During normal driving my tach is easily bottoming out at 7000rpm. Could this be caused by a faulty wire somewhere? I don't know where the tach gets it signal from, the repair manual suggests it gets it from the coil or the distributor but I can't be sure as it's a pretty vague manual and doesn't go into much detail.

I have an automatic transmission, so the tach not working right isn't neccecarily that dangerous, I guess it's more annoying than anything but I'd still like to get it fixed. It stopped working right after being parked outdoors for quite some time.

Thanks
Justin

 

I feel like a parts guy. Year, make, model, engine, etc., factory tach or aftermarket?
Stock third Gens. the tach signal is picked up from the connector on the drivers side of the distributor. It's marked, BAT on one side DIST on the other.

 

have you changed any of the ignition parts? when i put an MSD ignition module in my 85 it made the tach go all sorts of crazy, they sell a capacitor to put inline with the tach so it will read the correct rpm. i went the other route of putting an aftermarket tach in and it was fine

 

My '88 2.8 has the same problem. Let me know if you figure out what's going on.

 

most camaros tachs are far from accurate,
most are only slightly off but I've seen several that hit 7000rpm and its closer to 5000rpm

 

Right, alot of the 3rd gen tachs are just...trash, including mine. Waaayyy off. Apparently (and you can look into this more on Thirdgen.org) there is some sort of capacitor, or chip, or something on the back of the tach that craps out, and they arent in production any longer. Only way to replace it is to go to a junkyard and pull one from a low mileage camaro.

 

Finally after all these years, there is a fix for the screwy Tach without replacing the orig.

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/el...meter-fix.html

that should do the trick!

 

That's weird.....my 3rd gen only has 53,000 miles on it and it's still doing that. I dunno...

 

well 7000-5000 thats a v8 on a v6 tach, if it's aftermarket check the switch on the back, if it's stock , check for interference it doesnt take much of a repeating signal to trip the tach, and then buy a tachy tach that you can strip and mount in stock lo cal

edit: btw mine has 110,000 on it and the v8 reads precisely 4/3 on the tach

 

It's not mileage that is a factor, but age, wiring condition, and weather.

Capacitors have electrolytic paste inside and they can sometimes dry out and fail. Your tach wire may also have corrosion on the contacts at the distributor. Disconnect them, sand them, then reconnect.

 

Ok, I'll try that. Thanks!

 

the link to the tach fix i believe is for 90-92 camaros only (i vaguely remember reading it)i havent seen a fix for 82-89 camaor tach yet there was a thread but it hadnt solved the problem last time i checked. but than again i could be wrong

 

No, it's there...they mention it in the same thread in a later post. They don't actually have a link to it, but they provide the original poster's name. Do a member search, and it comes up as a thread called "Tach Fix: '82-'89" or something to that effect.

 

My tach started to do that jumping thing and then one week later the coil went out and I had to replace it. Tach did not jump any more after that.

-Buck