Aftermarket tach for older 1/2 ton

I put a small 2" tach in my '87 Pickup... where the brake light is. That would be your fourth place on the dash. Takes a fair bit of dremmel work tho.

There has been some discussion and pics here...

How much "older" are we talking here? I have an '86 Blazer that I added a tach to. If you have the HEI distributor, there's a tach feed on the cap right next to where the 12vdc "hot" wire comes in on the driver's side.

The non-tach Chevys used a large gas gauge, next to the speedometer. It's the same size as a speedometer or tach would be. There's also a blocked-off, unused dash opening on the left (bottom left) next to the temp, volts, and oil pressure gauges on mine. I don't know if you have a similar year as mine, so your parking brake light may be there. On trucks similar to mine, the factory tach would be where the fuel gauge is, and a smaller, "non-tach" fuel gauge (as you mentioned) would be in that empty space.

You can swap the entire instrument assembly from another truck. They go for like $20-$30 for the non-tach version on eBay. But the versions equipped with a factory tach often go for $125 or more, so the aftermarket tach is the cheapest and easiest way to go. Adding a factory tach-equipped instrument panel may be more involved than just plugging it in. I added a cheapo, $35 tach from Pep Boys onto my steering column using a large (4" I think) hose clamp. Only problem is, it moves with the shifter, so I set it to be out of the way and level when the truck is in OD.

Hope that helps.

~jp

John D wrote:

Thanks guys!