///BHRpowered Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 So after an excellent find and fast shipping from task I came to be the owner of s set of gauges bearing the Miller-Cycle Engine tach. There were some slight differences in the clusters, but I have been present with 2 problems, 1 of which might require me to abandon the project. First and foremost is the coloring, I didn't take any before pics under light so this was the only comparison pic I could find on my computer with the LED's, its a much darker red, where as the MCE tach seems to have been using a bulb running 2 hot and part of the film is gone. Daytime its fine, at night it seems alittle orane, but not as bad as the pic. More troubling is the tach operation itself, I used the exact method used by many before of removing the needles with pillars and never prying, the pin is straight and true but it doesn't spin as freely by hand, more troubling is that in the pic its reading around 500rpms....yet the car is not running, and the needle won't back drop down. Upon taking apart the old tach I found its basically a conductor, and I assume through very careful voltage regulation it applies a current that pulls/holds the needle at a certain point, but I can't figure out exactly how, and if so, does it pull it back down, because its not looking good. Is there a way to calibrate the gauges? On most cars when you plug in the cluster it goes and then comes back to stop, didn't do that on mine. If I can never get the rpm's below that point, let alone if they go up when driving and don't drop back down...well thats a problem. I will admit the gauges look badass though. [attachmentid=1118][attachmentid=1122] [attachmentid=1120][attachmentid=1121] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted January 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 oh, and before anyone suggests it, NO I'm not going to start it up and drive it around to see, that would be stupid, especially considering weather, road conditions, time of year, and that I would have to prep all over again for storage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuto Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 oh, and before anyone suggests it, NO I'm not going to start it up and drive it around to see, that would be stupid, especially considering weather, road conditions, time of year, and that I would have to prep all over again for storage. Coward... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveSter Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 You should have tried to not touch the needles. So wait what you did is got only the tach and transfered it onto your own cluster? Try pulling off the needle and setting it to 0 rpm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aamerh Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 hmm all I can think of would be steve's idea... assuming that it is reading 500 above what it should be reading at other times. Only way to be sure would be to start though :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 doesn't work like that.. I pulled it out when it was at rest and but it back on at rest as well but the needles are free, if you lift them up they'll just fall back down, now the tach still falls but not all the way. Also, cuto, seriously cut out the driving shit because its getting old, I just recently posted the much more deeper reasons for it and on the surface, it would take atleast an hour to re-prep it for winter storage, and thats after I took it out of the capsule and exposed to elements, which given the weather and salt would cost me another 8-10 hours of cleaning. Now, something else interesting that makes me think its a calibration issue. if I turn the key to run but not start the tach jumps up, and holds at around 2k and the CEL is on. and yes, in retrospec I should have just taken the whole damn cluster apart and moved as a unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveSter Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Are you using your original cluster or are you swapping it completely? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 everything originally mine except tach cover plate. I could not use the other one since its on kph, and mileage is higher...and some idiot had cleaned the plastic with something other then microfiber so you could see swirls and marks in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveSter Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 So how did you manage to fuck up the position of the needle on your cluster? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 I didn't, I pulled it out, and put it back in, both at rest against the needle, removing it did something, and I don't know what. I'm not 100% sure how it even works, the needle itseld has a small counter weight so its balanced, connected to a straight pin which sits inside a plastic...thing, which is solid in place, that is wrapped with copper coil, so it clearly is electromagnetic in someway, but it shouldn't hold the needle, and when I put power to the gauges it moves it up...so I'm at a loss, will have to drive it and see how it works. for future reference, I did the EXACT same thing with the speedo in order to ship lat the kph cover if he wants it, put the needle back in the same way and its perfectly fine, turns smoothly, falls back to 0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Task514 Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 damn... so how did you swap the tachs exactly? which instruction was it? did you transfer the actual rpm tach only or just the face plate? did you touch the needle? turned it by hand? did the needle moved smoothly or it was like steppings. does the needle goes back to zero or stays where you leave it? if the needle goes back to zero when you leave it, your rpm tach is analog. if it moves in stepping and stays where you leave it, your tach is digital. because the needle is very fragile and a precise instrument, you shouldn't touch it at all. As far as I know, only digital tachs have reseting