retro tach source?

[Gundy]

My '60 Sprite has an after market tach. Works great but....
Does anyone know a source for an electric tach that has the
original Smith's face? Somebody surely has stuck a Smith's dial on a modern tach. I realize I may have to use a spot
"off the chart" for redline but I'd love to get the stock look back.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Frank C. pulls the guts out of a electronic tachand inserts them into the mechanical tach housing retaining the old faceplace. It involves removing the tach needle. Here is some info I saved that I believe he authored.

Electric Tachometer Face Swap for Bugeye
BUGEYE TACHOMETER CONVERSION

Many Bugeye owners are confronted with the problem of sorting out a tach drive once they have converted either to an alternator or discover that they cannot find a mechanical tach drive at a reasonable price. Frank Clarici offers a great piece of advice on how to convert an electronic tack over to negative ground. I have taken his advice one step further. Many Bugeye owners do not want to give up the stock look of the original gauges, so I have outlined here how to solve the tach drive as well as the stock looking gauges problem.

You will need:
• original Bugeye tach
• tach from a Mk3 Sprite or Mk2 Midget (this is an electric tach, the same diameter as the Bugeye)
• Frank Clarici instructions on how to convert to negative ground (if your car is negative ground)
• Small standard screwdriver
• touch up paint (optional)
1 Hour labor Procedure:
• Remove the front chrome ring, glass and seals from both tachometers by twisting the ring. The rubber seal on them may need to be replaced.
• Very carefully remove the RPM indicator needle from each of the tachs by pulling straight off the post.
• Using a small screwdriver remove the 2 small screws that hold the face plate of each tach.
• The screw spacing is different for the faceplates, lay the Mk3 faceplate over the Bugeye face plate and using a small drill bit, drill the 2 holes in the proper location. Be very careful how much pressure you put on the faceplates as they are very soft and can be deformed.
• (OPTIONAL) Use super glue to affix a thin patch to the backside of the faceplate or fill the hole with epoxy, to cosmetically close and paint the old screw holes in the Bugeye faceplate.
• Install the Bugeye faceplate and RPM needle onto the electronic tachometer.
• Reinstall the tach chrome ring and glass with new rubber seal if needed.
• Install reconfigured tach into car dash and do electrical hook up. You will connect a 12 volt line to the spade connector on the rear, the case is grounded and a length of wire will go from the coil, loop around the sensor pickup on the rear of the tach, and back to the points terminal on the distributor.

 

[Gundy]

Thanks. Now I'm on a search for an original Mk1 tach
and a Mk3 one as well.
On to e-bay it seems.
I really appreciate the tip and instructions. My Sprite is negative ground and uses an alternator already so this sounds
like just the ticket. Cheers!

 

[Gundy]

I scored a Mk1 tach! It should be here by the weekend.
I can't wait to see if I can use it per instructions to get
that stock look back to the dash.

 

[TexasSprite]

I'm starting the same project. I've got a good Mk1 tach face that I am going to try to transplant onto an electronic tach from a later year car. No telling how well 40 year old electronics are going to work, so it might be necessary to transplant the guts of a modern tach into the bugeye tach shell. Here is an interesting reference on how to do this:

Smiths and Jaeger Tachometer Conversion

 

[58Custom]

I did this DIY conversion to an electric Smiths unit. Worked great.

https://www.nonlintec.com/sprite/Sprite_Electronic_Tach.pdf

 

[Gundy]

Wow.....two great articles. I've printed both for
future reference. Big ol thanks are in order.

Edit: I've read the articles and now my head hurts. :wink:

 

[Gundy]

Well....after taking some aspirin the headache is gone. :wink:
I've found a donor tach which is a 4 inch. I may just replace the bezel edge with a chrome one from a Mk1 tach and paint the
needle white. I like it is a 8k sweep as my little banger loves to go past 6k.
It's a VDO model #333160
In any event it's a WHOLE lot better than that thing in there now that sticks out of my dash and has shift lights and gee bobs on it.

 

[Gundy]

Pic of the current abomination. It just bugs me. Glows all orange at night and looks like something from a drag racer.
It sticks about 3 inches out of the dash too.

 

[dklawson]

So the plan is to transplant a different bezel onto the VDO... or is it to move the VDO movement into the Smiths case? How close is the VDO case size to the Smiths?

If you're looking for a home for that shift-light tach when you remove it, send me a PM. I may have a (non LBC) need for a shift light tach.

 

[jvandyke]

Pic of the current abomination. It just bugs me.

Yuck, that would bug me too!

 

[Gundy]

So the plan is to transplant a different bezel onto the VDO... or is it to move the VDO movement into the Smiths case? How close is the VDO case size to the Smiths?

If you're looking for a home for that shift-light tach when you remove it, send me a PM. I may have a (non LBC) need for a shift light tach.

