Clifton Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 The 7M motors is in, just need to finish up the loose ends (wiring). How have you guys with coil packs hooked up your tachs. I know I need a 280 tach. I have a tach output on the stock ecu but don't know were this will need to go on the tach, if it will even works. I did a search and found the same question twice but no answers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 Not the same setup at all, but for me to get a tach to work (without coil packs mind you) I had to hook it up to a wire coming out of the computer, not at the coil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majik16106 Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 use an autometer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 use an autometer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 As far as I know the 280z tach's work identically to the autometer ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 Thanks Drax, that's what I was looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majik16106 Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 you can make your little rolley eyes at me or whatever, but you should use an autometer, i started off using the stock 260z gauges with my 7mgte swap, which is what you are doing exactly, and the gauges were fairly inaccurate, i was off by about 8 mph and my tach was off about 2200 Rpms, now it may be because my dash cluster was messed up, not sure but the autometers were pretty much right on where they should be considering my tranny was set up for the supra 3.73 and im using the 3.54 rear end. autometer gauges arent always in riced out cars, if you buy good gauges and hook them up correctly they work VERY well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 Take a look at pete's website and you can see just how accurate the autometers are... http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pparaska/gagecalibration.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majik16106 Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 looks to me like he is using the electrical temp gauge, and autometer elec gauges are notorious for being bad. Second, anything you put in is going to have to be calibrated in one way or another. second, on the fuel gauge he used the stock datsun sender, i used the autometer kit that the compnay says is needed to properly use the fuel level gauge, and mine works PERFECT. Too many people use incorrect set-ups when using gauges. I have the upmost respect for pete, he is very intelligent, and he obviously found a way to fix his problem. Like i said in my last post, not all guage set ups are created equal, getting them to work perfect is hard, especially in a HYBRID set up. without being properly set up or calibrating almost everything is going to be off. I would suggest that anybody using an aftermarket gauge buy as many Mechanical type gauges as possible, too many things can throw off the electrical ones. Almost all top fuel, nascar, Pro-touring, Gt, and Scca comp cars use autometer or similiar companies gauges. I hope your not suggesting that since a few people use bad set ups, or dont take the time to set them up correctly, that it means that all those cars' gauges are incorrect and useless. EDIT: I used "autometer" as a general term, i didnt mean you needed to get an autometer gauge, my suggestion was to use something aftermarket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majik16106 Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 and just so everyone knows, im trying to figure out a way to make the stock gauges work perfect with my set up so that i can keep it more sleeper. But for now, the autometer's in my car work fine, it took some work but they do work fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted August 20, 2003 Author Share Posted August 20, 2003 I wasn't sure why you said use an autometer tach when I was asking about 280 tachs. I'm trying to keep this car as stock looking inside as possible, hense the stock tach. I know autometer gauges are good, I've been using them for over 10 years and my 71's dash is full of them. This car is just a budget build up to run around in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zardilla Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 I am also hoping to keep the stock tach in my rb26 swap. I have been speaking with the tech folks at Autometer and will try to use their tach adaptor part # 9117 that grabs the signal from the postive wire that powers the coil packs and then translates it into a 12v signal the tach can recognize. Now understand this is all theory and I won't have a chance to try it out until this weekend. I will post the results next week. Matt PS- I have changed the guts on the tach to a voltage trigger version from a 280z and then used the 240z faceplate to keep the sleeper look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majik16106 Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Now that ive been thinking about this, ill call up Dan at batleground and ask him about the 350z they built, he might have an interesting answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z-ya Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 I'm using a stock 280Z tach with my Wolf ECU doing a direct fire multi coil configuration. If I believe the Wolf, it is about 100 RPM lower than what the 280 tach reads. I can live with that amount of innacuracy. There is a single wire fromt the Wolf to the tach. BTW, the nice thing about using a 280 tach is that it is a direct bolt in into a 240Z if you swap the guts into your 240Z housing. The aftermarket gauges look cool, but require a fair amount of custom work to make them fit securely. I have an autometer oil temp gauge in place of my clock, and it looks great, but took me at least 4 hours to get it in there, and it still could be held in there a little more securely. All of my other gauges are stock, and pretty darn accurate as compared to what the ECU is telling me. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zardilla Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Well the engine is running, however I have had little luck in using the Autometer tach adapter to pull the correct signal off the common positive side of the coil pack assembly. I know the 280 tach guts work fine as I tested them on a stock 280. I am also getting a signal from the adapter. So either the adapter signal is not strong enough to operate the tach or the tach doesnt know how to interpret it. I will keep working on this but it may take some time to fully sort out and even then this may not be possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted August 25, 2003 Author Share Posted August 25, 2003 I was planning on pulling my signal from the tach output on the stock ecu and not the coil packs. I don't know if you are running a factory ecu or if there is a way you can find the tach output on it. If so you might want to try that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zardilla Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 I thought about that as well. There are two of us that are using the stock ecu in our rb26 swaps and we have both tried the tach pin out on the harness with no sucess. The signal appears to be very low voltage (maybe not enough to drive the tach properly). The other guys is looking into whether there is some way to boost the signal through an amplifier of sorts. I'll try to have him post any results to this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted September 1, 2003 Author Share Posted September 1, 2003 I found otu the tach signal on the ecu is the same as the ignitor siganl. I just used the Supra tach guts in the Z housing. It's off a little cause the supra has a larger face, but works and is better than nothing. I found out than MSD sells a distributorless tach driver (8913) it's says for after market but I didn't call to verify. They also sell 3 other tach adapters for factory tachs, 8920, 8910, 8910EIS. I had to use the 8910 on my Toyata truck hwen I ran there boost retard so I know that will trigger a stock tach. Maybe this combined with the 8913 would work? Dakota Digital sells a universal adapter that will recalibrate for number of cylinders for engine swaps. I don't know if works on coil packs though. http://dakotadigital.com/Detail.cfm?Category=122&PartNumber=SGI-8 If anyone gets any of these or any thing else to work please post for others. I still have another 7M swap to do . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 As discussed on another thread, there is a method to getting the 280z tach to work with the MSD box, and I would presume that this may be causing some other issues as well. In order to get the 280z tach to work, you have to bridge one of the resistors. If you disassemble the tach and follow the wire from the signal terminal, you will see the signal goes first through a physically large 30Ohm resistor, and then through a much smaller (physically) resistor. If you bridge the 30Ohm resistor on the backside of the board (don't pull it out, just run a wire across the terminals and solder it on) the tach will function as most tachs today do. Those of you trying the 280z tach without this mod, I am sorry if I misled you in my earlier posts in this thread. Oh and if you are putting it in a 240z, you need to use the 240z housing with the 280z guts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 250z Posted September 22, 2003 Share Posted September 22, 2003 Oh and if you are putting it in a 240z, you need to use the 240z housing with the 280z guts. Would a 300 guts work as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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