Clock out Tacho in.........

[72Slowback]

Hello there,
My clock is busted so I decided to replace it with cheapy tacho .






Its a pretty good fit although doesn't sit recessed like the other gauges but at only£30 I may take a grindwheel to the casing?

What do you reckon looks ok or worth a bit of modding? could poss have a go at fitting a new face in keeping with the other guages?

Also and more importantly is it worth trying to mend the old clock?
Are they worth much?
Anyone need one ?

[miketyp3]

I think it looks great as it is. I'd be interested where you found it as being 0 - 6000 its the same as the ones VDO originally made for the Type 3.
I have a broken one, for £30 it would be worth seeing if I could use the workings from one of these to fix it.

Regarding the clocks, earlier ones are electro-mechanical and have a fused link inside and it blows when the battery is allowed to run flat (low volts = high amps). It can be replaced using electrical solder, 8/10 times thats what is wrong. I think the very last ones were a solid state movement, but I have no experiance of them.

Mike

[Editor]

Yes, most (all?) of the 72/73 clocks (black faced) were transistorised, but only in a rather basic way - they use two concentric very fine wire coils, and the transistor conducts, making the pendulum (yes!) swing across, which generates a voltage in the opposite sense in the second coil to turn the transistor off, which allows the pendulum to swing back. A very few of the grey-faced '71 clocks are the same mechanism.

If the back is white plastic, it's the impulse driven clock (goes clunk to wind the spring every minute or so). if it's metal it's transistorised.

I got my transistorised one working, refurbished it etc, installed it, and somewhere in Germany when I put the hazards on (for another of our Type 3 group), it failed. Transistor is now blown! It now reminds me it was 10:05 pm all the time (well, sometimes it is 10:05 am, I suppose!).

[type3]

The tacho looks great! I did something similar with an Elliot gauge which is kinda period looking. I'll take a pic.

[72Slowback]

Well had a look at the clock today and noticed one of the spring clips on the casing had fatigued and broke off when I moved it also the same with the +12v spade connector so wrote it off.

I took the tacho to the grind wheel and trimmed down the rim ,this allowed me to fit the chrome ring off the clock and now the unit seats properly into the mounting hole.




I am also in the process of designing a better face for it but not too bothered as like you I think its pretty good as is

The quality of the terminals etc on the unit is far from great tbh and is a little sensitive and jumpy but i'm sure this will be sorted by adding a diode inline.
I got the unit from a boat supplies store and has settings for 4,6,8 cylinder engines or Alternator pulse.

[kyle]

it almost looks like it grew there now tipex the needle and it wud b nob on!!

[Whizzler46]

What size tacho was used for this?

[bigbadbadge]

This is wicked, I did a similar thing with mine of my fasty, I used the VDO type gauge from that is designed for a beetle, I think it is 80mm or there abouts. I got a spare fuel gauge pod and cut off the back and fitted it in there, check out the thread and see what I did, works great.

Hoppe it helps

Chris