7.3 IDI Tachometer

[Brian VT]

or c6 but you lose mpg

Econolines before e4od didn't get a tach sensor at all because vans didn't get a tach gauge. The port was there on the 85 I had been it had a plug in it. the tach in the 87 f250 i had, had a bad tach sensor but it wasn't worth spending money on, just for a tach gauge.

The tach. didn't work when I got my '87. I bought a new sender and still no tach. and still (maybe more?) oil leaking at the sender. Ugh. Makes you want to stop trying to make things right.

 

[Cubey]

They started doing that toward the end of the 6.9s. At least as far as the trucks went, the Brick Noses all had a tach. A lot or most of the 86s seemed to have a tach. A tach didn't seem to be as popular in the 85s. I don't remember seeing very many 84s or 83 with a tach, if any at all. Maybe the tach didn't become an option until 1985 models? Once they became an option, a plug in that port seems like the easiest way to use one housing to fit all trucks.

tachs were not available at all on vans, at least before 1992. maybe they added it as an option on the next gen that started in 92. vans got the sensor for e4od but still had no tach gauge. but yeah maybe 1985 was the first year it was an option on trucks, so vans got the same cover with the port, just plugged.

 

[offroad-anarchy]

I've been round and round with the tach speedo issues in my 93 F250. I found quite a few 92 - 94 trucks with manual transmissions and none of them had a tach. Think they only came in the diesels from those years, but could be wrong. First two if found at junk yards, I did all the work to pull them out, then noticed they didn't have a tach, duh

My tach is just slow. Wakes up about 1200 then is right on from 1500 or so up. My speedo is dead steady to 45 or so then it goes wonkey and bounces all over place at freeway speeds.

Have a new cluster I'll swap out at some point, but not until I get the new IP in and running again.

 

[Brian VT]

My speedo is dead steady to 45 or so then it goes wonkey and bounces all over place at freeway speeds.

My speedo. was bouncy. Then it stopped working. It turned out to be the cable. The old lube inside gave up and it finally got twisted until it broke. You might get away with just taking yours apart and lubing it.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Think they only came in the diesels from those years, but could be wrong.

I believe that they were standard on diesel trucks, but optional on gas trucks.

 

[KansasIDI]

I have seen one 84 with a tach. I haven’t seen many 83s in general, and none with a tach.

Edited to add: I have never seen an 86 F-series diesel without a tach