My tachometer quit working years ago. I spent a lot of time and money trying to bring it back to life, to no avail. I bought the Silver Leaf system to provide tach information and use it for monitoring all systems except the air pressure. The spot on the instrument panel containing the tachometer was just wasted space. That is until the other day when I realized that I could stick my TPMS to that glass circle and again have useful information in that space right in front of me. Win/Win.
Nice - but that cord would drive me crazy - 90 deg adapter?
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It would nice if my tach worked although like you I only use the Silver Leaf.
All our gauges still work, including the tack although its engine hours area sometimes shows random characters, other times its normal.
That said, I have a lack of trust in what those gauges display (other than the tank pressures) and rely on the BlueFire display to validate. Oil pressure is low, Volts low, Temperature high, Transmission range/scale is kind of useless. Speed and RPM seem fine.
What kind of things? Just curious so that should mine decide to give up I know what has been tried or where to start looking.
Agree with all of this 100%
Do you have the blue box on your coach? I know 2001's have it and I know '99's don't.
There is a test toggle switch under dash cover. If it is in the wrong position, the tach will not work. I found out after 100s in troubleshooting expense. FT support didn't know about it
In July 2010 MoT removed and replaced the tach and checked out the wiring (for $210). They told me they could find no problem with instrument or wiring and sent me to Cummins to have the sender checked out. In August 2010 Cummins checked (for $265) and said tach head must be defective. That is when I installed the digital dash (Silver Leaf). In 2017 I got tired of looking at an inoperative instrument on my panel so I removed the tach and sent it to the instrument guy in Florida (I don't remember the name) for a definitive evaluation. He assured me that the instrument works just fine. I did not save the receipt for that but I am sure it was over $100. And that is the long sad saga of my Tachometer.
No blue box on this coach, I do not know if that was a running change or hard changeover in '01
The dreaded circular loop, only way out is to hide your wallet from the Nacogdochians!
Thanks for the details, most of mine just seem to be somewhat off readings but don't know if that is just the way it always was/is and now reading the data bus shows the variance or they just drifted over time. It must have been fun to get the Tachometer out of that clam-shell dash arrangement.
@Ldillow Awesome info ... please provide some additional details on that switch
On my coach there are two toggle switches under dash cover.
I think One is momentary (left one) and the other can go up or down. It needs to be in the "down" position.
If it is in the up position the tach won't work.
I believe they are diagnostic switches
Those switches have been brought up in the past and there are some real good discussions on them. Basically depending on what year model, what engine/transmission,( M-11, 8.3 6v92/ 4060,3060) and what brake system the coach came with will determine what these switches do. For example on our 320 the switch that toggles up/down raise and lowers the idle low set point (this is independent to the cruise control high idle) the other one is for Meritor brake controller diagnostic. With it being such a long time sense this has been brought up on these switches this is great for some new owners.
Mike
For diagnostic use of those switches:
Engine Engine Fault Codes (https://wiki.foreforums.com/technical:engine:codes)
ABS ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) (https://wiki.foreforums.com/technical:brakes:abs)
I'll update the wiki with that info ... There is no information in there for what those switches did on the mechanical engines so that is a good start. I'll do some searches to see what else has been posted.
Yes, these switches on our 320 are very hard to locate without climbing into the dash from the top. Not visible. They are mounted on the structural cross member just under and behind the windshield to the left of the steering wheel on our coach.
Mike, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Problem solved. I moved the left hand switch from the up position to the down position and now the tachometer now works.
I have read all those posts over the years but since they have different functions for different combinations of engines/transmissions/brakes, I never understood what they might do in my coach. I was afraid to mess with them for fear of screwing something up and everything with the drive train was working just great.
I suppose that fifteen years ago shortly after I bought the coach that switch got bumped to the up position and that shut down the tach. It would have been nice if someone at MoT had known to check that switch.
As it turns out the analog gauge reads 300 to 500 RPMs faster than the digital meter on my Silver Leaf. I may investigate that further sometime in the future. Also, the hour meter is a couple of thousand hours behind what the digital meter says.
But I am pleased to have all the gauges in my panel actually working.
Your welcome!
I flipped the switch on my coach which is the same as yours but it didn't help on my coach. the rest
of my gages work but the volt meter reads one volt low and sometimes the coolant gauge reads 220
when it's 190.
Thats pretty much how mine read as well. The coolant gauge can also swing from 190 to 220 in just seconds.
I can't help but wonder what the use case is for that switch. You would think it has a purpose other than to disable the tach/hours meter.
I certainly would think that. The uncertainty of what those switches do is why I never touched them until the other day.
I had a bad ground causing bad reading