn't like to shift on it's own sometimes. Every manual transmission car I've owned, I never used the tach when racing.

 

yep as said above Its for at the track,it easier to see a light and shift! I cant even hear my motor at the track thats half the problem,as far as street anyone can tell where your car is without even lookin at your tach Im not using it for street....

but I guess I need to buy a hearing aid then I wont need the light at the track either

Ok thats enough bitchin everyone over a light,Thanks for all the help! :lala:

 

the higher the RPM, the harder it is to tell the diff in the revs.

when you're in a full all out race car, **** happens quick, loud, and at high RPM.... so manualy shifted race cars have them.

because race cars have them, other people want them.. thats just how things are.


stock shift lights are there, because in the 80s and early 90s, CAFE was important, and to save gas, they needed to shift super early.. before most people "hear" or "feel" is time.... so they turned on the lil shift light.
come mid to late 90s, that wouldnf fly any more... they realized that people dont do what a stupid lil light says.. and they put CAGS in... so you HAD to shift from 1st to 4th.... and no more need for the lil lights.


im getting a shift light for a diff reason.. the Tach in a 3rdgen is useless.... its a POS. inaccurate as heck. now 99% of the time, i will hear/feel/whatever and shift on time... but its also going to be a lil early.. now i dont want to go over 6k or so because of how far im overdriving my blower already... so im setting a shift light around there... its basicly a shift now or you're screwed light, but it works... im also addeding 2 other lights.... a warning light that comes on at low oil pressure or low fuel pressure. and a 2nd small light in the mirror to light the shifter area... like the C5 vettes have....

ofcourse, all my lights are nothing more then hyperbright LEDs, and unless you're both in the drivers seat, and looking for them, you'll never see them.

i used to use the INFL REST light as the warning light, but im changing that light to somthing else....

 

How about just watch your tach?

Most of the time, the tachs that have them are those big stupid things they sell to Honduh owners, to make them "think" (I use the word loosely) that they're "driving" (again, pardon the loose terminology) a fast car. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you "need" one in order to know when to shift your stock V8 car. One good dyno run will give you all the real, accurate info you need so you know the right time, without the r¡cer thing.

 

i dont know about you, but my tach is really far off.. and if thats not enough, sometimes its off by more then other times.... donno why...

i suppose i could buy another used tach, but i may have the same prob.
or i could get a new one or get this one fixed... but thats more money then i care to spend on somthing so stupid. esp since it wont help my car go, stop or turn faster.. and it really wont make it look any better...
i could get a aftermarket tach, but not only does that look more like a ***** then the shiftlight, and look totally out of place, but the odds of someone stealing it when the vert is parked with the top down is pretty high.

when my shiftlight is installed, you cant even tell its there.

 

Not sure id this is applicable to this post, but maybe somebody can straighten me out.

I have 5-speed car, one of the things I enjoy about it is the Shift Light. Call me a *****, then.

I would like to use this light at the track (stock shift light) when I start racing it...Couldn't I buy a shift light that goes with an aftermarket ignition, and hook it up to the stock shift light area so that it will light up when it is time to shift? It will help me learn how to drive the car if nothing else, right?

 

people buy aftermarket tachs for these cars because the nice gauge package these cars came with is about as accurate as shooting a muskett 300ft. personally mine is off by 3,200 rpms and 4k.. either this is becaue its a stock v6 tach or its just a raging piece of ****.. I"m really not sure.. the gauge cluster in my car isnt worth a damn.. the only gauge on it that is kinda accurate is the fuel gauge.. and we all know how accurate that is

 

heres a pic of one behind a dash vent even though its not a 3rd gen.

 

I can understand where some of you are coming from when talkingabout the shift light issue as these were never designed to go into a daily driver period. When used for what they are designed for they are not only a tool that can be the difference between winning and losing a race it is also a major safety issue IMO. At the drag strip I would love to race anybody that is constatly looking up at the track, back down at the tach, back at the track, back at the tach, etc... cause more than likey their going to miss their shift by 1-200 rpm if they're good which is just enough to cost a race. Road racing since your constantly looking ahead for the next turn the last thing you need to do is the rubber neck up and down since you have to watch your lines and try to make an effeicent run on the track-one less reason to be staring at the dash. Which invloves the safety issue, if your not watching the track, your not concentrated fully on whats going on around you, split seconds are all that it takes for disaster weather your opponent gets outta shape or you see something flying off the opponents car-seen it happen- hoods, drive shafts, starters, wheel/axle assemblies. When you have the shift light in your direct feild of veiw looking down the track you see all you need to see straight ahead. When your watching your tach waiting for THAT certain rpm your not paying attention to the important stuff that could make you win or get you a hospital trip. Not saying the import guys are'nt exploting these monster tachs/shift lights but they are made for us that race. If your just toying with a street car, by all means go by feel, sound whatever trips your trigger. But when you start using your car to make money, throw that 60's mentality right out the window and step into the present. They also make shift lights only that can be wired into any ignition system which I myself use since with the theme of my car did'nt want a monster tach looking out of place. My tach gets used only for setting idle, timing, checking shift light rpm, and my cruise rpm of the hwy for chits and giggles. I like to see where I'm going when I'm going faster than the speed limit. But what do I know about racing since the only time I get paid from a race track is when I enter

 

very well put!

