yesterday i decided to put in my tach, i got it mounted, ran the green wire to the blue diagnostic test wire that all the other threads said to run it 2, and i ran the power and ground to my cigarette lighter. but at the moment i didnt feel like running the light wire, so i jus decided to wait on it. but of course my luck the tach wouldnt turn on, so i ran the wire to my dimmer switch and still wouldnt turn on, so i just unplugged the light wire and left the rest all hooked up. but this mornin i came out and got into my car and when i turned on my lights my tach came on 2....so now im really confused, like it worked and all, but no light on it cus its not plugged up. so basically it only works when the lights are on, but its not hooked up to any sort of lights. did anybody kno wut the problem is? has anybody had this problem b4? any help would be greatly appreciated.
tach problem
- Thread starter coops92hatch
- Start date
I said only thing you wired right was to the lighting, Pull out all of th wires, and run them one by one to the correct spots, take your time and do it right
*EDIT*
Found A Site for you to look at for the install.
Link
*FROM THE SITE*
Remove the gauge cluster hood and put it aside where it won't get scratched. Run the tach's wire through an open area in the gauge cluster to the fuse box. Now here is where my install differed from Autometer's instructions. Autometer says to run the tach wire through the firewall to the coil. I knew this wasn't necessary. Even though my car didn't come with a tach, Honda's wiring harness was the same for all the models, so the tach wire was still there. Looking at the Helm manual, it indicated the blue wire that was the tach pick up. Tug at the blue wire gently so that you will have room to get a crimp splicer around it. Crimp the Autometer's tach lead to the blue wire. The instructions also said to run the ground wire through the firewall to a good engine ground, but a little playing with the multi-meter and I found a screw close by to use as the ground. Ground the black wire using a ring terminal.
For the switched power wire, find a wire that only comes on with the ignition. I made the mistake of choosing an accessory wire and quickly found it stupid to have the tach powered up every time I was just listening to the stereo. An easy "ignition only" choice is the windshield wiper circuit. To find it, I looked in my Helm manual in the wiper section. A black wire with a yellow stripe exiting the fuse box should get voltage only when the ignition switch is on. Seemed simply, but under the dash I saw three black and yellow wires. To locate the correct wire, I tested each one for voltage with the meter, until I found the one that switched on and off with the ignition. Only took a couple minutes. To verify I actually had the wiper wire, I pulled the wiper fuse and the voltage was cut off. So I have to remember if I ever blow a wiper fuse, my tach won't work. I crimped the tach's red wire to this wire.
The 2302 has backlighting so you can see it at night. The instructions said to connect it to a wire that gets voltage when the lights are switched on. This is fine, except that the tach will come on full bright, regardless of your dimmer setting. Again, using the Helm manual, I looked up the dimmer circuit's wires. I could see two wires that control the dimmer lights voltage/brightness (its basically a voltage divider circuit). I crimped to the red one, and had interesting results. The tach dims opposite the dash lights. I found this to be pretty freakin cool. When I run the dash lights at full bright the tach is very dim and since its all black, you can't even see it. Totally stealth when you cruizing around at night looking for prey, but the shift light is always full bright when you hit your redline. And with the dash lights on full dim, the tach is full bright, which is very intimidating. When the $$$ is on the line you don't need those other gauges bothering you anyway. It was easy to find a setting in between where the tach and dash lights were balanced. One of these days I will try the other wire to see if the tach dims conventionally, just for this article, but I'll still leave it reversed.
Now that all the wires are connected, go ahead and turn the ignition on to make sure the tach powers up. The 2302 spins the needle to your selected redline and turns on the shift light when powered it up without the car running. Turn on the lights to make sure the backlight is working. Start the car. Does the tach work? If not, perhaps you grabbed the wrong blue wire. Check your wiring carefully. If you have to, carefully run a long wire from the coil or distributor on outside of the car, through the window, to the tach. If this works, then maybe you have to run the wire through the firewall. The tach includes a rubber grommet for this purpose.
If everything works, turn off the ignition. Run the bundled wires through the hood carefully, so you don't pinch them, and put the gauge cluster hood back on. Attach the mounting bracket.. Securely attach the tach to the bracket. Start the car and double check that it still works. Your done!
*EDIT*
Found A Site for you to look at for the install.
Link
*FROM THE SITE*
Remove the gauge cluster hood and put it aside where it won't get scratched. Run the tach's wire through an open area in the gauge cluster to the fuse box. Now here is where my install differed from Autometer's instructions. Autometer says to run the tach wire through the firewall to the coil. I knew this wasn't necessary. Even though my car didn't come with a tach, Honda's wiring harness was the same for all the models, so the tach wire was still there. Looking at the Helm manual, it indicated the blue wire that was the tach pick up. Tug at the blue wire gently so that you will have room to get a crimp splicer around it. Crimp the Autometer's tach lead to the blue wire. The instructions also said to run the ground wire through the firewall to a good engine ground, but a little playing with the multi-meter and I found a screw close by to use as the ground. Ground the black wire using a ring terminal.
For the switched power wire, find a wire that only comes on with the ignition. I made the mistake of choosing an accessory wire and quickly found it stupid to have the tach powered up every time I was just listening to the stereo. An easy "ignition only" choice is the windshield wiper circuit. To find it, I looked in my Helm manual in the wiper section. A black wire with a yellow stripe exiting the fuse box should get voltage only when the ignition switch is on. Seemed simply, but under the dash I saw three black and yellow wires. To locate the correct wire, I tested each one for voltage with the meter, until I found the one that switched on and off with the ignition. Only took a couple minutes. To verify I actually had the wiper wire, I pulled the wiper fuse and the voltage was cut off. So I have to remember if I ever blow a wiper fuse, my tach won't work. I crimped the tach's red wire to this wire.
The 2302 has backlighting so you can see it at night. The instructions said to connect it to a wire that gets voltage when the lights are switched on. This is fine, except that the tach will come on full bright, regardless of your dimmer setting. Again, using the Helm manual, I looked up the dimmer circuit's wires. I could see two wires that control the dimmer lights voltage/brightness (its basically a voltage divider circuit). I crimped to the red one, and had interesting results. The tach dims opposite the dash lights. I found this to be pretty freakin cool. When I run the dash lights at full bright the tach is very dim and since its all black, you can't even see it. Totally stealth when you cruizing around at night looking for prey, but the shift light is always full bright when you hit your redline. And with the dash lights on full dim, the tach is full bright, which is very intimidating. When the $$$ is on the line you don't need those other gauges bothering you anyway. It was easy to find a setting in between where the tach and dash lights were balanced. One of these days I will try the other wire to see if the tach dims conventionally, just for this article, but I'll still leave it reversed.
Now that all the wires are connected, go ahead and turn the ignition on to make sure the tach powers up. The 2302 spins the needle to your selected redline and turns on the shift light when powered it up without the car running. Turn on the lights to make sure the backlight is working. Start the car. Does the tach work? If not, perhaps you grabbed the wrong blue wire. Check your wiring carefully. If you have to, carefully run a long wire from the coil or distributor on outside of the car, through the window, to the tach. If this works, then maybe you have to run the wire through the firewall. The tach includes a rubber grommet for this purpose.
If everything works, turn off the ignition. Run the bundled wires through the hood carefully, so you don't pinch them, and put the gauge cluster hood back on. Attach the mounting bracket.. Securely attach the tach to the bracket. Start the car and double check that it still works. Your done!
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hey thanks guys, i will check all my wires when i get home from school, and i think i will run the power and ground wires to my ignition instead of the cigarette lighter. ill let ya kno how it works out
but i was thinking if worse comes to worse that i could just do that UK style running lights trick so i can keep my running lights on all the time while driving and the running lights wont stay on, because the tach comes on with just the running lights 2. but does anybody kno if that might b illegal in maryland? like would only having the corners as turn signals be considered illegal?