# Tachometer question, 95 f250 with 5.8



## Andy96XLT (Jan 1, 2009)

Hello all,
I just bought a 1995 F250 on Wednesday and along with a transmission gauge I want to add a tachometer to it. The question I have is does anyone know where I plug in the wires for the tach into the distributor? Also to further complicate things the owner put in an MSD cap and rotor (at least I don't think its a full MSD distributor) Can anyone give me some guidance? I can take a picture or two if that would help anyone. Thanks!


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## bucky6981 (Feb 13, 2005)

The pulse input for the tach needs to be hooked to the negative (-) side of the coil.


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## linckeil (Sep 18, 2007)

or you can get a 6 gauge cluster from a donor truck/bronco and put it in. its all plug and play. you can also swap your old speedo and odomenter to the 6 gauge cluster to maintain accurate mileage. its a lot cleaner than mounting an aftermarket tach. 

thats what i did on my 96 f350.


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## lukynskywyrd (Oct 8, 2010)

*just added one to my '86 chevy......*

on the distributor cap/coil there will be several wires plugged into the cap from underneath but accessible. To the left is the TACH terminal and it should say TACH on top, atleast the stock ones do. Use a female electrical connector to attach it to the blade contact underneath and attach it to the tach wire on the tach...usually the green wire. Black goes to ground, neg side of battery, red is a 12V ignition off the fuse box and white is usually the gauge lamp. Hope this helps.


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## affekonig (Aug 5, 2008)

Tap in to the wrong wire and you'll fry your new tach and give yourself a good jolt. Ask me how I know...


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## rofoth6 (Aug 24, 2008)

Okay I'll ask. How do you know?


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## affekonig (Aug 5, 2008)

Yeah, my comment was dumb. I hooked one up wrong on my 89 Bronco when I was about 17 and shocked the sh!t out of myself AND fried my brand new tach. I don't even know why I wanted one anyway, but I got another one and hooked it up right. Good thing too because it _never_ came in handy on my automatic truck.


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## Andy96XLT (Jan 1, 2009)

haha, thanks for the help everyone. I do have an automatic and i am aware I am not going to be using it but I still like to keep an eye on what the truck is revving at. I just ordered a small 52mm tach to go in a pod with my trans temp gauge. They should be here mid week hopefully.


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## Andy96XLT (Jan 1, 2009)

All,
I have the hood open right now and there is no specific spot for a tach on the MSD ignition. There is a wire harness that comes out of the MSD piece and connects to the car harness. The car harness's wires are red with a green stripe, black with a green stripe, orange, gray, and black. Does anyone know which one of these wires carries the tach signal? Thanks!!!


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## Andy96XLT (Jan 1, 2009)

nobody has put a tachometer on there 92-97 ford?? Or am i screwed because of the distributor?


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## bucky6981 (Feb 13, 2005)

Andy96XLT;1136697 said:


> nobody has put a tachometer on there 92-97 ford?? Or am i screwed because of the distributor?


You need to hook it to the negative side of the COIL,if you turn the key on without starting the truck there should be power to one terminal on the coil and not on the other. Hook it up to the non power side.


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## Andy96XLT (Jan 1, 2009)

Thank you, that helps tremendously!


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## Andy96XLT (Jan 1, 2009)

I am looking at the coil now and it only has the central line coming in from the distributor and than a wiring harness coming out of the bottom of it with 2 wires... are these the two terminals??


edit: just tested both of those wires with the ignition on and both of them had 12 volts going to them so i guess its not that... there are no other wires though??


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