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It will be important to have a working tachometer on the boat, especially for drivers towing a water skier. When I bought the boat late in 2011, the tach was not working during the demo ride. The dealer said he had his mechanic investigate. The mechanic reported "there was a signal at the tach, but the tach was not working." Early in 2012, I removed the tach and considered what to do about getting a functioning unit in the boat for the 2012 season.
The hole in the instrument panel is 3.36" in diameter. (Apx 3-3/8", less vinyl wrapped inside hole.) The "Century" tach measures 3" in diameter -- the portion that fits in the hole in the panel.
The options seem to be (after ensuring there is a pulse at the tach) either repairing the existing gauge, or replacing it with a new one.
An email, 1/19/12
Mr. Kocian,
We met briefly at the Lake Geneva ACBS show this past summer.
I mentioned a tachometer I'd recently acquired in a 1981 Century Resorter,
a boat purchased from a dealer in northern Indiana.
The dealer said his mechanic said "there was a signal at the tach" but
the tachometer did not display any movement.
May I ship the tach to you -- for you to check out and repair?
I'm happy with the way it looks, so it needs no cosmetic work.
Thank you,
-=Grant MacLaren=-
Dale Kocian is the man to restore your classic boat instruments, but when I looked at his
prices, I thought of simply replacing the "original" tach with a new one of a different kind. (The original displays the name "Medallion" on its back side. I googled that name and found their link, but the website did not seem friendly to "end-use" customers.)
I was more than satisfied with buying a tow eye from Great Lakes Skipper, and found this tach (and others) on their site:
Throughout this website,
a click on a photo will probably yield a larger image.
BUT -- first I'll check out the original, following instructions given me by Mark S. -- Mark thinks that there could be a poor connection at the tach, especially because of the marine environmemt. I checked this out. The connections are bright and clean. Next, I followed Mark's instructions:
I made a test light, using a running lamp left over from my last trailer re-wiring:
First, I connected the lamp between the wire that runs to the "S" terminal ("Source?" on the back of the tach -- see photo above) and ground. The lamp lit with ignition switch "on," showing there is 12v. power to the tach.
Then, I checked to see if there was a "pulse" at the negative side of the coil.
To do this, I first disconnected the secondary wire from the coil to distributer and grounded it to the engine block, just to make sure the engine would not start. Then I connected the test light between the "-" terminal on the coil and the battery. Using the ignition/starter switch, I cranked the engine and observed the test light flashing. See a video; click on the image:
With a known "pulse" at the coil, I wanted to be sure there was a pulse at the tachometer wires in the instrument panel. There is. See a video; click on the image:
(1/20/12) In a telephone conversation with Dale Kocian, he said he understood what I wanted in way of testing and possible repairs. He said that if the mechanism needed more than minor repairs, he would replace it with another scavenged from a new unit purchased for that purpose.
(1/25/12) Today I decided to buy a new tach, even if the original one works, or can be made to work. My intent is not to "restore" this boat. (*) It is to make it a serviceable boat, with much of its use devoted to water skiing. I think the new instrument I ordered will be more easily and quickly read than the original, and that will be important for the skipper's adjustment of RPMs -- for the skier's success.
(ORDER CONFIRMATION)
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