1990 honda crx DX Auto with tach : )

Ok so I thought my Tach was totally shot and I was looking into either fixing it myself or taking parts out of a used one and swapping them..

I went out one morning about 3 weeks back and the needle was up past 8,000 pinned to max....

Today I go out for a ride to the store and it was nice out so I got on the throttle pretty hard I am guessing i was up around 4k easy.

When I did I noticed the Tach needle was moving in reverse from 8k to 7k working its way back but never got outside of the red mark.

So it is kinda working ... in reverse ..


Think i burnt out a resistor?

IF YOU HAVE WORKED ON THIS GENERATION TACH PLEASE RESPOND...

IF YOU HAVE WORKED ON CHEVYS AND HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH HONDA TACHS THEN I DONT THINK I NEED YOUR ADVICE.. SO POST YOUR ANSWER THEN WHEN I IGNORE IT WALK AWAY PLEASE.. thank you (note to chevy guy who got mad at me because he was telling me stuff he useto do to his chevy.. )

Also I found a pic of a 1990 honda gauge cluster
It looks like it is sealed...

If you have ever repaired or know what this problem could be I would really appreciate it.. and if anyone has a howto or pics of one that is open or a schematic or specs ... anything... heh...

They seem like swap-out only parts and its going to be difficult to find one for $50 and thats the max i could go including shipping..

I have had other car dash clusters apart.. I have fixed clocks and matched mileages on Odometers with an electric drill hooked to a spedo cable...

but i never took a honda one apart

AND my car is 22 years old now and the plastic is fragile .. so im a bit apprehensive of pulling a cluster to fix the Tach and ending up breaking the Speedometer ...

This is not a weekend toy its a daily driver .. that i don't acutally drive every day but it is primary transportation for me so..

ANYWAY

thanks guys


This is the Pic i found

Looks pretty sealed ...
and the odometer trip meter reset button thing
on the front that passes through the main lens of the dash cluster...
looks impossible to get off without cracking.

I would really like to fix this.. I would also really like to not break it so I have a car to drive : )

This is not my cluster its a pic from Ebay someone selling one that says its a 1990 DX .. probably SI though and I have DX Auto.

 

I would not take the cluster apart until you have a backup plan.. they are not sealed though, here is a writeup whose pictures have died, about how to do it. https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/how-setting-your-odometer-its-proper-mileage-1070216/

Are there any CEL codes?

Before doing anything, i would investigate if there is a CEL, and fix that. If there are no CELs, i would pick up an extra cluster and swap it in.

Incidentally, i MAY have a auto w/ tach cluster out of a 90+ wagovan sitting in my collection, collecting dust that i could part ways with for $50.. but i may have already sold it.

As that writeup says above, there are very delicate springs in the dash clusters, that when they break can cause crazy reading problems, so i would guess the cluster went bad somehow.. If you are familiar with the internal workings, then open it up an have a look around.

 

sanimalp that sounds like a horror story...

I thought it would be pretty nasty.. the thread sounds like it is either you get lucky or you trash it...

If i was rolling the odometer on a car that does not have a million mile marker basically all the digital ones..

I would roll it with a Drill .. i have done it before and it takes a while but you just let it run

Wonder if i could swap the whole tach..

or if maybe a wire is loose or if a sensor is giving the tach the wrong reading.

Gonna have to find a schematic

 

The tach signal is derived from the ignitor (a blue wire out of the distrib), so i would expect that you would be having missfires and/or a cel related to the tach if that signal was messed up. My first try would be swapping the whole cluster assembly for another cluster to see what you get.

I do happen to have a cluster with a tach, but it is a model with a cruise control light out of a 4 door which is substantially less common than one without. I would be willing to let it go for $100 shipped if you are interested.. Should be plug and play and certainly would help diagnostically.