Mycarispurty Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Jaguar's downfall wasn't really their engines, the engines are great. It's the Lucas Electronics in the car that are crappy, that, and apparently subpar British rubber for hoses and things like that. Plus their V12s didn't really make all that much power Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrel_Ball Posted November 21, 2009 Author Share Posted November 21, 2009 The car I salvaged these from is a '77, which had the Lucas fuel injection, and I don't think I'm going to go and switch out all my wiring to run a V12 with that setup. In fact, just to rebuild these engines is expensive as it is. I just want to use the gauges with my car, which I think is possible. The place I work at deals with Subarus and Jags, so there might be a technical manual there that might have the schematics on an old smiths tach, but alot of their older books hidden in locked cabinets. Also, if what I think is a resistor is, in fact, a capacitor, what's with the stripes? I've never seen a striped cap before in my life - Not even in older stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mycarispurty Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Do you really need an explination for why Brits do what Brits do? lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrel_Ball Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 I suppose you're right. I guess that a couple of alternatives would be to either A: Use the circuit board from a 280 tach, or B: Just find a way to adapt the face of the Smiths unit onto the 280 tach. Also, I just found an XJ6 tach at the junkyard today (who'da thought another one would show up!), but the stupid thing only goes up to 5000 Rpm before it redlines, so I'm not sure I could get that to work on my engine, unless I somehow solder that 6 board onto the 12 tach. Guess I'll have to take another picture - this time, of the 6's board... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubamark3995 Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 I just ordered the speed hut revolution gauges. I love how you can customize them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrel_Ball Posted December 27, 2009 Author Share Posted December 27, 2009 So today, I decided to do a little experimentation, and de-soldered that striped component (which I'm positive is a resistor of some sort) and soldered in a 10K potentiometer. I then, pulled out my stock tach, and hooked up the wires to the Smiths unit, fired up the car, and notice that it works. However, it only runs up to about 3500 RPM then dies off a bit. I have the red wire with the female bullet connector on the bullet male of the tach, the green wire on the spade, and the black wire on the ground of the tach body. I know I'm close to getting this to work properly, but I still think I'm missing something here. I pulled open the stock Z tach, and noticed that the ground wire also goes into the tach circuit. I wonder if I need to use that black wire on the same terminal as the green one? Since it might just be a second signal wire, but I'm not 100% sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrel_Ball Posted January 11, 2010 Author Share Posted January 11, 2010 Okay, so the 'resistor' replacement trick didn't quite work, but I came up with a proper solution. I had a tach from an XJ6 sitting around, so I used the circuit board from that, and soldered it to the XJ12 unit. Hooked it up today, and it works perfectly. Also, the two big guages are installed in the car now with brackets welded to the cans made from the stock gauge cans. All I need now is a proper fitting speedo cable, which I'm sure I can have made at a shop or something. I'll post pics of the gauges installed with new LED backlighing working next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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