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Smiths Tachometer
Need help troubleshooting a problem....been trying to get my car tuned up and running right, over the weekend changed out plugs, cap, rotor, and coil. Now....the tachometer is dead! Any ideas would be appreciated.
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Did it stop after installing the new parts or has been broken all along?
Poor ground is a always a potential problem, especially with glass cars. Larry |
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Hi
I hope it is less than a year old so you can send it back under warranty, it will be toast! There may have been a voltage spike that got to something inside. Cost to repair will all most be as much to replace. I have had 3 Smiths go bad for me also. You may be able to find some one that has electronic board repair experience to troubleshoot it. I have 2 apart that my mate is going to look at for me but it has been a while and last time we spoke he could not find where he placed the board. Any how good luck. |
I'm not a Smiths expert but it doesn't sound like enough wires. There isn't any under the dash that maybe didn't get connected is there?
Larry |
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As far as I know the tach. is 20 years old...same as the car, so no warranty likely. I will have to pull it to see if it is good or not, but that will have to wait till I get the car running again....think my timing chain is shot....car died today and had to shift all of the wires on the distributor two positions just to get plug #1 lined up with the rotor and that barely got it running good enough to get it into the yard. Oh the joy!!!!! Thanks as always, Mark
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How's your battery?
Do all your other gauges, fans, turn signals work with the engine off? My tach died when the battery started to crap out. |
Maybe the pin in the distributor sheared???
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x2 on the dist gear, as for the tach, check to make sure you didn't disconnect something by the coil or distributor
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Did you happen to install an MSD box? If so you would need to switch one of the wires coming out of the tach if you did not previously have an MSD box. Nisonger can help either way.:)
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Need a replacement Smiths tach?
If you need a new Smiths tach, give Fran Kress a call. He has a NOS unit that is the same vintage as the tach you have now. The newer ones will require re-wiring.
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I would like to test the tach before I send it off for repair/replacement to verify if the problem is the tach or wiring on the car. On the back of the unit there is a cluster of three spade connectors, +VE, -VE, and Trigger, there is also a 4th spade connector attached to the housing itself, another ground??? If I rig it up in the engine bay to test it how should I do it? The power + and - seem pretty straight forward, but where should I get the signal from? It is a stock ford pointless ignition system. Do I get signal directly off of the coil (if so, which side) or out of the ignition box? Thanks!
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In "most" cases the signal comes from the neg side of the coil. (going to the ford ign box) The positive side of the coil should go to the switched ign.
Hope this helps. |
I picked up a circuit tester that also checks RPM for $35 at Autozone. Good place to start before you jump to buying a new one. I needed to verify the signal coming into the tach was correct. Mine is but the tach is jumping all over the place. Next you need to make sure you've got a good ground. If you do and the feed from the coil/MSD box are good - you probably need a new tach.
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