I bought one of the Sun Retro tachs a couple years ago when they first came out.Now the d@mn thing only works when it wants to.Foreign junk!!! I contacted the mfg & got the out of production don't service speel.Anyone else have this problem?
I had the same problem. Sun made two versions of the retro tach: one resembled the FZ88R and the other the SST802. In talking to a guy who restores old Sun tachs, he said when they first came out, the FZ88R version had a high failure rate, but that has now been corrected. I have one of each, and my first FZ88R look-alike failed right away, but a newer one bought about a year and a half later worked fine and still does. Now for one more update: A couple of years ago, Sun sold out to Bosch, but Bosch is still making both of those tachs. They are made in China, same as when Sun was making them a few years ago, but they're a pretty good copy of the original old Sun tachs...so much so that the new cup and mount will interchange perfectly with an old one and vice versa. I have an original SST802 as well and the new repro is a very good copy. When Sun was making them, the SST802 version had "Sun Super Tach" lettered on the dial at the bottom same as the old original ones, but now that Bosch is making them, the Sun Super Tach logo is gone. All that said, in my opinion, they're a great reproduction of the iconic old Sun tachs. They're metal construction, not plastic, and at $110 from Summit, they're a bargain. They may be made in China, but I think they look better than any of the other retro-style tachs out there, and I'll bet every one of them is made in China too. Autometer is still made in the USA, and they're a good tach, but they don't look as period correct as the repro Sun units even though Autometer has been around since 1957.
I'm long-winded, I know, but I thought of one more thing: Several years ago, Hot Rod Deluxe magazine had a good article on the new vs the old Sun tachs. They stated that if you had an old original version and it worked with a modern breakerless or CD igniton such as an HEI or a MSD-6, you were one of the fortunate few because they usually don't play well with those. In my case, my original SST802 did work with a MSD distributor and 6-A, but I didn't think the tach was reading accurately. Turns out it wasn't reading correctly, but it does now with the new repro version tach, and that's another point in favor of the new repro Sun tachs. They work with any ignition, and they also work with anything from 1 to 12 cylinders.
For what it's worth, my original Sun tach also would only work randomly. I dismantled it, and scrutinized it closely until I found a bad solder joint which I resoldered, and it's worked fine ever since. So you could try opening up yours and maybe see something similar that could be fixed. Of course my close up eyesight was a bit better twenty years ago, and I don't even know if you can take the newer ones apart.
I just bought a new Bosh version...we’ll see how it goes once the cars done. Looks like a quality piece. I also bought the 3 gauge panel to go with it.
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