Vintage Tach Collectors Show and Tell

Here's a couple from the collection. The first is an unknown Stewart-Warner. It is a really different blue color in person. The second is a set of SW knockoffs that were under the dash of the coupe when I bought it. They will probably find their way back into the car eventually.

 

Mine...

 

Not sure when Dixco originated, but I know they date back to the mid 50's at least in farm equipment applications... the factory gauges on my grandfather's 1956 Farmall 460 are Dixcos. Dixco was always sort of a "cheaper" version of gauges, less expensive than either Sun or SW. Not that anyone here cares, but Don Yenko used Dixco gauges in 1970 on the Yenko Deuce Nova for both the underdash gauges as well as the hood tach, mainly because they were cheaper than the SW stuff he used in previous years. Alot of the "no-name" gauges sold in JC Whitney catalogs throughout the 70s and early 80s were actually made by Dixco. The chrome Dixco tach "Rewired" asked about on page one dates to about 1962 or 63, and was a copy of a similar tach made by Sun and used in the 62 409 Bel Airs.

 

While we are on the subject of tachs, I have a question. I have a vintage 1964 black face SW tach in my 62 Biscayne. It uses the red round sending unit under the hood. Who can convert this to a modern battery set up?

 

Williamson's Instrument Service

 

someone has to have an older tach they want to sell? i had an ad in the wanted section for months with 1 reply............looking for an older 12v cup mount tach (that doesnt need a sender preferably) for a 50 merc project with a flatty a stewart warner would be a plus but open to ?????????? pm me

 

Here are mine. Big ones are L-R Jones mech', Dixco elec' and SW mech'.

 

joey, you don't by chance need an extra left(or right) nut do ya? i needs me one of them 960 greenline pedastal mouted tachs! heck, i'd even let ya keep the display board...maybe! haha, no way a musclecar guy would let a hot rodder like me devalue that stuff by putting it in a hot rod! nice collection, i think i only have enough SW gauges for 5 or 6 cars.

wrong instrument!

 

please school me. i am confused as to how the cable driven tachs. work. is there a separate drive cable coming from the distributor or the cam somewhere? i mean obviously they are driven by a cable but i have never seen a cable running to a tach before??

 

There is a cable that runs from the distributor to the tach.

 

To add to this, you need a special distributor with a provision to attach a cable. I think some early Corvettes used these from the factory, not sure who made aftermarket distributors with a provision for a tach drive.

 

I was always under the impression that the mechanical drive tachs in the Corvette were driven off the back of the generator(special back plate).

 

I shudda known that other people, besides myself, would collect old tachs. The only 2 that I think are interesting are:
my pride and joy, a factory tach from my old 67 Block Chevelle. I have been offered $350 for it and can't bring myself to part with it. The other is a 6000 rpm tach with the Chrysler name on it. It is a large, 3 3/4 inch face with no other identification. My guess is that it is also from a 60's super car.
I have many others, and even have a new in the box Westach similar to the one pictured in one of the above postings. I will look to see if there is an instruction sheet.
Bob

 

Yes Corvettes and several others had factory tach drive distributors. Mallory and Accell both come to mind right off the bat for after market tach drive distributors along with Grant and DC. I believe most magnetos used a cable driven tach?

 

mechanical SW



Early electrical that required a device that mounted between the dizzy and the cap spacing the cap and rotor up about 3/4" or so.



These old SWs are cheap on Ebay. People think they can't be made to work.



But it's not too hard to replace the guts with cheap new tach innards. I paid 40 bucks for a new ugly tach and then mounted it in the old case and epoxied the old needle on. Will it read right???no who cares. For me a tach is decoration anyway.



You can see the tach drive coming off the back of the generator in this 58 Corvette. I don't know when they changed to a dizzy drive but my 63 Corvette tach came off the dizzy. Anybody that made distributors in the early sixties had to make a model for the Corvette. Mallory made a completely different housing. (which can be turned down to fit the 8BA flatty eliminating the very costly flat motor cable mount that drives off of the front crank pulley)



Spalding made one Chevrolet bottom like this. The hole in the bottom is threaded for a cable connector to screw into. All the shafts had teeth for a gear. If you bought it for a Corvette they screwed in the adapter. For the rest of the Chevy's they just had a push in plug. Mine fell out.

55-57 T birds had tach drive dizzys and some rare Mercury's used the same dizzy. If you find a Y block tach drive dizzy it was made for a 55-57 Bird and the bird people thing they are solid gold.

 

Cool thread. Here is a cool Gas Ronda edition RAC I picked up a few years ago...

 

I have both a Mallory and an Accel tach drive distributors for SBC. I was planning on using the Mallory in my coupe with a Moroso mechanical tach....but I'm not sure if I can still get caps, rotors, etc...for that old unit.

 

I have a problem collecting old dual point tach drive distibutors, and tachs. I have Accel and Mallory tach drive dual point distributors for small block Chevy, 289-302-351W-351C Ford, and FE Ford. I have some cool old Mallory double life dual point distibutors for Ford and Chevy, as well as a tach drive Weber distributor for a Chevy. I also have a Cragar tach drive distributor for a small block Ford, and several Echlin dual points for Ford and Chevy. Every one of my vehicles has an old dual point or tach drive dual point distributor on it.

 

Almost forgot the 2 tachs I actually have installed, instead of just displayed in their original boxes... ironically, my 32 doesn't even have a tach!

 

Here's a couple for the "HAMB collection"
The chrome one came out of a school bus, and the other I found on the Ebays. I don't know if it works?
I would love to put it in my future early T Roadster that I've been gathering parts for.
The chrome one will go into my pickup this winter when the banger gets swapped for the flatty.

 

I pulled this out of a Customline at the local Tip, it houses smiths tach. The surround originally held a clock?

This is a 2-1/16" no name tach.

lastly a VDO tach from a Volvo truck. about 3-3/8"

 

here is a 57 vet race car mech tach nos

 

These Barrel style ones were put in the early J Duesenbergs. Later ones were swept needle and look alot better.

 

Here is an old Sun tach that has been sitting on my computer desk for a year or so. It came out of an old bus that happens to have a 62 Chevy passenger car 409 in it.It says Model RC 50 and needs a WPA or EB transmitter. I doubt that it works as the needle doesn,t bounce freely. I have several more Sun tachs out in the car but its put away....

 

Got a Dixco for sale or trade in the classifieds

 

ive got one of the blue SW gauges but its in mint condition - i think they were made in early 60s, ive never seen another one apart from this one.

 

I have these.
32 Studebaker.

 

Here's a Mack tach, I looks like a SW

 

Here's a tach that I saw on Ebay and bought just because I was a NAPA parts guy at one time.

It's a Balkamp brand with a small NAPA emblem on the face.