Features Love for Vintage Tachometer design

for those that have the old style Sun tachs, if your box does not work, there is a thread on here about making a solid state replacement for it. I did it and it works fine. cost $20 or $30 in parts

 

Glad to see this blog/thread resurrected. I've always liked the simplistic feel of the early Sun tachs. Got lucky and found a NOS one for a 6 cylinder awhile back.

 

2-5/8" S-W 10k tach. Not sure how old it is.................

 

Hello,
We had one of the Sun Chrome Tachometers in our 40 Willys back in 1960. The big chrome tach was mounted on the dash in direct sight of the driver. It stood out well and the rpm shift points were very visible from the driver’s seat. But, the one tach image that I am looking for is a rare one.

In our 58 Impala, the large, chrome one looked funny everywhere we placed it on the dash. We did not want holes on the dash for the mount. We even found two screws under the top edging of the dash gauge frame. This was the best place to attach a mount without blocking the windshield. The large chrome tach was too big, even for this space. We found a smaller diameter, (about 3” across) all black tach in an Army Surplus store in Long Beach. The sales guy said it worked and when we finished hooking it up, it was very accurate, including a great, inside light.

This small form, black tach used the Impala dash screw holes to mount it without blocking the important stuff (like the first 10 mph or the last 120 mph reading on the speedo) Besides, when we went through the quarter mile, the red needle of the Impala always pegged the area past the 120 reading. The actual time was 98.5 mph in the quarter.

The stock 4:11 gears had the correct mph readings from the factory, but those 4:56 gears threw out crazy readings. So, we went by the RPMs only, to stay at a legal speed limit around town. We just remembered what RPM vs MPH was when the 4:56 gears were installed. Yes, we could have the speedometer calibrated for the 4:56 gears, but we were changing gears almost weekly and that was a pain to keep going back to the shop for recalculations. We just remembered those rpm vs mph readings.

Does anyone have images of a small form black tachometer that looks like it may have just popped out of an airplane or military vehicle? (With a rounded rear cover?) It had 4 holes on the face plate for their own screw-in mounts. We mounted it on those dash screws and it had a built in light that worked.

Thanks,

Jnaki

These may have come from the Douglas Aircraft Surplus Yard in Long Beach and ended up in that nearby Army Surplus store. A lot of our HS clothing came from that Army Surplus Store. One comes to mind: Army Green, High Top, Canvas, Tennis Shoes. Boy, that was a big hit at school. But, at the weekly, drive-in show and tell, that small black custom tach under the speedometer dash lip got bigger raves than those green high top tennis shoes.

 

Dixco Bonneville. Don't know what years these were offered but you don't see too many.

 

Ok I've been following this for a while, here's mine. I'd been looking for a tach drive one for ages.
Any information on age would be nice. Also does anyone know how to service them or dismantle them as the light lens has come lose and now rattling round inside.

 

Removed the guts from my S.W. 760AT and replaced them with modern solid state stuff from a $5 swap meet tach. Re-used the S.W. face plate, needles etc and it works great!

 

Is that mount purpose made? If looks great and kind of like the handle part of a spinning reel.

 

I just picked up this vintage Dixco tach for my 55 Dodge. I dont know much about it but it looked good on the column. Any ideas how to hook up a 2 wire tach?

 

Is your Dodge 6 volts or 12? makes a big difference. I make a driver for a tach like that if you're 6 volts positive ground. I believe others make the simpler 12 volt version.

 

It has been converted to 12v and has a 325 Hemi. I have heard Dixcos didnt need a driver like the Suns. But this is new to me!

 

I would expect that is a "meter-type" tach because of the two wires. They usually need a sending unit. Or maybe one or two of the wires have been cut off or pulled out. You might want to take it apart and check.

 

I made the mount from some scrap and the left-over column shift handle from a 49 Willys wagon.

 

20180317_233959 by Chappy444 posted Apr 13, 2018 at 8:40 PM

 

Those old Dixco tachs did not have a sender. If it has a green wire that usually connects to the dist(-) side of the coil. the other wire usually black connects to a ground. A third wire would be for a light.

 

Only two wires... one to the + post on the light and the other to the internal area of the tach.

 

I’ve seen quite a few 4-1/2” Jones Motorola tacks. But check out the 4-1/2” JM police speedo. Came in it’s original box with zero miles on it