Twice in an as many days, I have stumbled upon pretty amazing deals for vintage tachs. The first one is an early Stewart Warner that I've been looking for for quite a while. It was mislabeled on eBay and I just got really lucky. The other was another eBay find that just went down not more than 30 minutes ago. I stumpled upon it 10 or so minutes after it was listed and got the "buy it now" price. It's a Sun and I think it's a pretty early one... I know Don Dillard has one in his roadster and I have emailed him with questions... But I thought I would ask you folks as well... Anyone know anything at all about the tach pictured below? I'm primarily an S/W collector, but couldn't pass this one up for the price.
Ryan if its not cable drive ( looks like an electric wire comming out the back) I'm going to guess its either WWII or Korean War era aircraft tach. But that's a guess at best. OK I thought it said S/W on the front and I had to look closer, I don't think that Sun produced anything for the military. Bad guess on my part. DOH
Ryan, I do not know anything about yours, so I thought I would share the one that I have in my 'A' Coupe which is a Vintage SW.
I'm pretty confident it is automotive... I've seen them a few times in early hot rod photos... *I think* And I know Don runs one in his '32... It is electric...
Ryan.... nice score, that 4500 rev tacho would be perfect for my old low rpm Nailhead ..... I don't think it would rev much higher.
Damn, and I haven't been paying attention to that stuff for about a week too. So what do you want to trade for the Sun tach? I picked up a cool Airguide tach for my coupe to replace the RAC, just cause it looked a little more "aircrafty"... then the damn thing didn't work. So I had to put the RAC back in.
Damn...that 6k tach would look GOOD in my truck! he he.....if it were cable driven..... What is the approximate size????
Mine is an 8000 RPM version of the one pictured. Unfortunately, mine isn't hooked up. Neal Jennings (NealinCA) found one like yours in some trasures at this dad's place a month or so ago and it has some type of sending unit with it. I don't have the sending unit for mine and don't know anything else about it. It was in the dash when I bought the car.
I don't have it in my hands yet, so I am not sure... I doubt it works... I actually have a modern 90-degree tach and I was thinking of putting the guts of it in this thing... If I use it... Just not sure yet. I guess if I can find the history of this thing it will help me make my mind up...
Of course, most instrument rebuild places can gut any tach (sending unit style or otherwise) and make it modern-style electric. I just had a 1952 SW boat tac/all-in-one gauge completely redone from mechanical to electric.
I've got that same tach in the center of my grandpa's 51 dash. Finally I've got something "cool" that someone else has....
I'm checking my warbird connections to see if it is special or not. We get all ours rebuilt with modern movements as well. It's not cheap though!
I think that SW early Tach is perfectly matched to an original '32 Ford Speedo. Arm the same and everything. Nice scores- definitely have seen the Sun in early hot rods.
Ryan, I also think the Sun tach is aviation. I have the same one, but not in as nice condition as yours. One reason I think it aircraft is that it matches the other aircraft guages I have. Might just be coincidence. In any event - I am quite certain it uses a separate sender. Killer tach for sure - I can't wait to use mine in something.
Ryan, I had one years ago that came from a Sun distributor machine, hooked to an EB7 sending unit on a 6 volt '46 Chev
OK Ryan fess up you really bought it for the SW transmitter that was with it right. LOL I had it on my watch list that's why I knew. I have a 5K like it that I posted pics of it when the tach thread was going a short time ago. It does take a transmitter but I can't remember right now which one. I do remember it's not an EB though. About 2 weeks ago there were 5 of them on that site in a weeks time.
I think this is the sending unit you are looking for. He's running the same style Sun tach. It resembles the 60s Sun tach senders but looks a little different. I'm sure it could be converted but I'd bet it's 6V.
I am thinking it is an aviation tach. The four bolt mount looks alot like the aviation oil psi gauge I bought at a pawn shop in OK last week for a cool 10 bucks.
ryan, last week or the week before I saw a listing on ebay for a tach exactly like that one that came with a sun sending unit. it was a six volt unit that the seller claimed he found in a late forties or early fifties large ford truck. I'm sure if you called williamsons they would be able to tell you what it was used on.
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