Easy Tachometer Installation!!

[MtDewS10Zq8]

Alright! I bought a RActive Tach (10,000 RPM) and It had four wires Black(ground), red(battery+), yellow (battery ignition), and green (tachometer signal source). For you aftermarket stereo people this should be pretty simple - if you have extra wire behind your stereo - pull out your head unit and splice the 3 power cables into the power cables from the head unit (black to black red to red and yellow to yellow). Now! the hard part right? NO! easy part! don't you dare drill through the fire wall if you have a '98+ truck!!! I have a 1998 S10 5spd no tach in guages. The wires going to the guages HAVE A TACH SIGNAL IN THEM!
you will see a blue clip and a grey clip holding in the wires. On the Grey clip side it is the 2nd wire from the left (white-ish wire) cut that wire and hook it up to the tach signal for your new after-market tach! Reply if you have any questions!

will this work for older models? like my 95? because my tach i have has been sitting in the room for like 6 months, i spent an entire weekend of headaches trying to hoook it up

[Slmd98s10]

nice, I got it all up using that tip and its great cept its reading to low, its idling at 500, how do i calibrate this?

[NiTe]

yea i have a 94 i need help lol i got it to work but kills the battery

[db machine]

yeah where did you get your tach and also where did you mount it??? and last where are the little blue and gray clips?? behind the instrument panel???

[STXS10]

Sorry about the size of the tach pic

I got my tach off a friend of mine off another board. Its a 3.75in 8000RPM Autometer SportComp. I didnt get any bolts though to mount it correctly.



Heres the "dash" off. Once you get that, remove the 4 bolts that are securing the gauge cluster.



Once you get that off and unplug the harness from the cluster and you get....


the infamous white wire. (Yes its on the grey clip side, dont ask me why i took the pic with the blue clip facing the camera )







Splicing into the white wire WILL NOT WORK!! Do as Mt. Dew said and cut the wire. Then use either your wire strippers if they can handle that wire guage that small or do what i did and CAREFULLY remove the sheath with a razor blade. Continue run wires from your tach signal wire to the green wire of your tach. Dont forget about the other wires. I spliced the +12V power and ground wires from my aftermarket radio harness, and ran a wire to the ORANGE dimmer wire to the white wire on my tach. It dims with the cluster lights



Heres a night shot of the lights minus the flash...



And another night shot with the flash showing where it is "mounted." I still have to bolt it down.





i have to upload the vids on my yahoo briefcase now, feel free to AIM me @ Blue72VeeDub and I will send u the link


-Zeke

[s10truckin]

I have a 94 and I bought a tach and its been rolling in my truck. I took off the four screws and took the whole cluster out and there are no wires. There is a green film on the back of the guage cluster, Help I don't know what to do and thanks for the pics. I am a more visual learner then verbal thanks

[s10truckin]

oh and i have a 4.3L does that make a diffence?

[1badsdime]

i think it only works for the 98 and up. could be wrong though.

[Jay02XBlazer]

It actually only works on 98 -99... 2000 + run a digital signal and the tach will dance everywere I hooked a tach up in my 98 a long time ago I mounted mine on the a pillar if you have any questions feel free to ask...


I have HEARD on 94 there is a green wire coming off the coil packs and that what you splice into.....

BTW I spliced my white wire did not cut it just in case it might mess with something... also very good write up with pics I didnt have a digi cam at the time to get mine uploaded...


Jay

[STXS10]

Quote: Originally Posted by jay98s10

It actually only works on 98 -99... 2000 + run a digital signal and the tach will dance everywere




Jay

mines a 2001

[TheAntiCivic]

So how would this be done in the 94-97 trucks. Maybe if we include the 94-97 trucks then it would be a huge tach install FAQ.

With my tach I got everything hooked up except for the tach signal line. I had lights and all but, I can't find the wire to tie into and the repair book wiring diagrams aren't any help.

