83Limited

Ok, my car's tachometer has been working fine since i bought the car a couple of months ago. Went and cranked the car this morning (it has been sitting approximately 3 weeks) and the tach needle stayed glued to zero.....where do i need to start looking to see whats going on? Battery was a bit low, but had enough juice to crank the car in 45 degree weather, so not sure if voltage could be an issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated....

patmac6075

iTrader: (26)

I have a similar problem....in warm weather my tach works fine, once the temp drops below 60, my tach gets finicky....the colder it gets the longer it takes to start working. Let's say it's 60ish....the tach might start working in 5 minutes....once it's below 40 might take 30 minutes. I drive my car year round here in WI (coldest day it started was -5) and my tach works great once the car is warmed up.
Might be a good idea to check your wiring, but I know with mine it's internal to the tach.
Hope that helps.

83Limited

Thanks for the info, this is the first time since i have had the car back that it has been below probably 70 or 80 and i have cranked it, so mine might be doing the same thing yours is. Had one guy I know tell me to check my igniters to be sure they were working properly, but since the car seems to be running fine, could a bad igniter be the problem, wouldnt it cause the car to run bad or something other than just the tach not work????

Rogue_Wulff

Pretty common issue. It seems the tach needs removed, taken apart and given a good cleaning internally. They used some type of non-conductive grease inside the tach. Over time, it gets hard and dry, leading to the cold tach issue.

PercentSevenC

Mine does it, too. I just turn the heater on and it'll eventually warm up and start working again. Bit annoying, but it rarely gets really cold in Seattle. Someday I'll take it apart and re-grease it.

83Limited

Update to my situation.....tach still not working, so before tearing into the cluster I decided to check and see if it possibly could be an igniter issue....had a guy tell me to check the center coil wire leads and see if they have fire....my leading coil does, my trailing coil does not...does that mean the igniter is kaput? Car seems to run fine.....

deadphoenix52

iTrader: (2)

the tach gets signal from the trailing ignition. just logically work through it. start by testing continuity etc of the coil. then the wires. then your igniter. then your tach.

83Limited

Thats the process I am working toward, my problem is I am not 100% sure what I am supposed to see from the trailing ignition at idle, just not familiar with this ignition setup yet.... should I have "spark" at the main coil lead that goes to the dizzy cap? So far all I know for sure is that at an idle I have "spark" on the leading coil, but nothing on trailing coil....

deadphoenix52

iTrader: (2)

get a multimeter, and check the continuity across the coil.

i just replaced the coils on my car. when i went to start it the tach didnt work. checked the continuity and got none. checked the other new coil, it tested fine. both old tested fine, cuz the tac worked before. its possible your coil just bit the dust. the car can run without the trailing ignition.

a multimeter is a great tool to have anyway. even if its the $7 harbor freight one.

83Limited

I was scared ya were gonna tell me to use a multimeter...i have a decent one, problem is i am too stupid to make it work like it should....about all i have ever used it for is voltage readings....

deadphoenix52

iTrader: (2)

yours should have something that resemebles soundwaves or a speaker or something of the like. all this setting does is beep if there is continuity between the leads. touch the leads to eachother and it should give a continuous beep. once you found this setting, place the leads on the positive and negative terminals of the leading coil. it should beep, then to the same for the trailing coil. my trailing coil didnt even have continuity so no further testing was necessary.

83Limited

Any tips on doing this? Finally got my inition problem sorted out (bad igniter) and now have "cold tach" syndrome so looks like i need to pull cluster and clean the tach....