I have a 94 F250 that I would like to install a tach in. The truck did not come with a factory unit. I have a tach, but no wiring diagram. Does anyone know where to connect it to? The tach is a
Sun Supertach and has the following wires coming out of it. Red, Black, White,and Green..I assume that the red and black wires are power and ground...

 

White is probably the Tach wire,the coil cap is marked Tach.
The Green is probably the tach light.
That goes to the instrumentation lighting circuit.


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Oh boy, let see here. If I remember right your red wire will be power and normally all come with an inline fuse so you can run and wire it with the starter. Then your black is going to be your ground, can ground on one of the screws on the firewall, will work perfect. Then the Green wire will go to your tach wire (commonly called Tach Testing Wire by Ford). Not too sure where you'll find it on a '94 F250. I know on my '96 Ranger there is a power box on the firewall in front of the driver seat that has two sets of wires coming out from it and thats where my tach wire is. Umm...the white wire I believe is going to get wired in with your parking lights because its a wire to illuminate your tach and you're only going to want the illumination when your parking lights come on. Yeah, that all sounds right. I hope this helps you out. Also, you can find out what brand the tach is and look them up on the net and email them for a set of directions to be emailed back to you. Goodluck.

James

 

Hey Guys...Thanks for the suggestions. I'll report back when I install the unit this weekend..

 

I agree with James - on my Auto Meter the green is the tach wire, the white is the dimmer light.

 

Small world Gamma, Auto Meter is what I installed. Although the 2" ones were too expensive. Wanted to put those pods on the post. Thought that would have been awesome but costed way too much. $30 for the pods and like $150+ on the gauges. Hehe, didn't need it set up like that that badly. Thanks for confirming what I had said. Couldn't find my directions so had to recall from memory. Have a great day.

James

 

aksniper, Same here - I wanted the smaller tach, but I ended up with the most basic model called the "Street Tach" due to its compatibility with the MSD ignition and the price.

Where did you mount yours? I drilled two holes down through the plastic top of the dash (the colored part, not the black faceplate part) just to the right of center of the original guages/steering- column. I put it up there to try to have an easier reference within my peripheral vision as to if I'm holding my speed since I don't like looking down at the speedometer too much (talk about lazy, huh? - if I could instal a heads-up display to come off of the windshiled, I'd do it ). Originally I had it mounted off of a stock under-dash torx screw, but it was obviously getting knocked around by peoples' legs when I put three or four people in the cab.

Now the truck looks like I'm trying to be a hot-rodder or something, but the only reason I put a tach in there was to make sure I wasn't beating the engine & to try to keep her at about 2000 RPM on highway drives (straight six).

I think both of us neglected to mention which side of the tach the the green wire goes to (if he isn't going to try to use the Ford wiring harnesses like aksniper did). Chuck, from memory (because mine is hooked up straight to my MSD box) I believe it is the negative lead off of the coil. Please look that up though.

 

Chuck, Gamma is right about the green wire going to the negative side if not wiring like I did straight into the harness. Sorry we forgot to mention that sooner. Just didn't really think about it but now that Gamma reminded me, he's right about it.

Gamma, I think mine is also the Street Tach, about 2 1/2" model to about 8000rpm and with a forward and backward mounting plate. I paid about $80 for mine but I didn't care, needed the forward mount instead of the rear one and it was the only one I could find. From the sounds of it I'd say both of our guages are mounted almost same place but mine is to the left of the center. I love it. Only thing I don't like is that its got the one white bulb. Lights up great just wish it was a real back light and everything like the dash gauges and lights. And I like the hot rodder look. After all, going to slowly start pumping up the lil 2.3L under the hood. Hehe, really gets some people looking to see if its a tach or a dashmounted radar gun. State patrol actually bought a few Rangers the last few years to use so easy to look like them if I wanted but not that crazy about it.

So how do you like your MSD setup? I'm hoping to get the DIS-2 Programmable one when it gets out. MSD told me I need two of them though (one for each coil pack) and thats going to be a pricy setup but will kick butt I think.

Have a great day and best of luck with the tach job.

James

 

James,

Honestly, while I like the MSD, I'd just avoid the big investment for your case. Now I really have to admit I don't know anything about the 2.3's, and they could be God's 2nd engine gift to Ford enthusiasts (the straight six being the first, of course), but my last car was one of those coplicated ignitions, and the car had the additional consideration of needing a timing change for the turbo, so I just avoided getting an ignition all together. I always wanted a MSD ignition, but not to putting out that much money on a 4 cylinder. Of course your case may be different.

