the tach in my '86 Bronco is rectangular.

 

I just wish that ford did that with the thunderbirds in 86. Mine was a 4cyl. turbo, now its a V8 and the tach is reading twice what it should. lol Theres no switch from factory unfortunately I got to looking at the tach in the T-bird and I think I'm just gonna see if I can get a tach that has the numbers spaced the same as the factory one. that way I can just mount a V8 tach behind the factory face, and nobody would be the wiser.

As for the pickup, I'd love to put air in it but dont know how much work that would take, I dont mind putting in the wrench time, thats not an issue, I just dont know if I'd have to mod anything to install the in cab stuff or if its pretty much gut the dash and re install the new one. lol Guess I'm gonna have to post a new subject before I do the tach. lol

 

off topic

its not that hard to put in AIR, you do need to cut a fair size hole in the fire wall for the special duct to fit in, it also takes up a bit of under hood space, and i would suggest a kit from Vintage air, i a few users on here have put that kit in, you could find a stock AIR setup, but after 30+years most parts are worn out or they leak, new is the best route, i am thinking of ponying up and getting a vintage air setup down the road, but for now the back window and the side windows and the little pop out windows should keep me cool in the hot Canadian summers but it does get up to 80f to almost 100f at times in the summer! air is nice to have when sitting in hot summer traffic! with no breeze!

Vintage Air - Inventors of Performance Air Conditioning - www.vintageair.com

 

How they used the same tach in the 1980-1986 pickups is they used two grounds. One is the regular ground. The other is only grounded on V8s. It's left Ungrounded on V6's and I6's.

The V8 ground on the tach is marked with the number 8. Make sure this is not grounded for a 6 cylinder.

 

what is this tack out of? looks to me like a perfect replacement for one of the useless factory guages

 

I'd like to see some of the tachs from a 80-86 truck. I thought about something like this, if I decide to go with air. but it wont look nearly as good I think.
<a href="http://s687.photobucket.com/albums/vv239/glockstrap/?action=view&current=truckdash-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv239/glockstrap/truckdash-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
a tach on the left and a quad gauge on the right. includes temp, oil, fuel, and alt.

 

You can contact Redline gauges in Calif. and they can make you a tach using the factory square speedo face and using Autometer guts. It will cost though... But instead I went with a '99 Plymouth Prowler gauge and had them exchange the factory guts for Autometer. The potentionometer could not go far enough for a V8.

 

this looks like a good one to put in the blank spot above the headlight/wiper switches

 

I do like that one, whats it out of?

 

1968 chevelle/el camino

i'm sure there is a gm parts vendor, like year one maybee that would have it??

 

hmmm, would any of you trust one of these from a boneyard? theyve been sitting for some time now.

 

i dont see why not, i trust 73-79 guages, and have yet to have a problem, most of the time guages dont go bad.

 

i think its out of a Nova or its made for a Nova? not sure i got it off a Nova website via Google image search of rectangular tach, i am not in the know on Chevy's as much as i am Ford's

-Brent

 

Here you go...

 

I just wonder if it'd be easier to cut the dash panels, and morph the 80-86 opening into a 73-79 dash panel. conceivably, if both panels are flat enough, and remotely close to the same size, could that work?

I know thats more of a mod. than originaly posted, but hey, I'm planning on customizing as much inerior as I can. lol but, making it look like it could have been factory.