Tachometer not working

[dmcmoxie]

Hello everyone. I have a 73 and am a total amateur here. I have a factory tachometer that doesn't seem to work. It will rarely bounce around at the bottom, but it is so negligible that it's hard to say if it is just a bounce or its reading something.

I've only had it for about a year, and that tach never worked for me.

Any ideas? The rest of the gauges work, even the lights. I'd appreciate a dumbed down walk through from someone. I've taken the dash apart, and it is plugged in correctly. Should I be using a multimeter somewhere? (real newb on that too).

Thanks!

 

[turtle5353]

You still running the stock distributor with points or an upgraded electronic ignition?? MSD, duraspark HEI???? If your using an electronic dizzy you will need to buy a tach adapter for the the tach to read the upgraded dizzy. Msd sells a nice tach adapter. Thats what im running in my car. there are a few threads on the subject here somewhere. Good luck.

kevin

 

[dmcmoxie]

Thanks for the quick response. I still have the stock distributor and points. I've read plenty about the benefits of upgrading that so it's made it to my list - just haven't gotten to it yet.

 

[HighOctane]

I wish I could be some help but I am having a similar issue. My tach doesn't like to work in cold weather. After the car is warmed up it usually starts working out of the blue. In warm weather it works fine. Last time in cold weather it took 50 miles before it came back to life. Weird.