[Stinky]

Works on 94-97.That wire is for the tach signal if you had a factory tach.

[TheAntiCivic]

I don't have a factory tach.

How does the factory cluster know when to turn the up-shift light on? Would that have a useable tach signal? and where the heck is that wire?

Also I tried pullin my cluster out to look behind it. Is there a trick to gettin it out? Cause I couldn't get it out. It always got struck on the top steering column cover and I couldn't get that top steering wheel cover off. So yea...

[TheAntiCivic]

Ok, I worked on it some more today. I found a wire that gave me a tach signal, but it was really f-ed up. It idled at 3k rpm and when I reved it, it eventually pegged at 8k rpm, which is impossible if it were correct (which it obviously isn't). It moved smoothly tho.

I was lookin in the repair book I have at the wiring diagrams and it says one of the connectors to the coil has wires goin specifically to the gauge cluster with a tach wire that branches off but it didn't name any specific color. Do any of you know what that wire color is?

[Stinky]

Its the white wire.You might need a MSD tach signal adapter.

[TheAntiCivic]

I fooled around a bit more after doin some more research. Found out which white wire comming out of the ECM is the white tach wire. I spliced into it and I got a kinda nice singal, still wrong, but definatly alot closer. It idled at 500 rpm( too low) and when I drove off i shifted from first at around what I would estimate to be 4000-4500rpm, but it never went above 2k, so yea. Do I actually have to connect the wire with a 3 way or can I just splice and use the signal adaptor and it'll give me a good signal.

Where's a good place to get that MSD signal adaptor. I might try that out.

[Jay02XBlazer]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheAntiCivic

I fooled around a bit more after doin some more research. Found out which white wire comming out of the ECM is the white tach wire. I spliced into it and I got a kinda nice singal, still wrong, but definatly alot closer. It idled at 500 rpm( too low) and when I drove off i shifted from first at around what I would estimate to be 4000-4500rpm, but it never went above 2k, so yea. Do I actually have to connect the wire with a 3 way or can I just splice and use the signal adaptor and it'll give me a good signal.

Where's a good place to get that MSD signal adaptor. I might try that out.

sounds like that tach is for a v8 not a 4 banger see if there is a switch on the back of the tach and change it see if that helps if not then you either have the wrong wire or a tach for a v8 that need to be recalibrated for a 4 banger

Jay

[TheAntiCivic]

There's no switch to change from engine type to engine type. Would the MSD adaptor change the signal to the right one of it happened to be a V-8 tach? If not is there any adaptor of the sort?

[Jay02XBlazer]

well if there is a adapter that would change the pules to 4 banger i would not really trust it... I dont think the MSD adapter would change the pluses that much if at all... I would call the manufactuer and ask them about how to calibrate the tach and see if it will work on a 4 banger

Jay

[biggjohnson2k]

the orange dimmer wire on my 2000 s-10 kept the lights on the whole time so i just wired the white dimmer wire to the remote turn on on the stereo

[okiejet]

Is it the same position and color on a 1999?

Quote: Originally Posted by MtDewS10Zq8

Alright! I bought a RActive Tach (10,000 RPM) and It had four wires Black(ground), red(battery+), yellow (battery ignition), and green (tachometer signal source). For you aftermarket stereo people this should be pretty simple - if you have extra wire behind your stereo - pull out your head unit and splice the 3 power cables into the power cables from the head unit (black to black red to red and yellow to yellow). Now! the hard part right? NO! easy part! don't you dare drill through the fire wall if you have a '98+ truck!!! I have a 1998 S10 5spd no tach in guages. The wires going to the guages HAVE A TACH SIGNAL IN THEM!
you will see a blue clip and a grey clip holding in the wires. On the Grey clip side it is the 2nd wire from the left (white-ish wire) cut that wire and hook it up to the tach signal for your new after-market tach! Reply if you have any questions!

