The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Tachometer questions

I would like to add a tach to my truck and I'm doing a little research first. Ole Caroline (as the kids have named her) is a 1951 3100 running a 1955 powerglide 235 with the column mounted 3 speed tranny and the stock 6 volt electrical system. I've never installed a tach before. Apparently I'll need a 6 volt/6 cylinder sending unit and a 6 volt tach? Also what tachometer rpm range would work best for this engine? Is a 5K tach high enough or should I look for something with a higher rpm guage. I would like to use an old or NOS tach so I will problably have to piece together the tach/sender and wire set.

Your stock 235 will never see 4K, at cruise it will probable be in the 2800 to 3200 rpm
range.
You can use a small voltage booster cube to power a several 12v device. For instance, a
tach, stereo, cell phone, etc., from your 6v system. Most of your Farm supplies like Farm
& Fleet and auto accessories suppliers such as Jegs, Summit, online eBay stores sell an
inexpensive 12v Sunpro tach for about $25-$35 dollars. I would suggest the larger face,
which is much easier to read while bouncing around in a ‘Bolt.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks Denny! As always great info. Will I need a tach transmitter? What do you hook up to...the distributor?

try here. http://www.westach.com/ i got one that is six volt 0-3500rpm in 100 rpm increments with a 3" face and a bullet case. doesnt matter if its pos. or neg. ground. nothing fancy to install, just hook one wire to your coil and the other one to ground and your good to go. if you want to hook up the light you can do that too. i mounted it to the steering column and have had it going on three years.

I went with a westach as well, he will make it read any RPM you want. It works just fine.

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback.