Tyler DM

I’m trying to wire in my tach and I’m sure y’all get this a lot or it gets asked a lot but I’ve watch some videos of YouTube got some advice from here but nothing seems to be working I have power to the tach good ground just no actual tach signal I hooked it up to the little pill looking thing under the hood on driver side where I have seen it said a lot or done a lot but it’s not working any help would be great thanks!!!

muellersfan

Civc year and trim?

Tyler DM

95 and I believe it’s the dx it’s the 4 door sedan

cp_auto12

How many wires coming off the back? Did you go wire color to color because I know sometimes the same color wire does something different for am parts, Double check your tach wire diagram and match it up with correct wire from the ecu

Tyler DM

How do I know which wire to connect to from the ecu? And off the tach I got it has
red-power to tach
white-power to tach light
black-ground
Green-signal to tach
when I have the car running the needle on the tach I installed goes to zero with car off it’s below zero so I’ve read that means I got good power just not getting tach signal

muellersfan

Tachometer signal comes from the blue wire attached to the igniter unit inside the distributor.

Tyler DM

Okay there’s no other place I can grab it from? Like I said I’ve seen people get it from the little pill on the drivers side up near the clutch reservoir it’s has one blue wire attached to it and that’s where I’ve got it connected but doesn’t read anything.

muellersfan

Pull out the multimeter.

Does the blue wire in the tach test connector and the igniter unit have continuity with the cluster tachometer pin?

If so, the igniter unit may be bad.

Does the blue wire attached to the igniter unit have continuity with body ground?

If so, the blue wire is shorted to ground.

Tyler DM

Okay I’ll test all that tomorrow thanks for all the help I’ll be in touch if that does or doesn’t solve the problem..

JRCivic1

Is the tach new ??? How do you prepare it for a 4-cylinder signal operation ??? Are there wire loops that need to be cut or dip switches that need to be set/properly connected ??? What do the installation instructions say ??? Connecting a test wire from the green wire directly to the blue wire at the distributor on the two-wire plug will diagnose the possibility that the test tach lead that you are trying to use may not be connected.

NVturbo

OP, it would have been cheaper to get a used gauge cluster (from a LX or EX model) instead of a hideous aftermarket tach.

Tyler DM

I’m getting rid of the cluster it’s not a daily I’m build a mini stock 4 cylinder class car and wanted the rpm and oil pressure gauge and violent temp gauge but can’t get the tach to work and the one on the original cluster doesn’t either

Tyler DM

Okay so I should connect it to the 2 wire plug at the distributor it has a blue and a black with yellow stripe wires?? Connect it to the blue?and yes it is brand new

Tyler DM

Also if the tach test lead isn’t connected where should it be connected?

JRCivic1

Without a TON of explanation... it should ultimately connect to the blue wire in the 2-wire plug at the distributor. If you have removed the factory instrument cluster OR removed some wiring under the dash, you may have severed the connection between the blue tach wire at the distributor and the blue/silver test lead over near the driver's side shock tower.

Tyler DM

Okay I’ll try that and see what happened and yes the entire car is gutted but no wire that I know have has been removed but thanks for all the help like I said I’ll try the 2 wire plug and see what happens

Tyler DM

Okay so I’ve tried the blue wire on the two wire plug on the distributor and still nothing think it could be a faulty tach even though it’s 3 days old

muellersfan

These^^ are the tests that will solve the problem. Everything else I'm hearing in this thread is just guessing rather than unbiased diagnostic tests, which is the thinking man's approach to solving problems.

Pull out the multimeter and get to work if you want to understand how logical and methodical progress is made.

Tyler DM

If the igniter unit is bad would the car not run though? Or run like crap? That’s just me wondering and think that if something inside the distributor is bad you know? Still a problem that I can’t figure out to get the tach to work