[JMew03]

on the 99 the "white" wire he is talking about is tan... it is in the grey slot and it is the second wire, its in the #3 pin. and connecting the light wire from the tach to the yellow wire on the radio keeps the light on all the time. hopefully it wont kill my battery cuz i am to lazy to fix it right now

[STXS10]

red wire on aftermarket harnesses is the wire u need to hook it up to. Red = Ignition Yellow = Constant

[Groby3238]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheAntiCivic

I fooled around a bit more after doin some more research. Found out which white wire comming out of the ECM is the white tach wire. I spliced into it and I got a kinda nice singal, still wrong, but definatly alot closer. It idled at 500 rpm( too low) and when I drove off i shifted from first at around what I would estimate to be 4000-4500rpm, but it never went above 2k, so yea. Do I actually have to connect the wire with a 3 way or can I just splice and use the signal adaptor and it'll give me a good signal.

Where's a good place to get that MSD signal adaptor. I might try that out.

Where is the ECM on a 4 banger? Is it in the engine bay or in the cab of the truck? And what wire is it?

[72 Z27]

Does this work for a 96 b/c i took my dash apart and cannot find the blue/gray connector you are talking about. My gauge cluster plugs directly into a connector that a part of the dash. It does not look anything like you pics.

[Stinky]

Quote: Originally Posted by 72 Z27

Does this work for a 96 b/c i took my dash apart and cannot find the blue/gray connector you are talking about. My gauge cluster plugs directly into a connector that a part of the dash. It does not look anything like you pics.

The blue/gray connector is the ECM one.If you pull out your gauge cluster and look very carefully at the plug and the plastic circut board connection on the cluster you will notice(if you don't have a factory tach) that in the plug there is a white wire that has no counter part on the circutboard connection for the cluster.That is the tach signal output.

[Randy R]

great work on the tach wiring guys, but somebody told me if my truck didnt come with a tach , i could get another gauge cluster with a tach and put it in and it would work , is this true?

[Stinky]

Sounds like it would work,just your milage would not reflect true anymore! Could be a problem when you sell or re-title the vehicle.

[AoParasite]

ok I was asking this question just a few days ago. I was curious if I could take the display from an s-10 that had a tach and hook it into my tach-less wiring harness to see if it would work. If said hold true and the tach signal is there, then it should work right?

[Jay02XBlazer]

yes but take note get the exact same year and engine size that you have now... somewere in mid 99 or 2k they changed signal on the cluster from anallog old style to a new digitial siginal and the clusters are not compatible and will get some really screwy readings

[chevypower99]

Hey Ya'll, i am new to the s-10 world, i just bought a 99 2.2L and its tachless. I bought a sunpro tachII and did as the instructions said, i switched the tach to the 4 banger position and it still gave a low reading. The instructions said i need a tach adapter. Now if i go to the wire behind the dash, will it give me a better tach signal or is it just the sunpro tach that needs the $58 adaptor!!!

Thanks
Jeremy

[chevypower99]

i spliced into the white wire off of the ignition module (sorry forgot to mention that) it said the splice into a white or orange

[TopElement]

97 sunpro 2 tach.

Hooked to white wire behind dash. idles at 1000. Matchs RMP really really well.

[ap0lio]

WOW you guys rock this helped me out so much.... i spent an hour under the hood trying to find that damn white n orange wire... so i went behind the cluster gauge and tapped into the white wire... and i tapped into my stereo for the power wires... im getting a good reading i idle at 1 grand and im guessing around 4500 is my red line hehehehe ill get some pics on my homepage shortly

[ap0lio]

shit now WTF my tach worked last night perfectly now it doesnt!!!! did you say the white wire behind the dash that you gotta splice into it or CUT the wire COMPLETELY and run from that wire to my tach????? yo yo yo get back to me asap

[ap0lio]

ok had a lose wire that i clamped onto with those thingies.....gotta love watching rpm's

[S-10 Blacky]

I have a Auto meter sport-comp silver tach which is about 2". I installed it with my buddy threw the coil in my 98 2.2 S-10. Its been running on 500 RPM at idle and to the most goes up to 2grand when shifting gears. I was wondering if I do the back dash mod on this thread, will my tach work properly? Thanks

[00dezerts10]

heres apicture of the plug that goes into the gage cluster on a 2000 s10. hopefully it works

the wire it appears everyone is talking about is the 3rd down onthe grey (left) side of the plug

[Chanman]

does anyone know where i could get the pillar where i could stick a tach in? and what other little read outs could i put in there. Really the only guage i need is a tach and i dont really like the look of the giant tach on the dash or what not. an would wiring it up be the same?

[bww3588]

or you can save yourself the hassel of splicing into wires and just go to the boneyard and find an instrument cluster from the same type truck with same mileage and make the simple swap. and its clean. no big honkin tach to place on the dash where it is in your way.

[xSmokYx]

Quote: Originally Posted by bww3588

or you can save yourself the hassel of splicing into wires and just go to the boneyard and find an instrument cluster from the same type truck with same mileage and make the simple swap. and its clean. no big honkin tach to place on the dash where it is in your way.

Dont be so negative, and youll never find a truck with the same miles so you might as well forget that shit. I just bought the sunpro II that i noticed a couple of you said you were hooking up, im gonna try here in about an hour to hook it up, ill get back to you if it worked out right or not... im getting confused thought because some people are saying they spliced the wires, some are saying they cut them. I have a 97 so im just going to splice it off and try that out!

[bww3588]

Quote: Originally Posted by xSmokYx

Dont be so negative, and youll never find a truck with the same miles so you might as well forget that shit. I just bought the sunpro II that i noticed a couple of you said you were hooking up, im gonna try here in about an hour to hook it up, ill get back to you if it worked out right or not... im getting confused thought because some people are saying they spliced the wires, some are saying they cut them. I have a 97 so im just going to splice it off and try that out!

i did. im my case i told em i needed a 98 s-10 cluster with tach with about 90k miles and thats exactly what i go. a tach cluster with 89765 miles. my truck had 90243 on it so i got the benefit of the doubt for 20 dollars and it works. but thats just me. it took me 20 minutes to do this and it was a simple swap so i think this is looking positive trying to simplify things. but do what you guys want. its your truck.

[98layinframe]

Quote: Originally Posted by bww3588

i did. im my case i told em i needed a 98 s-10 cluster with tach with about 90k miles and thats exactly what i go. a tach cluster with 89765 miles. my truck had 90243 on it so i got the benefit of the doubt for 20 dollars and it works. but thats just me. it took me 20 minutes to do this and it was a simple swap so i think this is looking positive trying to simplify things. but do what you guys want. its your truck.

so your saying you went out and picked up a cluster assembly with tach out of the same year truck, and swapped it in to your truck with out any modifications at all... and it works fine?

now i just gota find another cluster with a tach!

[bww3588]

Quote: Originally Posted by 98layinframe

so your saying you went out and picked up a cluster assembly with tach out of the same year truck, and swapped it in to your truck with out any modifications at all... and it works fine?

now i just gota find another cluster with a tach!

no problem just disconnect your battery cable and pull the airbag fuse cause of working around the steering coulmn. easy easy easy.!

[ap0lio]

thats decent man.... take a look at my homepage....thats where i installed my tach.... not professional but it works

[bww3588]

Quote: Originally Posted by ap0lio

thats decent man.... take a look at my homepage....thats where i installed my tach.... not professional but it works

thats pretty kickin'. looks good. and as long as it works. sweet.

[STXS10]

damn its been a while since ive posted on these forums......

[Seancass]

im thinking ill do this too, i just dont want to put some huge thing on there that looks stupid. only two more days and ill be driving my new truck.

[BobOnAir]

No,, I'm going to drill my firewall anyways!