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A friend of mine and me went through the most painful of tasks again today - installing a tacho dash into a DL L Series. (My mate says "you are not allowed to buy anymore f***ing L Series without tachos")

Everything is working fine - except for a jumping tacho. Its fine when its idling - as soon as the revs come on its all over the show. This is just a regular GL dash (no oil pressure or volts). Before I go spending coin on another dash - I think I remember someone mentioning this could be indicative of a faulty coil? The coil in it, I think, is the original one. ("Diamond" or something writen on it?). I ran a wire from the negative side of the coil to the cluster.

The dash has been sitting for nearly 5 years - but has been looked after in a cupboard. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

A slight update - I changed the coil for GT40 coil I had lying about (was working fine with a tacho on another car).

The problem with the tacho is still evident - any further suggestions?

Going to leave the GT40 coil in there - it started a lot better with it.

Hey Fang,

My sisters '84 L 'bounces' around a little bit but I wouldn't describe it as being all over the place.

I don't really know much about tachos - never wired one in myself, I know mine doesn't want to work on a hot day...

And I agree with your mate, the L dash's without a taco is not cool...

Cheers

Bennie

Thanks Bennie

Yeah - its a bit strange. It will go up - but it bounces while it does it. Then it will bounce on the way down too. Bit disappointed the coil didnt fix it.

Putting those dashes in DL's is not fun. Why Subaru just couldnt make one dash loom I don't know

Fang wrote:Why Subaru just couldnt make one dash loom I don't know

It'd make sense to - the MY's seem to be like that, you just need to change the dash wiring with the dash, I did this on Sunnie the brumby with no problems

Baz, my sister's L with the boucing tacho only does it when you're at a constant engine speed. Sometimes it settles down for a while then it starts bouncing again - upto 500 rpm at a time...

I might have one here that I'm not using if you'd like it. I know it is missing the middle cluster (head lights/door open etc panel). I probabily won't need it as Baz will most likely shat himself before his taco dies, and if the tacho dies he'll go on without one cos he's Baz (my sister loves him yet he's the roughest looking L, even after dad straightened him out the other day...).

Cheers

Bennie

The tacho in my L touring wagon started jumping around when the alternator regulator died. But on a side note 130watt globes plus 17 volts equals lots of light , till they blow:(. But yeah, new (second hand) alternator sorted it out.

yeah it is the alternator doing it. try putting your head lights on and it should settle down.. and dont have the dash illumination all the way up...

It could also be a bad earth in behind the dash. But more likely the alternator reg

Thanks for the reply fellas. I think you are right about the alternator. The engine is getting replaced soon anyways (alternator and all).

The plot thickens though - when I dimmed the dashlights (had to plug in the dimmer coz the dash is in a million pieces still), it did nothing. The dash stays bright. I'll have to consult the "Oracle Friend" about that one.