Hey everyone. My '60 F-100 has the original 223 cid I6, which is currently all stock. I know that the stock distributor has no provisions for a tachometer. All in all, I want to change this. I think a tach would be a nice thing to have ... is there any way I can run a standard (non-digital) tach on this engine? Can I buy a 262 distributor, or an aftermarket one?

Also .. are automotive tachs and marine tachs geared down the same amount? If I do get a tach drive on my engine somehow, I have the tach I want to use ... it's a marine tach that I found in my dad's shop. I think it's a Stewart-Warner. It's antique and reads up to 3500 RPMS, which is all i really need.

I appreciate any help you guys can offer.

 

Koop... you can buy an aftermarket tach for your six cylinder... electrical not mechanical. Don't know about a stock unit for your truck. Having not heard of one does not mean they don't exist. Summit, Jegs or Speedway can fix you up.

"tach"fully, himmelberg

 

Don't know about the aftermarker units, but Ford did make stock tachometers for trucks at least as far back as 1956. Here are a couple of photos of the unit in my 1956 F-250. It's electronic and has no mechanical drive as you can see from the rear photo. There is an adjustment screw, a couple of mounting nuts, some sort of small well that is sealed inside, and the insulated wire connection. I haven't gotten to the restoration of the instruments yet, so I don't know for sure what the wiring schematic is. I'm ALMOST sure it just requires one wire to the coil post that's connected to the points.

 

Okay .. electric tachs are OK too, as long as I can have a real guage, not a digital one.

How would I go about hooking up an electric tach, and where can I get a good-looking, reasonably-priced electric tach?

 

George,

A couple of things.

1) I was not able to find any reference to a factory tach for that year, which makes me think it was either a dealer "accessory" (kinda on the same level as floor mats, not a "serious" option like turn signals), or a unit swapped out of a later truck. I have no sales literature though, so feel free to thoroughly demolish this theory. I have seen that tach in a very early '60s F-600 or 750.

2) Nearly all of the aftermarket/dealer tachs I've seen through the late '60s have some type of separate transformer. OE tachs lost these in the mid '60s, for the most part. When you get to that point on Earl, remind me & I'll shoot you some sources, if you haven't already discovered the wiring.



Koop,

Most electrical tachs now have a very simple two wire hookup. Takes all of ten minutes, if you stop for refreshments in the middle. I will say that as a rule they are not particularly accurate (by racing standards), but serve the purpose.

Do you have an idea where & how you would like to mount it? There are a lot of tachs on the market; some can be mounted in a cup, some into a panel, & some can do both. As far as reasonable cost...depends. Ballpark is $50-$120 for a street model.

Here's a picture of some Stewart-Warner gauges. The one at the right is the familiar one that they have made for years & fits well with an older vehicle. It comes in various sizes. Prolly don't want the 10,000 rpm version.

 

You can hook up any cheapo tach.I got one of ebay.The signal for it is the negative side of the coil.And there was a switch on the back for 4,6,8.Like already stated it is really easy.My truck is a 54 with a 223.

 

Mike, you might be right. The only literature I could find for 1956 that talked about a tachometer was this mention in the options section.



It says it is mechanical, though, and only on the bigger trucks. I just took a good look at the hole in the dash and it definitely was cootie-bobbed, certainly not something from the factory or done by a dealer.

Bummer, I kind of liked the idea of a tach in the dash. Oh well, one less thing to clean up and restore - except now I have some more holes in the dash to fix.

Anybody want a fairly good looking electrical tachometer? Don't know if it works or not but it looks nice.

 

George,

Now, let's consider this situation for a moment.

1) You have a tach in the truck, when by your own testimony it was not originally equipped with one.

2) Said tach is of highly suspicious origin and could even be AFTERMARKET.

3) This tach has a 5400 RPM redline. I'm thinkin' the truck Y-blocks weren't rated quite that high.

Given all these things, I'm pretty sure this makes you a darksider.

Can I interest you in starting a MII suspension thread???

Seriously (well, fairly seriously), it has an appropriate vintage look to it. I think I'd clean it up, improve the cootie-bobbing, & use it, meself. Who's to know? I've seen a lot of older work trucks with add-on tachs.

 

I think you busted good ol' Gerorge, Homespun.

 

Any of the older electric tachs will work with your ignition without modifications to the distributor and are plentiful/cheap as been mentioned. Accuracy depends on brand, any of the SW or Sun's were quite accurate. Don't waste the effort trying to use the mechanical tach.

 

Now hold on thar cowboys - I didn't put that thar thingy in mah truck! An I already tuk it owt and gots plans to fix the cootie-bobbed holes in the dash. Nosireebob, you won't find no ex-citin' stuff on Earl. Gonna be boring to the end.

 

I'll let you explain yourself further on Saturday Gerorge. I'm getting ready to head out here in a few minutes. Look forward to meeting you guys.

 

The "bad" cop:

You didn't put it in, perhaps, but mere possession is enough to make you guilty by association. After all, you bought the truck (or your son did, anyway) knowing FULL WELL that it was in there. So, you were just going to "restore" the dash... A likely story.

The "good" cop:

Look George, it's okay that you had the tach in there. I understand. It was in there...ready to go...that gleaming, hot lookin' tach...that red band at the top of the dial that just screams "performance"....Anybody would have done the same thing. I would have done it. Canarsie here woulda done it. It's okay, really. So why don't ya just admit it? You'll feel a lot better and all this will be over. Come over to the dark side. Ya know ya wanna.



Ah, yet another thread I've made go horribly wrong.

 

Ah, you guys crack me up!!

Scrap that tach George............you know its not going to match all the rest of the guages anyway. Scrap it I say, march right out to the garage and toss it in the trash....go on...do it, do it now before you lose your nerve.The rest of the gauges will all have nice new chrome housings and custom faces so you can keep track of every aspect of that new mega cubic inch crate engine coupled to the 6 speed trans delivering its power out back to a jag rear. Earl's gonna look good sitting there with his chrome gleaming and sparkling in the sun!!
When you fire that baby up and smoke the tires down the street you don't want to look down at that old cooti-bobbed tach do you?

(come on, you know Earl is just beggin' for it)

Bobby