Cable driven tach question
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 231
Likes: 0
From: Tucson AZ
Cable driven tach question
After 4 years, I finally got all the parts together to get my tach working (rebuilt tach, new cable, new tach gear). It worked for about 3 minutes and quit. I'm hoping that the distributor gear isn't stripped, but I'm guessing it is. Does the distributor come apart as easily as it seems in the books? Also, how do you replace the "button" inside the housing? I don't really want to take it apart, but $30 gears and 3 minutes use seems a little high. Any help would be appreciated.
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 4,135
Likes: 1
you should get a diagram of this. there is a $1.75 thing called a thrust washer,,and if you didnt put it in thats why the gear is stripping..theres a gear on the tach drive and a gear that goes in sideways that hits the thrust washer..i blew 4 tach drives at $125.00 a piece before i learned this..then i dumped that distributer and bought a new msd billitted dist w/ a 6 al box,car runs better with that old distributer out
Race Director
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 19,610
Likes: 778
From: Forked River NJ
The thrust washer is needed to properly align the gears. If the old dist. is setup properly there is no performance to be gained by going to a newer type dist. Mine turns 7K+ rpm without faltering. I also do have a Crane HI6 hooked up to the stock dist so I can't say it is totally stock. It does start and idle better with the CD box.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 231
Likes: 0
From: Tucson AZ
Thanks. Got the thrust washer with a parts kit I just put in. It wasn't in there before. I took it back out today, and I think I found the problem. My son put it in and we didn't lube it up. I put some grease on it and it spins now. Hopefully I didn't jack up the distributor gear. I'll find out when I fire it up tomorrow.
Racer
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 473
Likes: 4
From: Orange County Ca
I searched around at local swap meets and finally found an old tach drive distributor for about $25. It was a great help to go through this distributor first before repairing the tach drive in my '66. All works well now.
East bound and down...
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 987
Likes: 3
From: Jonesboro Arkansas
Ah, the joys of screwin' around with mechanical tach drive. My thanks again go out again to Mike Mecury for converting my tach to electronic. It just makes better sense to do this mod in my opinion. Anyone who has had to replace just one set of gears will agree with me I'm sure.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 231
Likes: 0
From: Tucson AZ
I'm pretty far down the road now, new (rebuilt) tach, new cable, new gear and bushing, the only thing I haven't replaced is the gear in the dist. Got to finish now! Thanks for all the help.
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