So I like the MSD. Truthfully I didn't have the truck long enough without the MSD, or I got the MSD so soon after throwing on other tune-up parts, that I just can't say it surely is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Now, besides that, what do I have to say? I know my highway fuel mileage is great compared to other similar trucks. And I know the one time I did let it rev out the darned thing really kept pulling, and would have kept pulling, up until I let off of it. THat was before the tachometer, but I'm guessing I had it revving up around 3500 RPM. But I just try to not beat it, so it normally stays around 2000 RPM. (I hope you're not reading this and forgetting the I-6 motor is a low RPM workhorse and not a high revving engine).

I just drive around town loving the idea that I'm getting nice, clean multiple sparks at my typical RPM range instead of those wee tiny little stock ones.

According to Summit Racing, if you paid that much for the tach I guess you got the chrome one? I have the black one. I haven't hooked up the light to my dimmer switch yet, though. I was thinking about buying a dial pot switch from Radio Shack, hooking the white wire up to a standard power source and the switch, and just making my own dimmer with it. I'm not a real big fan of too much interior dash light hitting my eyes when I'm trying to drive at night anyway (I'd rather have the best view of the outside of the truck), so I may leave it unconnected.

-Peace

 

Hey Gamma,

Well the Programmable DIS-2 that I'm looking at from MSD is actually set up just for the newer 4 bangers so its should be a great investment in the long run. Plus being that I am going to build up my lil 2.3L it'll be good for me. Changing the crank alone I can stroke it to a 2.85L or even a 3.0L if I've got the taller block. And increase the compression ratio too. So eventually its going to be a race truck within reason. And yes, tons of other modifications going into it too just thought I'd show one thing could change. Not sure if I'll put on a turbo or just build as much true horsepower and torque as I can without a turbo. Right now for me I would set mine to be kicking in and working up to about 4,000rpm just cause depending on the situation thats about all the higher I take it even though I can still hit 5,000rpm easy. Not sure of damage though. But normally for highway I operate at about 2,200rpm just cause thats where my best gas milage is. But after the mods, who knows. Lots of fun. Plus can hook it all up to my laptop and have fun trying different things. Hehe, gonna love it I think. And I hear ya about the multiple sparks and weak factory ones.

Hehe, just had a funny thought. Know all those people trying to do the flame thrower idea out of their tail pipes? Its just a spark plug back there hooked to a switch and all that, right? If I'm remembering correctly that is. Been long time since I read them. Anyways, if thats all it is, wonder what it would be like to run a wire off the MSD back to that plug in the pipe and still have it hooked to an activator switch. Hehehe.

Okay, back to the MSD again for a second. Do you just have the ignition? Or do you have the plug wires and even a coil? Just curious. What kind of plugs too? Keep hearing tons of stuff from others and just curious what all people are getting.

With the tach, I got the black one. It wasn't stocked at the local auto parts store and I told them I needed it like last week so just get the darn thing here and so first thing next morning it was there. Just wanted to get it and get it done and over with at that point. So a lot happier with it in now too. For me the light is the right brightness so I'm not worried about it.

Thanks again for everything. Have a great day.

James

 

I have the MSD-6A ignition, MSD TFI coil, MSD wiring harness, & non-MSD spiral-core wires.

I believe my spark plugs are Autolites. Spark plug choice isn't too important after installing the MSD though. Mine are sidegapped, though the gap isn't too much wider than stock recommendations.

Now that I've got that much spakr, the next concern on my list is getting more fuel through. I'm going to get larger injectors in about a year I think. FIrst I've got to get my rear brakes from intermittently cathcing and locking up at low speeds. Probably will have to get new brake lines and brake cylinders.

 

Sounds like a good setup. With the DIS-2 Programmable it was saying to use the Blaster Coils so I can just imagine what its going to be doing. Hehehe, kind of makes me wish I had the money to go do everything I want to my truck right now and be racing it tonight. Actually...since you mentioned it here, going to ask, What in the world is "side gapping"? I keep hearing it and don't know how it differs from just gapping your plugs normal is. Even asked some mechanic buddies of mine and they haven't even heard of it either unless its just an easy term for something else. Thanks for the help and yes, brakes are more important than power. Have a great day.

James

 

Hey Chuck,

We're curious buddy, how did the installation go?

James

 

Sidegapping in my words: you know how a typical spark plug has the side-electrode that comes up and over (but not touching - there's a gap) the center electrode? Imagine cutting away part of the side-electrode's top back a little - like 4mm - to make it not totally cover the center electrode. It opens up the spark to the fuel.

http://performanceunlimited.com/illustrations/sparkplugs.html


Do a search for sidegap "OR" (leave it marked on the OR box) sidegapping in the Inline Six forum and you'll get plenty of input.

And yeah, silent chuck, how did the installation go?

 

Cool...has side gapping really given you any kind of performance increase that you've noticed? I know in the performance sention they talk about side gapping to get the head to fit on high compression ratio engine. So kind of just always made me wonder what it was and just now got around to asking. Haha. Anyways, thanks for the information Gamma. Have a great day.

James