Tachometer

Posts: 92

are the any ANALOG tachometers made for these buggies?

Posts: 4208

only ones I know of are the digital ones. would be nice to have a needle to watch

Posts: 648

Posts: 1832

How about trying one off an old Japanese enduro bike. They are rubber mounted from what I remember, and should be able to handle whatever abuse a buggy would give.

Posts: 93

Summit Racing has a couple made by Equus that have inductive pickups that read off the plug wire so they should work on a single cylinder engine. I don't know if they are weatherproof at all.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=EQU%2D8068&N=700 +115&autoview=sku

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=EQU%2D8080&N=700 +115&autoview=sku

Posts: 648

Hey Van, we got some of those tachs laying around somewhere, in that bucket, I think. They would be Ideal but they are mechanical driven.
A few problems with using auto tachs.
One, they are designed for 4/6/8 cylinders. you could do the math to figure it out. No big deal but a hassle while trying to keep it between the ditches. "if 4.5 equals 6, then 7.2 equals....or was it the other way around?" Laughing

My brain just isn't that sharp!
2nd. most of the inductive styles only go to 8,000 rpm. I peg that before ever getting up to speed.
The 10,000 rpm models can get quite costly but most are mechanical driven.
I don't think any of them could tolerate a mud bath for long.
Some of the super bikes use a 15,000 tach. you can find some really cool looking ones on e-bay but again, they are mechanical drive. The man that comes up with a way to mount a cable drive would be my hero.

Posts: 1832

You are right Charlie! I forgot about that. That was a long time ago. Which bucket is it in? We've got so many of them you know Laughing

How long have we been collecting those parts buckets a long time you know Wink

Posts: 3560

I can't say if it would work on all buggies but I added this Sunpro CP2012 10K tach and it ran right when set to 4-cylinders. They're real cheap at under $40 on eBay. I've also seen it at Meijers and maybe Autozone.

Maybe the biggest problem is connecting it. You need clean power (won't run right if connected to the lights wiring if the lights run off the stator). If connected to the battery or an "accessory" connection it needs to be switched so it's only on when the buggy is running. Many buggies are wired this way, some aren't. It has a backlight that can be wired to the buggy lights--just a small bulb so it doesn't care if the power is AC or DC.
Next hurdle is connecting the trigger wire. It needs to go to the CDI wire that goes to the coil.

Also--it's not waterproof so you need to bag it when washing the buggy. I never had any problems using it in rain and puddles but it likely wouldn't be good to leave it sitting in the rain.

Posts: 92

I thought I would try. So I went to Checker and got a black one to match the dash. Wired it up and it works !, Feed wire on my Joyner was gray and black. the one from the CDI to the coil.

Posts: 96

Another alternative would be snowmobile tachs. Plenty of these on ebay.

Dave