feature. ie, once turned on, the needle does a full range swipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 no, I'v spin the needle all the way around, I'v done this on multiply cars, including my millenia when I had the cover off before doing leds, never a problem, just don't do it with power going to it. I just pulled the needles off, unscrewed the plates and swapped, it was only then that I saw I could have taken it all out as a unit and swapped, which I wish I had done. needle has some resistance compared to speedo, but I pulled speedo off as well, and it falls back to zero as it should. I always thought that when power was applied being at stop told the thing where it was and it knew how far to go. I'll see what happens when I drive the car though, there has to be something that pulls it back down though, I mean otherwise when you want to say 5500rpms it would just fall back down. I do know your never suppose to move the fuel gauge needle on the millenia for some reason which I did not.. I think I'm going to try and drive it (in march) with the cover off, and make sure the needle is resting at 0 when the car is started. even if I got a new tach, I don't know how I could transfer the plate without removing the needle. The chances of finding another MCE tach are pretty much zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveSter Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 You messed it up... Your not suppose to touch any of the needles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troutman Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 The clear plastic front is relatively inexpensive to buy new from Mazda and straightforward to swap. Not that that's much use now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Task514 Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 no, I'v spin the needle all the way around, I'v done this on multiply cars, including my millenia when I had the cover off before doing leds, never a problem, just don't do it with power going to it. I just pulled the needles off, unscrewed the plates and swapped, it was only then that I saw I could have taken it all out as a unit and swapped, which I wish I had done. needle has some resistance compared to speedo, but I pulled speedo off as well, and it falls back to zero as it should. I always thought that when power was applied being at stop told the thing where it was and it knew how far to go. I'll see what happens when I drive the car though, there has to be something that pulls it back down though, I mean otherwise when you want to say 5500rpms it would just fall back down. I do know your never suppose to move the fuel gauge needle on the millenia for some reason which I did not.. I think I'm going to try and drive it (in march) with the cover off, and make sure the needle is resting at 0 when the car is started. even if I got a new tach, I don't know how I could transfer the plate without removing the needle. The chances of finding another MCE tach are pretty much zero No you shouldn't spin the needle by hand! you probably damaged the coiled spring that returns the needle to zero. This tach is not digital.. You can only play with the needle on digital tachs. That's why I suggested you to replace the whole left side rpm dial in the first place and not play with the needle. Now what you can do is take the rpm dial/needle from the other cluster... if it is still good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveSter Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 BHR can no longer call lats Milly a mutant hybrid. BHR owns one of his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginph Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Heck that sucks. Read on: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/speedometer.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ing-schu@online.no Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 With the needle on 500 rpm, at least it looks like it is barely running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 task - like I said, I'v spun the needles around before, infact when you remove the cluster the needles fall with gravity anyway, hell when I got the new cluster in the box the needles had spun around and were just resting at the bottom below the stop, its perfectly fine and I'v done it before. this problem started right after removing and replacing needle. actually steve no, if I had swapped the entire cluster, to kmph then yes, I just swap tach gauge plates. I drive a miller-cycle engine millenia, lat does not own a eunos 800 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginph Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 With the needle on 500 rpm, at least it looks like it is barely running. Seems like you guys had some snow over there huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 no snow here. also, there is no spring system in the speed and tach, temp and fuel it seems so, but I took the tach apart down to every single part, no spring, its free spinning with a counter weight balance. I'm going to try and GENTLY hold the spring in place while turning key to run, but not start, maybe that will help it calibrate or something, then in march whe nI fire up we'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveSter Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Pull the needle off again and place it so it rest on the bottom stop. or get one of these Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ing-schu@online.no Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Good idea. The troubleshooting seems to be slightly delayed by the carcapsule Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 thats what I did, have to see. and no, the ultra rice dash mounted tach is a no no Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mts Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 BHR can no longer call lats Milly a mutant hybrid. BHR owns one of his own. Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha How true... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.