[afm484]

Hello
I am having difficulty locating a cheap tach for my racebike. I heard about some cheap sun gauges that go to 11K but come up blank on search. About to be on my 4th auto meter, I am done with them. I don' t need space shuttle digital readout , just $50 tach that won't blow up. Is there such a thing?
john

 

[bobbyk]

i'd use an autometer over a cheapy tach. why are you on your 4th one? mine went out recently and i sent it in to them for service. they called me within a week and said they fixed it and shipped it right back. i think i paid them $45. when i got it back it was not my old tach. it was a brand new one. the cheapy ones suck, from what i understand, and are not even worth the time of installing them.

 

[afm484]

about 4 mos ago I shipped back tach for repair. They sent me a "new" one like they did you. Didn't have it as soon as I could have because their S/R dropped ball. 3 laps later needle fell off. Shipped back, got another "new" one. 8 laps later the core has got tourette's syndrome. I think instead of RandR ing the tach you send them, they pull one of their older units off shelf, and these are rife with issues as above.
may as well start playing with cheapy ones if this is what autometer does for me.

 

[bobbyk]

hmm, interesting. that tach lasted me around 10 track days and half a race weekend. i did crash with it and hit the bezel with my master cylinder banjo bolt during practice, so i may have contributed to the failure, but we'll see how long this one lasts. would have bought a spa, but i got his one for $90 brand new on ebay so it was a no-brainer. i guess one thing i can say is that when it's working, it probably works much better than a cheapy, but i'd be interested to hear about your experience with the cheapy tachs. keep me posted.

 

[afm484]

well I remembered today that I had an SVS gauge assy laying around my garage. So I put that on, but had to rearracnge front of bike to get it to fit, you can't just trim the circuit board up and install tach only, you have to run that whole whopping thing. Oh and I haver regular SV and these are SVS gauges and you have to rewire connectors. On the plus side, it was free, and should last forever.
Yeah when my autometer was working I loved it. Make sure to disconnect it somehow when you have battery charger on bike though, they aren't lying that will mess it up.
john
PS for sale one brand new autometer tach, needs R/R $40.

 

[donniej]

you could take the tach controller board out of the cluster and wire it up to a set of resistors/capacitors driving LED's...

here's what the controller board looks like.
The board is small & light and the LED's would not be likely to break.

 

[afm484]

thanks but that is beyond my electronic skills. I did manage to wire the assy into my stock harness and everything works(fuel and oil lights, that's all I wanted) so I am proud of myself. no worries now.