 

that reminds me...... Formula1 cars, indy cars, and alot of openwheel race cars use shiftlights like that either on the wheel, or on the front cowling infront of the driver...

usually, its a couple greens, couple yellow, and shift... that way they can smack thru the gears using only their peripheral vision
same thing i was getting at with my lights..

on the street, id never need them, i scan my gauges constantly... at the track when im focusing ahead, or staging, im not looking at the oil pressure gauge too much.... so i put a warning"hey somthings wrong, look at me!" light in there.

i wouldnt give up my gauges for anything, but lights can be good...

dont let a few r!cers choices influance your choices.

 

Ya. You can very much understand where it would be appropriate for the track. Im guessing that after racers using it in pro circuits companies got the idea to sell em.

Nate

 

In a few years I'm building up a late-60s Cadillac. Built later-model 500 cu. in. Cadillac motor, six-speed manual transmission. It's going to look completely stock, inside and out.

Clearly, those old Caddies never came with tachs, and I'm not going to install one. Instead, I'm going to put in two very small lights invisible to most people. One will be orange, to let me know that I'm getting close to redline. The other will be red, to let me know that I've reached redline. The rev-limiter will follow shortly thereafter.

That's my only benefit to a "shift light." Tach? I don't need one -- if I can't learn to hear how the engine reacts, I shouldn't be driving a car like that. I could understand why race cars might need a shift light, because everything happens so quickly... it probably serves as a visual stimulus to the driver (as soon as he sees that color, he instinctively shifts the transmission). I don't really see the purpose of a light in a street car, though, unless you're in a situation like mine.

 

That's cute.

What brand / model of shift light is worth buying?
FYI my use: Roadrace 305 TPI, stock ignitions sys, no aftermarket. Gonna mount it on the a-pillar bar.

I've heard that the adjustable autometer ones has a tendency of the **** moving. Are the pill ones that much better? One from MSD would be nice, but don't they require a MSD ignition, or that you buy a separate module?

Sidenote: What makes the stock tachs unreliable? Is it the input wire or is it the tach internals itself? I'ld assume it's the latter in that wouldn't you run an aftermarket tach to the same wiring?
[rant]I believe it is true that the monster tachs and shiftlights are intended for the import market... that's why it's so friggin hard to find a decent white faces tach that DOESN'T have a 10K redline! All I need is a 7k.... [/rant]

 

why bring up old threads like this??


anyway:

cheap **** ones (proform) let the **** move.
pill ones are accurate, but you have to buy pills for every RPM you want to set it at, and it costs more because of the MSD name.
you dont need a MSD ignition for a shift light... unless its the kind made to plug into a MSD tach, then, its just a light, and you need the tach.

stock tachs are unreliable because the internal circutry ages..
you run a aftermarket tach thru the stock wiring, and it works fine.. wires are just wires.. nothing special.

people have been running monster tachs in cars long before there even were imports. 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s......
only diff now is that instead of the procomp look, people want white faces for some reason.....

 

I'm sure my tach is probably off, but I don't need a shift light when I race. I can feel when the power starts to level off, and I can tell how fast the engine is spinning just by ear. In all the drag racing I've done in the last few weeks (and I am new to it, I won't lie) I've done pretty well, almost every run faster than the last and winning about 80% of the races I've run. And although I am new to organized drag racing, driving my car hard and fast is nothing new to me. I've been doing it for years.

I never watch my tach, and have no use for a light... anyone who knows how to drive a stick, and drive it fast, likely doesn't need one either. You just know when to shift because of what you hear and feel going on, not because of what some guage or light says.

**(I'm not talking about full-on race cars here btw, but your typical street/strip cars. Real race cars have them because they need them, as a few have already mentioned.)

 

The stock shift light on my car was annoying, so I took out the bulb.

When I'm just putt-putting around town doing an errand, I usually shift at about 2000. Try to stretch that gas mileage a bit. When I'm trying to accelerate quickly, for whatever reason, I shift her considerably higher.