School me on old tachometers, please.

So I bought an old Dixco tach recently and I was quite proud of my purchase. When I showed it to my buddy Flash, he asked if it needed a "box" to make it work. I just went "Uhhhh...".

Even though I know some of the old tachs needed a box (sender?), it never occurred to me when I bought it.

How do i know if it needs one, or if it can be hooked up directly to the coil, like a modern one?

thanks in advance - John

 

That one does not need a sending unit! NICE TACH!!

Take it out of the cup to verify wiring and it may be for multiple cylinder engines.

 

I have one of those bullet mounts... haven't decided what to put in it yet.

 

Since no one else has jumped in, I will...The only old tachometers I remember using a sender were some of the Suns and some of the Stewart Warners. Look at the hookup terminals on the back of your tach. Usually, there will be 4 wires to hook up: Ign goes to a switched 12volt source, Trigger goes to the negative pole of the coil, and the other two wires are for the light and ground.

The old Sun tachs that require a sender usually have terminals that are marked sender. There was an article recently in Hot Rod magazine that stated the old Sun tachs (the stand alone type) might not be 100% compatible with ignitions such as MSD, etc. I can vouch for that...I have a neat old Sun SST 802 tach, which I installed in my Model A hot rod. It did work, but I always doubted the accuracy (I'm running a MSD ignition system consisting of MSD distributor and 6A box). A buddy of mine has a Sun FZ88R tach in his 55 Chevy with MSD ignition. Ditto for him...the tach reads, but accuracy is a little questionable.

There's good news, though...Sun is making repops of these two old tachs. I bought one of each, and they're pretty darn close to the originals in appearance. If you didn't have an original right beside the repop, you couldn't tell the difference. The good news is, the repro Sun tachs will work on anything from 2 to 12 cylinders, they work with any ignition, and they're cheaper than a lot of the swap meet prices for old original Sun tachs. Oh yeah...and they're stand alone tachs...they don't use a sender. The price is around $140 from Summit or Jegs, but they've been having trouble keeping up with demand for the FZ88R model, so you might have to wait a little for that one.

Back to your original question...I doubt your tach requires a sender. Try hooking it up. It'll work or it won't. Unless you really cross up the wires, there ain't gonna be sparks or smoke. If you don't have an MSD, Crane or one of the other ignition amplifier units, operation should be unaffected, and it should read with what ever accuracy it would normally have had.
Craig

 

Thanks for all the info!

I was looking at the repop Sun tachs, but I only pd $50 for this one. The cup is a very heavy cast unit, and I figured I could always mount a new tach in it if this one didn't work.

 

FWIW I don't think that it is a Dixco. The ones that I had said Dixco right on the face of the gauge. That logo looks familiar but I don't know what it is.

 

I think it's "A" for Alemite... a division of Stewart Warner.

 

The cup is a dixco part should have DC cast in the bottom side of the mounting stand and a # .tach is someother make .cool tach

 

That looks like the "Big A Auto Parts" logo.

 

The company is: Accurate Instruments,I also have the matching 3 gauge panel, see a later version Tach in the picture,I think it is private label for CarQuest Auto Parts.

 

The guy claimed it was Dixco, I really didn't care. I really liked the vintage look of it and the quality of the cup.