Again don't trust work you cannot verify yourself. Especially things with Brakes or Suspension. Clutch or Brake MAsters if they have been without fluid likely have rusted bores.
And here is how to fix the Tach issue originally written by "The Godfather" of Sprites - Frank Clarici, including his sarcastic comments disclaimer.
Frank Clarici
Tachometer Conversion, Positive to Negative Ground
Items needed: soldering iron & solder, electric tape or heat shrink tube
- Remove the tachometer from the dash, take it to a clean work site, on the seat of the car is not the place to work on the inside of your tach.
- Remove the chrome bezel, glass lens, and inner black rim.
- Remove the 2 screws from the back of the tach, these hold the mechanism to the housing.
- Holding the tach by its face with the ignition light at 3 o'clock ( red line straight up ) locate the resistor which is soldered to the spade terminal that comes out the back. Locate the post imediatly to the resistors left, these must be reversed. Unsolder the resistor from the spade terminal, unsolder the green wire from the left post, solder the green wire to the spade terminal, solder the resistor to the left post.
- Reassemble the tach into its housing replace rim, clean the lens, re-fit lens and chrome bezel.
- Back in the car, you will have a white wire that makes a loop out of the harness and around a plastic terminal on the back of the tach, this loop must be reversed. Mark the wire 2 inches from each side of the loop, cut each side and switch the wire (reverse the loop) solder the connections and tape or shrink tube the bare wire.
- Mark the tach on the outside of the housing NEGATIVE GROUND.
- Install the tach in the dash, hook up the loop and green wire and be sure the housing is properly grounded.
If you do NOT agree with these ideas, if you are "mechanically challenged" or are just down right "stupid" I suggest you purchase New parts from a supplier of your choice and have a local shop do this work for you.
Frank Clarici
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.
It is that easy, drop me a line if you need more information,
Bob Magnotti
bob@itgonline.com