Tach stopped working

The tachometer went out yesterday for the second time this month. First time I noticed it was a few weeks ago and it was off for an hour or so then came back on. Now it’s steady off. Searching around, some other lost the tach with the speedo and other gauges. All my gauges work fine except for the tach. Anyone else experience this same issue? Thanks.

 

I have the same truck basically. Half of the indicators on my dash don't work. My fuel gauge works when the weather is warm. Unfortunately they don't make new gauge clusters, so your at the mercy of someone else's used stuff if you replace it.

Since you have a manual, you probably want that to work, I'd imagine. I wonder if anyone here has succeeded at fixing one.

 

I'm pretty sure @Tundra2 just complained about this on his truck and mentioned something about the tailshaft gear/sensor being the cause, he just hadn't gotten around to it. I don't think it was his first time dealing with it.

 

It’s funny you mention weather, because it’s coincidentally been happening on the 3 coldest days we’ve had so far. Not looking forward to January at this point! Lol. If cold weather related, then I was thinking maybe it’s mechanical and maybe sticking. I had the cluster out a few weeks ago to swap out the bulbs to LEDs. Maybe I’ll have to pull it back out and take it apart.

 

Think his was just speedo and not tach but I could be wrong.

This also reminded me that I don't remember hearing back from the guy that was going to try and swap in a v8 cluster to his v6. Need to look for that thread again.

 

Cold weather = metals contract.

Could be something as stupid/simple as a contact/connector you have isn't properly seated, or needs some dielectric grease.

 

Speedo here, tach is fine. The speed sensor on the transmission is out. It's one bolt

I monitor road speed with engine speed by ear

 

Haha. I have the opposite problem. I'm shifting gears by ear. Any ideas what's up with my tach?

 

No clue, there's a field service manual around here somewhere, could be something as stupid as a ground wire not making good ground

 

So I pulled the cluster out today and took resistance readings of the tach and they were within the service manual’s range. I l pulled the clear cover off exposing the front of the tach and checked the needle for sticking and it was smooth. The circuit board solders were a little dirty from age and original flux, so I cleaned them up, cleaned the connections where the plugs contact with alcohol and put everything back together, connected the battery, and the tach works. Problem is I don’t know what the issue was. Maybe when I swapped out the new LED bulbs in the back of the cluster, the connectors came loose somehow? It didn’t look that way when I separated them today. Or maybe from cleaning the connections? Or could it be just disconnecting the battery? Regardless, I wanted to share this and hopefully it stays working, even though I’m not confident it’s a true fix.

 

I've read replies on here saying the metal contacts on the bulb retainers can really gouge out the traces on the circuit when installed. But that's my only guess.

 

Yeah first guess is that something happened when I had taken the cluster out to swap out bulbs. Even though I was super anal and careful when I had done it and made sure everything was snapped together firmly, they must have either not made solid connection or caused something to come loose. I'm not a big fan of that floppy circuit board tabs that mate up with the connectors.

 

That was me, LOL. It was a success. Now I'm here because mine stopped working after having my gauge cluster out to put LEDs in. Definitely a contact issue and will have to thoroughly inspect it