Notice a chrome trim ring is still there from the old Mk1 tach
and the Auto Meter tach is butted up to this ring. On examination it appears the gutted case of the original tach is still there. This leads me to think I may be able to leave the VDO intact and affix the ring to the VDO. It will not be so
original but should be a heck of a lot neater than current affairs. I'm hoping the VDO,case and all, will slide in
when I remove the old Mk1 case.
The VDO was ordered from Summit Racing and should be here early
next week. I'll know more about how it fits into the hole then.
It's a 4 inch tach so it should be pretty close to a slide in deal. We shall see. The proof is in da pudding as they say.

You have dibs on the old unit. I'll pm you for details , address etc, when I'm finished with the surgery. This
organ of the bug will not see the knife, just a removal.

Now I have a Mk1 tach in reserve I bought from e-bay too. :wink:

 

[dklawson]

I was hesitant to bring this to your attention because I wasn't sure how far you wanted to go with your conversion. I wrote a PDF on tach swaps. A copy of it was added to this board's "Technical Wiki" section. You can see examples of what I've done by following the link here:
https://www.britishcarforum.com/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Smiths+and+Jaeger+Tachometer+Conversion

 

[Gundy]

Wow Doug. Again I must say...I'm in over my head. What
a through and well thought out piece. Very informative.
I printed it for future reference as well.
My plan right now is to just stick in the VDO with a Mk1 trim ring attached to the face. Heck you even helped me with the removal of the trim ring operation.
I don't know. When the Mk1 tach gets here and the VDO I can do some measurements and eyeball the whole situation and will decide which way to go then.
Your article sure has given me reason to re-think my "current" plans. I'll post when I've come to a definitive plan.
Auto Meter "drag" tach has still gotta go. So your "dibs"
are still valid for the abomination.
Thanks!

 

[dklawson]

When you get into this further and have questions don't hesitate to contact me regardless of which direction you take.

 

[Gundy]

I'll definately pick your brain! The Mk1 tach arrived today.
The chrome rim, glass and face look perfect! I expect the VDO
any day now. It has been shipped already. The chrome ring was
super easy to remove on the Mk1. Per your instructions. :wink:
The VDO instruction pdf on line seems to suggest it has an adjustable feature so I'm hoping I can get it to fit and work
in the Mk1 pot.That would be SWEET.
I'll know more when the VDO arrives.
instruction pdf https://store.summitracing.com/part...815748+4294908400+4294819389+115&autoview=sku

 

[Gundy]

Well, I got the "Mk1" tach home today and noticed something odd.
The little indicator light at the bottom reads "high beam"
and is a red light. That got me thinking. The speedo in my
Mk1 has a little blue light at the bottom that reads "high beam".
Does this mean the tach I just bought is a MkII? I just thought
the little indicator would read "generator" on the tach and
high beam on the speedo. My friends Mk1 also has the blue
light for high beams on the speedo.(aftermarket tach)
It doesn't matter because I'll still use this old tach for the faceplate etc. but I was just curious.Did they flip these
indicators at some point and change the color?

 

[jlaird]

Should be red indicator for Bugeye, use a bit of red plastic from the ofice supply store.

It is spedo = ign.

Tac = headlights

 

[Gundy]

Well....the plot thickens. I went down to the Buggy Barn to have a look at my speedo. It is NOT a Mk1 speedo. It's a Smiths
and a 4 inch one. Same trim ring. The previous owner installed a speedo that had been reset to "0" with the new motor.
Look in the pic above at the thing. All black face with blue
indicator for high beams.Sooooo...no use installing the Mk1 face on the VDO. It will NOT match. Grrrrrrrr
New plan is to use VDO face/guts with chrome trim ring that
is currently on the car. I'll try to make it match (paint needle) speedo in the car.
Oh well, my friend is excited to use my Mk1 tach in his conversion so the old tach will still get re-cycled.
He has a MkIII tach for the guts.
Any idea what car used a black faced Smiths speedo?
LOL...maybe I can find a matching tach from that car to use.

Edit: here's a similar tach face with the blue light and same type but it reads to 140mph! It's from a big Healey 3000 BJ8.
So....I'm guessing this speedo in my Sprite must be from a big Healey of some type.

 

[Gundy]

Well...The VDO is installed. I just slipped it in and attached
a Mk1 chrome trim piece. I would have liked to paint the needle white but the VDO has an air balanced needle and I was afraid I'd screw it up with the weight of new paint.
The VDO is a PERFECT firt into the dash hole.
It's not a perfect match to stock but then again neither is the speedo.
I'm happy. It's way better than the one that was sticking 3 inches out of the dash and had all those gee bobs on it.
It turns out the Auto Meter one was not resting on a stock trim ring. They had cut a piece of aluminum for the tach to rest against so I had to use the trim ring from the old Mk1 tach I had bought.