Bullnose tach cluster

[Austin86250]

Just scored a factory bullnose tach cluster today 90$

Been searching for over a year now could only find one for 200$+

I’ll be painting the needles,red line, and yellow line I’ve never seen anyone do it so I figured ittl make a fun little thread for any interested

Just jammed the tach in and it does not work right now unfortunately but the tach sensor I have I just ripped out of the junkyard so I’ll start with a new sensor

I found 2 one is a dorman from autozone, not a fan of dorman so I prefer not and

Genuine Ford Parts - Sensor Asy (E5TZ-17B384-A)​

This off Amazon I remember hearing fake motor-craft glowplugs so can anyone verify the legitimacy of this?

 

[Timber-Reaper]

So I've done this once and my truck didn't have a tach factory but it had all the wires and it didn't work I has to wire the back I'll send a pic

 

[Timber-Reaper]

Back of the tack

 

[Timber-Reaper]

I've also painted the needles but not the color in the tack I used an orange made by folk art it looked good but it was a few shades darker than factory. Nobody ever noticed or called me out but I knew and that alone drove me a little crazy lol I also had all leds in the cluster so it really looked cool at night

 

[Austin86250]

Back of the tack

Great to know, had to do that on my 84

 

[Austin86250]

Gauges

Part numbers and troubleshooting techniques for the ammeter, fuel level, oil pressure, temperature, and tachometers used on the 1980 - 86 trucks.

www.garysgaragemahal.com

found a proper guide on changing the odometer reading.

Tachometers

Ford tachometers as used on or adaptable to the 1980 - 86 Ford trucks.

www.garysgaragemahal.com

and general info on tachs

 

[Austin86250]

Back of the tack

What did you “hot wire” on the back of the tach? I presume the tach signals

 

[Timber-Reaper]

Yes tach signals sorry I just seen this

 

[Austin86250]

Has to get creative and use toothpicks

 

[Austin86250]

The second oem parts I’ve ever bought hope it’s worth it

 

[Austin86250]

Finished painting her up! Hopefully I can find a better plastic but she’ll do for now
Now I just need to get the tach working everything has continuity on the dash side hopefully I found bad wiring under the hood somewhere

 

[Old Goat]

Great job Austin, looks good.
Now you only need one more thing...a 6 digit Speedometer.
I found 2 NOS OEM in the original packaging.
One is going in the 85 and other the 86.
Amazing what the gauge`s looked like when these trucks came from the Dealers, compared to 38yrs down the road.

The link to Gary`s Garage he shows how to reset the wheels. That same paper came with my Gauges. I have taken the Mercedes Spedo`s apart to clean and or reset the ODO for the car it is going in. (300D, 300Turbo Diesel, 240D, 280E)
Once you remove the shaft for the Cog`s, the # wheels can be turned to where you want them, then slide the Cogs in one ata time on the shaft, and secure it.
I`ll see how this Ford one works out....

I don`t have a Tach, and never seen one in the Junk Yard`s. So cut a hole and mounted a SW Vac Gauge. Now Iam thinking of swapping in a SW Volt Gauge and move the Vac Gauge maybe down where you have your GP Toggle. I have a Black Momentary Toggle where your Push Button is. Blends in and not noticeable.


Goat

 

[Austin86250]

never heard of a six digit outside of kilometers very interesting. i already used garys instructions to put the odo where i wanted it.

 

[KansasIDI]

Has to get creative and use toothpicks

So, you used toothpicks as paint brush? Not sure I follow… don’t understand I guess

What kind of paint did you use?

I want to redo mine, but, paint my needles blue, like the newer Fords.

 

[Austin86250]

So, you used toothpicks as paint brush? Not sure I follow… don’t understand I guess

What kind of paint did you use?

I want to redo mine, but, paint my needles blue, like the newer Fords.

I used cut toothpicks for the really thin spacing on the yellow and red lines because tape was impractical,
Since I somehow got another tach cluster from a parts truck I got I did it again and didn’t use any tape for yellow and red