corvette-62

When I bought my '62 in 1987 and started my restoration, I never found a correct distributor or a tach cable for the instrument cluster. The installed distributor works great but has no provisions for the tach cable. At this point I'm not about to take out the instrument cluster, line up a numbers correct tach, or try to jam my big hands in back of the instrument cluster to thread the tach cable. So is there a way to operate the tach electronically using my installed distributor?

plaidside

Your tach that is in your dash is a mechanical unit so it has to be driven by a cable from your distributor. If you want to go to an electronic tach you still have to pull the dash and swap out the tachs.
Joe

cbernhardt

First thing you need to do is verify that the tachometer in your instrument pod actually works. You can do this by hooking up a tachometer cable and spin it with a drill (in reverse). If the tachometer works there are "black boxes" available that can convert the distributor signal to a mechanical drive cable. Look up the Abbott Cable-X unit, rather pricey but it works. I have used the Cable-X on two cars to drive the speedometer and the tech at Cable-X told me it can be used on a coil/points ignition to drive the tachometer, but I have never tried it. If the tach does not work your options are to remove it and repair it or replace it with an electronic unit (probably your cheapest solution).
Charles

wmf62

the cheapest and easiest solution is just to get a tach drive distributor; there are plenty of them out there.
Bill

corvette-62

Since I'm not concerned about a numbers matching distributor will any Chevy tach drive distributor work on my 327 SB? I'm thinking 62-74? Still... trying to thread that cable from under the dash is going to be a bi*ch!

GTOguy

This is what I did. I bought a good used one off of Ebay that was out of a '69 Corvette for about $150. I wanted it for the vacuum advance, mainly. It worked out fine. Super easy.

AZDoug

ANY tach drive dizzy will work. I am going to make an assumption that ALL '62 tachs were driven off the dizzy, and NOT the generator on some?

To the OP: if the tach drive sources were different, you need to verify of yours was dizzy driven or not, to get correct reading.

Doug

corvette-62

Doug, ALL '62's were driven off of the distributor. I'm pretty sure it was that way up to 1974.

AZDoug

I knew '63 and up were all dizzy driven. Couldn't remember on '62. '61 was the last year of the tach drive generator, it seems.

Thanks,
Doug

ptjsk

I do have one of those (tach drive distributor) hanging around in my garage.

Pretty sure it was for a '62. I've had it for several years. $100.00 would be fine.

Let me know if you're interested.

Pat

wmf62

yes, and the advantage of a later distributor will be the vacuum advance. threading the cable really isn't that bad unless you have catcher's mitt sized hands....

Bill