Since I smoked the MOON retro tach in my '57 Black Widow tribute car, I now have an excuse to upgrade to a new SUN retro tach or try to bid on one used. I'm not familiar with vintage tachs, need some help with I'm looking at. I want a unit that would be PERIOD CORRECT, between 1957 and '62 or so. I really like the SuperTach, looks to be easier to read. What year were they introduced? I haven't had the time to check out the HAMB classifieds yet, but if someone can hook me up with some links to tachs they have seen here (SUN or MOON), that would be fantastic!!! What can I expect to pay to get a used tach restored to working order? MUCHO Thanks for whatever info and pics you guys can offer! - Tim
My favorite is the Sun "football" tach. I have one in my roadster but no sending unit so it's just decoration. I don't know the exact years but it was before the Sun super tach. In the early 60s the big time racers ran Sun tachs. The local car guys ran the Dixco....it was cheaper and no sending unit.
I'm pretty sure they have one. Larry T Yep. http://www.jegs.com/i/Sunpro/885/FZ88R/10002/-1?parentProductId=1283230#moreDetails
Old tachs need sending unit, and they need to be a pair. For 8 cylinder, 12 volt system, you'll want to buy EB-9A sending unit. For 4cyl, 6-cyl, 6v, magneto ignition (different for Mallory or Vertex) and so on, you'll need another kind of sender. If I just could find my list of those sender unit numbers... Sending units may be repaired or converted to work with todays electronics. Learn more here; http://www.tachman.com/sun.htm Don't know differences in Sun tach gauges and their models, but Stewart-Warners are bit different through the years, with wing-logo, or without it, with curved lense or not... Been collecting SW gauges, but not them most expensive ones, just ones with big and small SW-logo. Read more here and you may start searching for some certain model to fit your chosen year! http://www.roadsters.com/sw/
Go for the new Sun retro tach instead of an old original if you want one that'll work with any ignition or any engine. I've got an original Sun super tach (made in 1966), and it works, but I didn't feel it was reading accurately with my MSD ignition. I bought one of the new retro Sun super tachs, and it works perfectly, plus it looks almost dead nuts like the original. If you have an original and a new retro Sun tach right beside each other, there are a few minor differences (the pointer on the original is orange, on the new tach, it's white, and on the original tach down inside the lens where you can barely see it is some writing that says "sun Electric Corp, Harlem & Avondale, Chicago, ILL" while the new retro tach has no writing). If you didn't know exactly what you were looking at, you couldn't tell the difference between old and new. The mounting cups and mounting brackets are exactly the same, old or new. Of the two styles of retro tachs that Sun makes, the Super tach with its' 270 degree sweep is easier to read than the FZ88R with its' 180 degree face. The FZ88R is an earlier style tach than the Super tach, which I believe was made from roughly 1964 to about 1973.
Thanks guys, for the info and links. Funny thing - when I drove 20 miles to pick up my mom for Mother's Day, the MOON tach started to work! BUUUUUUUT, the mechanical temp gauge wouldn't move off the peg until I pulled into her driveway. Tach quit again an the way home, was dark with the lights on. Looks like time to retrace the PO's install... his work wasn't the most sanno, the more I look.I'll guess a bad crimp or loose connection. The car has a bunch of crimp-ons I want to replace with soldered connections and heat-shrink tubing. Again, MUCHO THANKS!!! - Tim
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