damac

For the last week or so there has been a clicking noise coming out of my dash area. I was kind of ingnoring it, but I figured it might be the tack, as it was more frequent at higher RPM's. Today my tach started to malfunction, jumping all over the place and making a noise that sounds like the gears are not meshing. It did this twice on my 4 mile drive to work.

I know zero about tachs, so any advice on what this might be would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

MasterDave

It sounds like the standard 'dry' cable to me. Go under dash (no small feat) and loosen the connector on back of your tach. You may have to take the cable loose on the dist itself to allow it to be pulled away from the back of the dash. Then remove the inner cable by slowly twisting it. You must remove it from the dash area, it will not come out at the dist. You can check for a fraying cable or any riding areas at this point. If it's frayed it needs to be replaced but most likely it is simply in need of a good cable lube (light weight grease) and to be re-installed. Worked for me.

Billy Boguski

I asked about my "bouncing" tach needle awhile back and was told that my cable was "toast" (beginning to fray). So I bought, lubed and installed a completed new cable and housing. No easy feat getting under that dash! Needle STILL bounces. Any ideas?
Billy :confused:

damac

Thanks for the advice. I will try and take it out and lube it this week.
I forgot to mention that I just had my orig 327 rebuilt and went with MSD ignition and tach drive distributor. Could this be part of the problem?

Mike

MasterDave

The cable run needs to be as smooth as possible. No tight turns in cable, some have even used the aftermarket 90 deg unit that goes in your tach where the cable would go to make the cable smooth in that area. A new MSD tach would not cause your problem at all. The only other thing that comes to mind is the tach head itself. A little WD-40 in there couldn't hurt, but it's a big job to get to it.

Daren Schneider

I have a bouncing tach and speedo and I am afraid of the dash cluster. I am going to try the remove cable/grease route. Please confirm if both cables can be removed from the dash cluster and can I use wheel bearing grease on the cables. White grease, Grey grease. :smash:

magicv8

I had my tach die about 11 years ago. Replaced the cable when the bouncing started. It didn't help. Tach rebuild via CC fixed it. The speedo flutter may be a cable. They get toasted by the exhausts. In my 66 (I put a heat shield on the cable housing), it's usually caused by a worn plastic drive gear at the trans end of the cable - easy to replace.