Having problems with Tach & Speedo
 

New here. My Tach and Speedo are not working at all this year. Lights work and all other gauges work. Tried the thing with moving the switch (for engine size) behind the tach, still nothing. The only thing I did different this year before boating, was change the AM/FM Cass to a AM/FM C/D IPOD player. They were both Sony systems and connected right up with no splicing or rewiring. All fuses are good. I'm lost and looking to see if anyone might have some ideas to try. Thanks

As far as the speedo goes, did you check the pic up hole in the outdrive? It will usually get clogged somehow. You can use a small drill bit to manually clear it out, that worked for me.

Hi guys,

Hope you don't mind me jumping in. I just bought a 1993 2350Z and the speed doesn;t work. Could you please describe to a layman and first boater how to find this hole to clean out?

Thanks

Clive

Hi guys, Click here and look at the pictures in Post #12 It will give you an idea of where the speedo water pickup is on an Alpha gen II outdrive and the leg to transom hose connection (these occasionally come loose).

As for your tach, rickt48, if memory serves me right, your tack has 4 wires going to it. 1 is ground (probably black in color), 1 is power (purple?), 1 is the lighting (Blue?) and all three of these are daisy-chained from gauge to gauge and the last wire is the signal from the ignition system (possibly gray).

Make sure all the wire connections are clean and tight and test the ground and power and if all checks out then the remaining possibilities are no signal from the motor or the tach itself is bad. You can use any cheap automotive tach to test for signal (just match the power, ground and signal wires) and if the original tach is bad, contact Faria for warranty repair service, click here.

Good luck,
WetWilly

P.S. There are several connectors (plugs?) between the dash and the motor, if you suspect a signal problem, try to find these and insure their connections are clean and secure.

I have a 95 Z212 Shabah, with the 5.0 Chevy Alpha 1. And I cleaned the "hole" in the outdrive but hardly anything came out. So I went to where the outdrive and the tube from the speedo meet (laying under the lowerunit, looking inbetween the trim rams) you will see a white (mine was) 1/4 turn plastic clip. I undid that, and blew out the lower unit with a little bit of compressed air, then I blew the speedo tube out. Not with the compressor though, i hear it ruins the speedo or something. Good luck!!

Hi 95Z212, that's good advice and you did the right thing. Using high pressure air on the hose to the gauge while it's still connected to it could damage or uncalibrate it.

The Speedometer is essentially an air pressure gauge that has been calibrated to display air pressure as MPH. If you suspect there is any blockage in the hose to the gauge, then disconnect the hose from the back of the gauge, then you can use your compressed air at this end and blow back towards the outdrive pickup.

Thanks,
WetWilly

Thanks for the tip Willy. Would it be advantageous to do this as part of yearly maintenance, or only if you suspect a faulty gauge?

Re: Having problems with Tach & Speedo
 

Faria repaired my speedo for $18.00 as I recalled, and it took about 4 weeks. The zero was about 52 MPH and went up from there after I cleaned out the pick up hole. Be carefull and don't make the hole larger than the orignal size.

Re: Having problems with Tach & Speedo
 

I disconnected mine off the guage and blew it all back with compressed air like 5 years ago she's been fine till I just sold her not sure this year she is still dry he said he is so busy working might not even get her in till August lol poor guy. Though I have never found the speedo guage atleast in older boats not sure if the new ones are dif to be very acurate.