1957 Tachometer Repair Tach Service Rebuild?

[Jeff_Lee]

Hi. I thought my Tachometer cable was bad or needed lubrication, but it turns out the Tachometer itself won't spin. Appears to be frozen internally.

Anybody have a recommendation of a service company that has done theirs? What did the repair/rebuild cost?

Thanks, Jeff

 

[doug7740]

Jeff,

Last year my tachometer started vibrating and making so much noise that a piece of the needle broke off. I removed the tachometer and rebuilt it myself. The tachometer operates just like the speedometer, but since there are less moving parts it’s much easier to rebuild. The only difference is with the speedometer the magnets move around the outside of the metal cup, where as with the tachometer the magnets move around the inside of the metal cup.



The tachometer needle is pressed on the shaft that is joined to the metal cup. As the tachometer cable spins the magnets move around the inside of the metal cup. This causes centrifugal force to move the metal cup resulting in the movement of the tachometer needle.







Instead of looking for someone to rebuild your tachometer, why don’t you rebuild it yourself. Half the fun of owning a classic car is doing the work yourself.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue

 

[Selfrich]

Question about Tach and clock removal. Do you have bolts with nuts that are holding them in the dash? Do you have to go into the back of the dash to remove them? I would just like to clean the faces but not take the dash apart. Lazy!!

 

[cokefirst]

Call Bob's Speedometer in Michigan I am sure he can fix it for you!

 

[Ward 57]

Hemming Motor news has several instrument repair suppliers. No need to be local as speed at this time of year is not of the essence. If you want quality you have to be patient. generally what I've seen it's not expensive VS a booster rebuild.

 

[Gforni]

I am located in Palm Beach County, so SE Florida, Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale and Miami are all close by.

D&M Restorations In Greenville (SC); reasonable, fast and they do good work. I’ll dig and find one of my receipts

 

[bonneville]

the tach becomes very erratic as I increase the speed of the engine. This occurs with the car in neutral with no load on the engine. I have inspected the tach cable and can not find any issues with it. Any suggestions as to what is causing this? Thanks

 

[Ward 57]

the tach becomes very erratic as I increase the speed of the engine. This occurs with the car in neutral with no load on the engine. I have inspected the tach cable and can not find any issues with it. Any suggestions as to what is causing this? Thanks

Have you checked the driven gear at the dist.? And don't forget the oil cup on the side of the dist..

 

[doug7740]

I have rebuilt quite a few distributors and the tach drive in the distributor is metal and pinned to the shaft, so that is not what is causing your tachometer concern. Also, is is a good idea to lubricate the distributor shaft bushings through the oil cup annually, but that is not what is causing your tachometer concern either. If you inspected the tach cable and did not find any issues with it, than the problem is the tachometer itself. These tachometers are quite easy to rebuild, take a look at my comment above, it's the second one in this posting.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue