1992 Plymouth Acclaim Tachometer

The tachometer on my 1992 Plymouth Acclaim, 2.5L, auto tranny doesn't work anymore.

Is this a big job (ie: remove dash, etc) or should I just live without it?

Thanks in advance

Reply to
AtPeaceAndHealthy
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I remember removing the tach on my 89 Acclaim, and it was easy enough, although I don't remember all the details. It isn't necessary to pull the entire dash, just the cluster bezel as I recall. Look carefully to find all the screws.

I was able to fix the tach by cleaning and slightly deforming the electrical pins to improve the contact. On vehicles with air bags it's important to disconnect the battery before working in that area.

Reply to
Dave Gower

About 99.99% of the time this is caused by solder connections on the cluster's printed circuit board (PCB). The PCB has traces on each side of the board, and they are connected by 'revits'. Over time, heat and vibration, these revits loosen up and the master signal, or common ground goes away.

IF you can solder, the fix is to remove the cluster, and solder flow the top and bottom sides of the PCB's revits. Clean the tach drive module connections with a pipe cleaner soaked in TV Tuner cleaner, or contact spray cleaner.

If you can't solder, or don't want to tackle this yourself, you can still save some money by pulling the cluster yourself, and taking the entire cluster to a speedo repair shop. Now, they will solder the PCB, and test all guages. They will want to charge you for calibration, but I would decline to save the money. Some shops will charge a flat fee of $120 to do a repair and test, others will just do a solder reflow and test for less money. This is what most independant shops do to make this repair.

I have repaired many K car tachs using the above technique.

Good Luck,

Bill Dave Gower wrote:

Reply to
billccm

The cluster is easy to remove on this model. The garnish panel under the steering column needs to be removed, and then the column lowered to facilitate removing the cluster. There are two nuts that you loosen to lower the column. If I remember correctly, there are only two connectors for the cluster, after the screws are removed.

If you have the column mounted gear selector, the indicator cable should be disconnected before lowering the column too far. Otherwise, it will get stretched and the gear indicator will be mis-aligned.

I believe that the air bag can be disabled by disconnecting the battery for five minutes before starting work.

-KM

Reply to
kmatheson

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