factory SW Tachometer 1967

[69Ford]

Looking at buying an NOS Tachometer for the f500 instrament cluster. Has anybody hooked one of these up in a F100. would not have a clue on how to do it or if it is feasable or what other parts I would need. My truck is a 69 360, C6 Tranny.
Thanks.

[Ranchero50]

Factory tachs were usually cable fed in the bigger trucks.

Otherwise it shouldn't be an issue unless it's a Ford 2 wire tach that feeds threw the +12 to the coil

[Calfdemon]

Yeah, the original tachs were all cable fed from the bigger trucks. The f100-F350 trucks did not come with a tach. If you want to run one of the original tachs, then you need to have it upgraded to new electronics and there are a few companies that will swap out all the innards for you and do this.

We did this exact thing for the tach for CNM67's truck. We took an old original ford tach and had it modernized so he could run it on his 390 in the F600 dash we put in it. It came out VERY nice and works well.

I have had this done several times with different vehicles and always use Redline Gauge works. They are not cheap, but they do it right: http://www.redlinegaugeworks.com/

Anyway, the swap is $200 if all you are doing is the innards. If you need them to re-do the face art, then that costs a bit more. But if you get a good looking gauge that might just need the needle painted, they will do that for nothing extra. So if you ship them your tach and $200, you will get an original old tach that will work on your truck.

[BobbyFord]

Don't those tachometers quit at 4,000 RPMs?

[Calfdemon]

Yeah, they usually do. It wouldn't do much good in a race truck like yours, but for normal around town driving, the FE motors don't go over 4000 too often.

[69Ford]

Thanks for the information everybody. Yes the tach only goes to 4000 rpm's. I just want to use it for looks since my truck is an automatic anyway. But I would like it to work also. Might buy and send it to the company in the post above
and have it converted to electronic. The tach i'm looking at is a NOS in box. It does bother me a little bit to send an NOS part to be altered.

[Calfdemon]

If it makes you feel any better, the one we did was also NOS. But it works and looks GREAT in his truck. So the $200 was worth it to us. Ill see if CNM67 can post a picture of his dash in this thread...

[CNM67]

Here ya go

[69Ford]

Thanks for the pics. It looks great. I know they made a vacuum guage for the other side. Does anybody know if they might have put a clock or air pressure guage in that side. I would like to make it look as stock as possible with everything
working. Just thinking about how much time and money I'm putting into one cluster. All new NOS gauges, Homemade wiring harness so it is plug and play same as original bezel, All LED's, Electronic flasher and new paint. My cluster
will be worth more than the truck.

[BobbyFord]

That looks good, Caleb.

[69Ford]

Here's some pics. I put this cluster together once and posted pictures but I did not like the paint so took it back apart and painted the argent silver already scratched the bottom part will repaint. Did not paint the black circles yet. If I put
in the factory tach and hopefully a clock in the left side I will not have to.

[CNM67]

Thanks Bobby!
Here's a pic of Caalfdemon's with aftermarket gauges and clock

[Calfdemon]

Thanks for the pics. It looks great. I know they made a vacuum guage for the other side. Does anybody know if they might have put a clock or air pressure guage in that side. I would like to make it look as stock as possible with everything
working. Just thinking about how much time and money I'm putting into one cluster. All new NOS gauges, Homemade wiring harness so it is plug and play same as original bezel, All LED's, Electronic flasher and new paint. My cluster
will be worth more than the truck.

I do believe there was some sort of air pressure gauge made for the bigger trucks, but there was not a clock option for our era of trucks. Maybe you could find one that would match out of a Ford car from the same era... maybe the Mustang, Fairlane, Galaxie, etc... That would be your best bet for a clock. I put a clock in my truck, but mine is an aftermarket that matches the rest of the aftermarket gauges I installed (Auto Meter Old Tyme Black) which I used to go with the stock F600 Speedo I have.

[69Ford]

Thank's everyone for all the info. There are some nice looking dash clusters out there. Still deciding if I want to spend over $200 for a tach and cut a hole in my nice bezel. And how would I tell my Wife!!

[michael69]

Here is mine. The spot on the far right was not cut out. I cut it out and put an old tyme tach in my bezel. It matches the factory gauges great. The tach cost me $95.00