my new Tach- video

[JesseN]

So I received my new Tachometer in the mail and installed it last night. You SR5 guys (or ones with an upgraded cluster) probably take it for granted. When I was installing it this guy walked up to me confused. What do you need that fer??? He asked. He said that his cars never came with them and that he didn't need them. Well I have been driving my Terc for about 5 months without one. And while I feel I don't NEED one at all I like having the information. Here's a link to the vid. Sorry it's a bit shaky. I am using the Tachometer connection wire from the dist, hopefully this will give me a good signal?

J
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfIl8EhdUNU

[Petros]

that is a pretty nice looking tach, though almost too "modern" looking for the 30 year old econo-box tercel (so now you have to "modernize" the rest of the car!). It looks annoyingly too bright for driving at night, can that be turned down? Also, the scrolling digital rpm numbers seem like a big distraction for driving, the needle is a better indicator since you know where the rpm is and where it is going at a glance. Can you turn off the scrolling numbers?

Also, you are shifting too low, for acceleration is most efficient to shift so your rpms stay above the max torque RPM (about 2800 rpm). for routine driving this is not so important, just as long as you are not lugging the engine (never shift below about 2500 rpms even on light driving). this prevents loading up the spark plugs, reduces deposits in the combustion chamber and minimizing ping or preignition, that can do long term damage to the head gasket and the internal parts.

When someone asks you a stupid question about why you are doing something, like installing a tach, you can get him to shut up by "innocently" rattling off a lot of techno mumbo-jumbo like the last sentence in the previous paragraph, and than throw in a bunch of nonsence like "beside if your not shifting at the correct rpm you can damage the frammis valve and which could lead to premature failure of the perambulator, and without optimum shifting the fuel economy suffers from off-peak break mean effective pressure distribution, ...ah, I thought everyone knew that. that is why all the most expensive sports cars and performance luxury cars all come with tachs as standard equipment...gee even this Tercel offered a tachometer as optional equipment...perhaps you should consider getting one too" . So rather than some know-it-all trying to act superior by showing his ignorance of tachs, and boasting about it, you make him shut up because he does not know what he is talking about. At best he will not ask you such inane questions in the future, humiliate him with overwhelming superior knowledge.

[irowiki]

I am planning on doing this as well, where did you run the wire through the firewall?

[JesseN]

that is a pretty nice looking tach, though almost too "modern" looking for the 30 year old econo-box tercel (so now you have to "modernize" the rest of the car!). It looks annoyingly too bright for driving at night, can that be turned down? Also, the scrolling digital rpm numbers seem like a big distraction for driving, the needle is a better indicator since you know where the rpm is and where it is going at a glance. Can you turn off the scrolling numbers?

Also, you are shifting too low, for acceleration is most efficient to shift so your rpms stay above the max torque RPM (about 2800 rpm). for routine driving this is not so important, just as long as you are not lugging the engine (never shift below about 2500 rpms even on light driving). this prevents loading up the spark plugs, reduces deposits in the combustion chamber and minimizing ping or preignition, that can do long term damage to the head gasket and the internal parts.

When someone asks you a stupid question about why you are doing something, like installing a tach, you can get him to shut up by "innocently" rattling off a lot of techno mumbo-jumbo like the last sentence in the previous paragraph, and than throw in a bunch of nonsence like "beside if your not shifting at the correct rpm you can damage the frammis valve and which could lead to premature failure of the perambulator, and without optimum shifting the fuel economy suffers from off-peak break mean effective pressure distribution, ...ah, I thought everyone knew that. that is why all the most expensive sports cars and performance luxury cars all come with tachs as standard equipment...gee even this Tercel offered a tachometer as optional equipment...perhaps you should consider getting one too" . So rather than some know-it-all trying to act superior by showing his ignorance of tachs, and boasting about it, you make him shut up because he does not know what he is talking about. At best he will not ask you such inane questions in the future, humiliate him with overwhelming superior knowledge.

Yes you are absolutely right! It looks way too modern. I have some RED 194 LED's coming for the cluster soon. The problem is that I like my night lights very dim. I have the cluster right now at the lowest possible setting. I love the fact that you can dim it all the way to off. Reminds me of a friends SAAB. I found out it had a button called night mode that dimmed all lights in the car, so cool. So yeah this is an annoyance because I have no way to dim this at all and no way to turn off the LED number display. I will see how long I can live with it before pulling my hair out . Good news is that now that I have all the wiring ran if I want to go to another one of these tachs but different style it will be easy. Normally I shift higher but I was trying to hold the camera and drive and shift right my right hand (not the smartest Idea I know.) But I will think about what you said every time I shift now. So you say shift above 2800. What's my redline area start at? And where should I shift at for best power, 3500? What should my RPM be at when at about 60MPH on the freeway in 5th?

Thanks!

Jesse

[JesseN]

I am planning on doing this as well, where did you run the wire through the firewall?

Ran it through the hole for the clutch pedal linkage. It was wide enough to fit a few wires for extra projects

[dlb]

nice tach. is that the new black sabbath album on in the background, or solo ozzy? i've heard good reviews of the new sabbath but have only heard the first single (which was terrible).

i agree that tachs are not a 'need to have' but are definitely a 'nice to have,' particularly when you're first getting acquainted with a car. once you have been driving it for a while and are familiar, you can roughly judge the rpm by sound and feel but initially i find that pretty difficult.

i'm not sure about the blue #s on your tach but if you wire the backlight for the tach directly to the car's dash lights, it should dim along with the the rest of them. check the wiring diagrams at the back of the FSM to find which wire would be easiest for you to access. you would probably need to remove the dash hood and cluster, which is easy. just a few screws and plugs and it's out. check my guide on installing an inclinometer if you want pics of how to remove the hood and cluster.

i like things to look stock so i would have looked for an SR5 cluster to swap in to your car. it is plug and play, no wiring required. i did this myself just recently on my last project tercel. then my wife and i bought a '91 f350 pickup that a previous owner had put an ugly tach in. they just attached it to the steering column with a giant hose clamp and it obscured some of the warning lights, which really bothered me. when i went to the wrecker for some other things, i found that other models of the same generation f-series had stock tachs in their cluster so i got one, put it in, and removed the ugly aftermarket one. while i was at it, i put green light condoms on all of the dash lights so that it looks like a terc dash at night! it looks much better now.

[Petros]

the factory read line is about 6200 rpm, but I have inadvertently over-reved it to over 7000 rpm (going up a lumpy snow and ice covered road to get home!). There is no power to be gained much about 6000 rpm, so there is no reason to go there, but it will not harm it to go there briefly. Normally over-reveing can be really harmful to the point of doing serious damage (valves "float" and strike the pistons, and boom, it is over), but the 3a clears the valves and pistons.

The object in performance driving is to shift so when in the next highest gear the rpms are at the max torque rpm (about 2800 rpm if I recall for a stock 3ac), than you accelerated to the red line rpm to shift to the next gear. That is only for max acceleration, like pulling out into traffice or when trying to pass a big truck, climb a large hill, pull through a mud bog, etc. the idea is to keep the rpms high without over-reving past the red line.

for best economy you just want to acclerate very slow and always slightly lug the engine. the optimum cruise economy comes where you match the cruise rpm to the max torque RPM (about 2800 rpm).