Is this an aftermarket or factory tach installed in the dash?
It’s a factory tach. If I have time today I plan to take the dash top off and get a better look at everything.
Not sure how the tach is wired. I need to remove the cluster to repair one of the contacts where the main plug plugs in. Am I able to take the factory tach out of the cluster so I can get the cluster out?
Got it out. White was ground. Red was wired to plug wired to post on fuse box and blue went to distributor side of coil.
Looks like the tach was changed to a three-wire setup at some point.
Has power source, ground and signal wire from tach dist post. Inspected the tach all looks well and recently done looks new inside converted to a three wire. All wires attached. Looked inside the distributor all pertronix wires attached and in good shape. Why would this not work? Gauge bad itself or fried?? Died from sitting or?
Probably fried inside.
Factory tach has two wires with a connector about 6" from the housing, a proper grommet in the hole where the wires come out and two studs with nuts protruding from those holes at 3 and 9 o’clock on the housing.
Ahhhh! If your underdash harness was built for a Ford tach originally, it would have a male/female bullet plug consisting of the infamous pink wire on the male side and a red/green and red/yellow wire on the female side. By going to an aftermarket 3 wire tach, you would need to jumper the male and female pins of this plug for your ignition to work.
That said, it is unclear at this point whether your underdash harness was designed for a tach or a standard dash cluster (the latter wouldn’t have this tach plug).
The OPs signature says that the car is an XR-7 so it would have originally had a tach. It would be interesting to see a photo of the tach face in this car. Especially since at least the wiring has been changed.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Obviously NOT one of my conversions so please disregard my earlier post regarding color codes and wiring.
Really need to follow the advice already given on this thread to remove the harness and get it to Midlife to see if it is salvageable. With the dash cluster out now, the job is part way done. With every photo showing blue butt connectors, wire nuts, fried wires and electrical tape hiding who knows what- it is time to stop chasing your tail. This harness has been hacked and cobbled together for who knows how long. Needs to be fixed correctly or it will cause continuing problems or worse yet catch fire and destroy the car. I had Midlife do a harness for my 68 and as far I’m concerned was money well spent. I followed his directions on install and car fired up 1st time with everything working and no issues. R & R of a harness in these cars is time consuming but not highly technical. Only choice to have piece of mind. Time to forget quick fixes or short cuts.
I’m willing to do this. What else is left to do to get it out? On the other hand, since the tach is wired up in a completely different way than factory, I don’t see how it will make the tach work which is what this thread is really all about. As far as what the face looks like, it looks just like this
Part number listed on the back is C9WF-17360-A
I did see a pink wire under the dash with a bullet plug I’ll look more closely this evening. Anyone have a color picture of how the tach wiring is supposed to look since mine is so butchered?
Remove the front seats and console so you can get under the dash to unplug and remove the harness. Take some pictures so you can reference when it goes back in. Keep what you have intact and don’t cut wires to get it out. Expect this process to take time- if it becomes frustrating take a break and leave it until you are ready to tackle it again. The wiring in Cougars is pretty complicated for their time period as well as being both year and model specific. The tach you have is not OEM or from Rocketman so more than likely it will need to be replaced regardless of working in the past.
The work on the tach looks like it was professionally done, although I know it’s not one of Rocketman’s due to the wire colors, but it hooks up identically but you’re right I’ll need a new one or have this one redone. Does the bottom metal part of the dash have to come out?
Here’s a pic of the pink wire and plug I think everyone is referring to. Please let me know. Bottom line is yes the wiring is garbage, but also the tach was wired correctly and if it was good it would work. So I need a new tach or to have mine rebuilt to work.
I would question the wiring on the tach being done professionally. It is hard for me to believe that anyone would just have the wires coming out of the back without any kind of rubber grommet to protect the wiring. Plus that leaves a big open hole for all kinds of things to get into the back of the tach, dust, dirt, insects, etc. If this was my car I would be getting with Rocketman to see if he thought that he could repair your current tach or if you do need to find a replacement.
The wiring harness could be removed with the lower metal dash left in place but it would be a lot easier by taking it out.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Exactly. And that is a big part of the problem. No one, other than the person who did it perhaps, knows how your tach is wired up. If you pull the wiring harness out and have it repaired, or replaced if need be, then you will know exactly how the tach is wired up and then you can properly wire in the Pertronix if you choose to use it.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
I do not know what all you already have apart so I will start at the beginning. As posted above it does make the job easier if the front seats and console, if so equipped, are removed to gain room to work. Remove the plastic outer dash corners. Remove the plastic radio corners. Remove the dash pad. You will need to unplug the wiring to radio speaker, the clock and the rocker panel switches. Next would be the instrument cluster, but we know you already have that out. Remove the face plate around the radio and heater controls. Remove the radio, you will have to unplug the antenna and the power wiring. Remove the heater controls. There will be wiring to unplug, cable(s) to disconnect and if equipped with factory A/C you can unplug the vacuum line main plug. Remove the plastic piece that covers the bottom of the steering column. Find the fuse block. There will be a bolt in the middle of it, remove that bolt as it holds the box to the firewall. There will be wiring grommets through the firewall going to the wiper motor and the engine feeds. Those need to be removed. Remove the steering column from the lower metal dash and let it lay on the floor. Unplug the turn signal switch. Now you can remove the bolts holding the lower metal dash in place. They will be on both ends and a brace around the middle. Once the lower dash is free you can pull it slightly away from the firewall. It will only move so far as the wiring will hold it back some. Now you just need to go around and unplug all the electrical connectors holding it in. There will be plugs going out to both doors, plugs going to the taillight wiring harness at the left door jamb, plugs going to the heater box. Once you have it all loose you can totally remove the lower metal dash with the switches and wiring still in place. Put the lower dash on a work bench and now you can unplug the wiring from the switches. There will be a couple of places where there will be a ground that will be screwed down. Everything on a factory wiring harness is designed to unplug from the next section so there should be no need to cut anything. Although given what has been done to your harness it is possible that you will find something that will need to be cut. There you go. It is really not too bad of a job but it will take a little time.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
That first picture shows the plug that I’ve been saying all along needs to be jumpered so that the car will run once the starter is disengaged. The two pins (one male, one female) need to be “in-line” between the ignition and the coil for the car to run. When hooked up to a Ford factory tach, that allows those two pins to be connected in series. Without the Ford tach, one has to jumper those two pins.