Tacho problems

[haynes]

A friend has fitted a 1275GT 3 clock dash to a 1980ish car, with a balasted loom, and the engine is a metro lump complete with the electronic ignition. But his rev counter is playing up, its slow in going down and not stable enough to set the tick over. The clocks work fine on a 1990 studio 2 with points. Any ideas?

[Cooperman]

Tell him "welcome to the tachoproblem club". Everything on my black 1990 car is fine after the comprehensive re-build except that the tacho doesn't work, just like happened with the 1971 post-Historic Clubman GT rally car Geoff Loos and I built last year. The solution I'm going to adopt again is to replace the crap Rover tacho, which always seem inaccurate, with a new Smiths 0-8000 unit. It can be fitted into the 3-dial pod by making up a mounting out of 1/4" thick MDF or plywood. They always seem to work fine, are easier to read and much more accurate. Installation wiring is easy and they don't look out of place in the 3-dial pod. About £75 I think - I'll know later this week when I buy mine.

[miniman]

I changed the dial faces on a set of 3-dial gauges over from black to magnolia, and in doing so disturbed the very fragile coil spring that controls the needle return on the rev counter. So I am fully expecting problems when I finally hook mine up.

I do have a nice set of gauges - revs, oil temp, oil press and water temp - which I would part with for a reasonable price if anyone wants them. They are from Greengauges which is the internet arm of CAI, who make the Smiths range. You can see them at www.greengauges.com