Try not to laugh...

I bought this tacho on eBay the other day. its a fair bit older than I expected it to be... looks like it could be older than I am! But anyway, it should be good for what I need it for, so long as someone could tell me what the connectors on the back are, and where I need to connect them.



Just so you know what the front looks like:


I've figured out that the two that come off the thing that sticks out the back are for a backlight, which should be simple to set up. The other three, however... could someone please help me with these?

There's some writing on the side of it... the part that most makes sense goes: "12V 993-1660 Hz" The word "justierbar" is below that - it's made in Germany. Oh wait, the three prongs are marked! One's got a "+", one's got a "-" and the other has a "G". Fair enough... so where do I connect them? My Stanza doesn't have a tacho atm.

_________________
Iain
Datsun Stanza GX
AKA "Stanley", "The Brown Bullet"
5 speed dogleg box, mechanical secondary throttle, Bluebird S2 radiator & fan, off-road spotties, paralysed nodding dog, "invisible dashboard", Volvo cold air duct

At a guess I would agree that the top fitting with 2 pins is earth & positive from dash lighting.

With the 3 pins I think you will find + = ignition/power source, (pos coil)
- = neg side of coil
G = ground or earth.


Ken

Thanks Ken. Are those places pretty easy to find on the coil?

Also, I've learned from the person I bought it from that it was originally from a "compair diesel generator". Do diesel engines run things differently, ie do they have the same kind of coil setup or not? Would this affect how I need to set it up?

_________________
Iain
Datsun Stanza GX
AKA "Stanley", "The Brown Bullet"
5 speed dogleg box, mechanical secondary throttle, Bluebird S2 radiator & fan, off-road spotties, paralysed nodding dog, "invisible dashboard", Volvo cold air duct

Iain,

you're not having me on or jerkin' my chain are you???

Firstly, diesel motors do not have an ignition system, coils etc. They are compression ignition; read heaps of compression to give the heat to igniite the fuel. Any that I have had anything to do with use a cable operated tacho (just like older speedos)

On the coil there are 2 spade type connectors on opposite sides. 1 is marked - the other +..

Ken

No, not jerking your chain at all! That's honestly what the seller told me! That's really weird that it'd be from a diesel engine then... in any case, it looks as though its got all the right bits to put it in the car. These things pretty much all work on the same principles, yeah? I guess I'll see what happens when I hook it up. Thanks for your help!

_________________
Iain
Datsun Stanza GX
AKA "Stanley", "The Brown Bullet"
5 speed dogleg box, mechanical secondary throttle, Bluebird S2 radiator & fan, off-road spotties, paralysed nodding dog, "invisible dashboard", Volvo cold air duct

I recently bought a similar vdo tacho off ebay and installed it without much trouble.

I didn't car about back lights so I just wired backlight and power to a positive source. Earthed the negative wire. Ran a wire from the negative side of the coil to the tacho input.

Only problem when I fired it up was it was reading wrong....it had been set up for a 6 cylinder engine. Inside the casing were little white jumpers so I could change it to 4 cyl mode.

Big thumbs up to VDO...I ran their customer service line and they dug up the old manuals (about 15yo) called me back with the settings I needed.

Wow! That's pretty good... Thanks for those pointers! Hopefully the guys at VDO can help me configure mine too! Although mine looks a lot older than 15 years... you never know!

_________________
Iain
Datsun Stanza GX
AKA "Stanley", "The Brown Bullet"
5 speed dogleg box, mechanical secondary throttle, Bluebird S2 radiator & fan, off-road spotties, paralysed nodding dog, "invisible dashboard", Volvo cold air duct

6000rpm eh? wouldn't that be like having a speedo that tops out at 100?

_________________
1971 Datsun 1600 - Z18ET
1996 Suzuki RGV250 VJ22
1996 Suzuki RGV250 SP VJ23

well, stock L16 with twin carby's generates peak power at 6000, and I've only got one carby, and its 24 years old, so it won't get much use above 6000 at all! besides, if it does, I can say I got if off the clock sure won't do it speed-wise!!!

_________________
Iain
Datsun Stanza GX
AKA "Stanley", "The Brown Bullet"
5 speed dogleg box, mechanical secondary throttle, Bluebird S2 radiator & fan, off-road spotties, paralysed nodding dog, "invisible dashboard", Volvo cold air duct