Seven Two Oh No Posted May 6 Report Share Posted May 6 I recently installed an aftermarket tach in the gauge cluster of my 85 since I've never found one in the junkyard and refuse to pay $100 for one off ebay. I ordered a cheap 52 mm tach (like this), which came in a plastic pod housing that I took apart to get the innards. This consisted of a face plate and circuit board connected by long pins that make the assembly too deep to fit in the gauge space, so I trimmed the pins to get some working room (they just press into the face plate connectors). Quote Link to comment
Seven Two Oh No Posted May 6 Author Report Share Posted May 6 For the mount, I used a piece of thick plastic from a binder I had laying around and drilled mounting holes using the gauge delete as a template. The tach face had a very slight lip, so I measured the diameter of the gauge housing behind the face and cut a circle out of the plastic with an exacto knife, then used sandpaper to smooth it out to a friction fit. I then put a few dabs of silicone to keep the housing in place and screwed the mount to the cluster. Quote Link to comment
Seven Two Oh No Posted May 6 Author Report Share Posted May 6 (edited) I then made a small wiring harness, for which you'll need a keyed 12v power supply, signal from one of the coils, a power source for the backlight, and a ground. The dial I got is way too bright with full 12v so I tapped into the dash dimmer knob. This required running a separate ground wire for the dial lighting circuit, otherwise it was always at full brightness, so I bent the dial light ground pin (it's labeled on the circuit board) off to the side to attach a separate wire. If you wire it this way, the brightness of the gauge is the inverse of the dash lights, so as the dash gets brighter the tach gets dimmer. This lets you find a nice happy spot where the tach isn't blinding you. You could also use an adjustable voltage regulator. Edited May 6 by Seven Two Oh No Added pic Quote Link to comment
Seven Two Oh No Posted May 6 Author Report Share Posted May 6 I don't like the red needle and the cheap ass $15 gauge flutters between 2-3k, but it works/looks fine otherwise and freed up some space where my old 4" tach used to sit. I may do it again with a slightly larger 2 1/2 inch gauge with a white needle to make it fill the space better, but this works for now. Your mileage may vary with other tachs, but guessing any of the digital ones will be constructed very similar to one I used. 3 Quote Link to comment
Thomas Perkins Posted May 6 Report Share Posted May 6 (edited) Great job.I would of sold you one.I have 2 extra one's.Plus other gauges. Edited May 6 by Thomas Perkins 2 Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 6 Report Share Posted May 6 Nice! OEM tachs are 100 now? I better be hitting the yards 😉 1 Quote Link to comment
Thomas Perkins Posted May 6 Report Share Posted May 6 Someone on Ebay has one for 229.95. 1 Quote Link to comment
sTanTruck Posted May 7 Report Share Posted May 7 On 5/5/2024 at 9:44 PM, Thomas Perkins said: Great job.I would of sold you one.I have 2 extra one's.Plus other gauges. How much are you willing to let one go for? I'm currently in the market for one and there are none of these trucks at my local salvage yards 🙂 Quote Link to comment
Thomas Perkins Posted May 10 Report Share Posted May 10 On 5/7/2024 at 12:06 AM, sTanTruck said: How much are you willing to let one go for? I'm currently in the market for one and there are none of these trucks at my local salvage yards 🙂 100 plus shipping Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted May 10 Report Share Posted May 10 I just cleaned up some crap. Threw two of them away 1 Quote Link to comment
sTanTruck Posted May 10 Report Share Posted May 10 2 hours ago, Thomas Perkins said: 100 plus shipping I cant quite justify that thanks anyway Im in for a little DIY project Quote Link to comment
Madkaw Posted May 10 Report Share Posted May 10 If you guys ever get on FB on the Nissan 720 pages there is a guy GD Humfries that does a lot of electronic work on these trucks and rebuilds clusters . Good guy to work with 1 Quote Link to comment
Thomas Perkins Posted May 10 Report Share Posted May 10 11 hours ago, Madkaw said: If you guys ever get on FB on the Nissan 720 pages there is a guy GD Humfries that does a lot of electronic work on these trucks and rebuilds clusters . Good guy to work with He is good people. Quote Link to comment
Thomas Perkins Posted May 10 Report Share Posted May 10 (edited) Nissan 720 Tacometers were 308.67 when Nissan had them in stock.Hard to find cause no one wants to part out the cluster.To get one you will have to buy the cluster.I also have a temperature gauge,and a fuel gauge.Also a Cluster frame.Also a Nissan blower motor.Dont care if I sell these or not.That is why I don't go to the for sale site here and post them.I did put a clock in mine. Edited May 10 by Thomas Perkins Quote Link to comment
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