79' tachometer repair help.......

The tach. on my 79' does not work. Can anyone suggest some trouble shooting tips? Should I forget the stock tach. and go to an aftermarket unit? Any experience shared would be appreciated.
thanks-

Check the electrical connections. A buddy of mine had a similar problem - I think there's a red wire (or maybe it was yellow) coming off the back of the distributor that was loose / corroded. As I recall, the wire goes to the firewall somewhere. This happend about 5 years ago and I don't recall exactly, but I can look at mine tonight to refresh my memory, if you'd like.

If that's it, its a simple fix.

Good luck !!

There should be a single wire coming out of your distributor and attached to that is the tach filter. My tach went out and I replaced the filter fixed the problem right away. Also I'm told the circuit boards can go bad aswell. The filter was around $20 good luck.

Before sending the tach off, do as the others already said. What I ran into once was the flexible printed circuit that attaches to rear of the cluster. If there's a break on that, your tach won't work.

When I got mine the tach wasn't working. I took the dash apart and removed the circuit board. It had a burned section which had already been jumpered with a piece of wire, which was burned again. A friend told me to replace the filter as this was probably causing the burn outs. I picked up a filter at the wreckers for $5 (any G.M. will do), replaced the wire again and haven't had any trouble since.
Good luck
Phil

Thanks for all of the advise on fixing the tach.- I located the tach. filter. I took the lead from the firewall and plugged it directly to the distributor bypassing the filter. (The tach. works!)
However, the tach needle is somewhat "bouncy" and does not operate correctly. I was told by zip corvette center that this is due to the disconnection of the filter , but there is no replacemnet filter available. any ideas/suggestions? Thanks again!

Go to the junkyard. The filter from a 78-86 Cutlass/Monte/Regal/GP or a 82-92 Camaro should work.

Your Tach won't quit bouncing till you put a working Filter back in the line. You can get a new filter for $20 plus shipping at the address below.

www.execpc.com/~rodney1/corvette