jumpy tachometer |
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Ryan S.
Groupie Joined: October-03-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 53 |
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Posted: April-07-2014 at 5:33pm |
I have a 1997 Ski Nautique and we've been out two times so far this season and my tachometer is jumping all over the place. I use my tach to maintain a steady speed for skiing, but it's impossible when it's jumping around. The engine seems to be running great, just can't find/maintain speed based on the jumpy tach. I don't know enough about the moving parts needed to make this work right, whether it's the tach gauge showing it's age or a wiring issue or if it's dependent on the speedo gauges??? The speedo gauges are reading fairly close, as usual. Does anybody have a suggestion for where to begin? Has anybody else had to problem solve this before? Thanks for your time. -Ryan
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Ryan
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Hollywood
Moderator Group Joined: February-04-2004 Location: Twin Lakes, WI Status: Offline Points: 13514 |
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A good start is checking with a DMM but removing, cleaning and reinstalling all connections never hurts either.
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bhectus
Platinum Member Joined: July-04-2010 Location: Gator Country! Status: Offline Points: 1809 |
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The tach and speedos are totally independent of each other. Like HW suggested, get out a multi meter and check the wiring. See if you are getting voltage drop. Chances are you will need to clean your connections.
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'02 Ski Nautique 196 w/ 5.7 Apex bowtie - Sold
'87 Barefoot - sold '97 Super Sport Nautique - originally custom built for Walt Meloon '97 Ski Nautique '83 SN 2001 |
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NCH20SKIER
Grand Poobah Joined: December-16-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2207 |
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I have heard / read elsewhere that jump starting may also lead to a "jumpy" tachometer. I had such an isntance on my '96 Sport but may have been a coincidence.....
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'05 206 Limited
'88 BFN |
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harriss28
Senior Member Joined: July-24-2010 Location: Titusville PA Status: Offline Points: 128 |
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Ryan S.
Groupie Joined: October-03-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 53 |
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Thanks for the suggestions. I took off and brushed with a tooth brush the connections on the back of the tach. And I rotated the engine size knob, also on the back of the gauge back and forth for a bit. All the connections appeared tight and clean, though I went ahead and cleaned and tightened again. There must be a connection on the engine side of things to check also. Can somebody tell me where to look for this? Would I repeat the process on this end? Or is there a part (sender?) that could be faulty? Thanks again for helping this rookie. I haven't put it back in the water to test yet, thought I'd try all I could before dragging it to the lake. -Ryan
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Ryan
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backfoot100
Platinum Member Joined: January-03-2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1897 |
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Ryan, the tach wire should be a gray one that is attached to one side of the coil. I forget which one. That probably runs through a wiring block on the back side of the engine. Trace it and clean them up and see what happens.
I'm thinking the tach is probably bad but checking the wiring certainly can't hurt. They do go bad. |
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When people run down to the lake to see what's making that noise, you've succeeded.
Eddie |
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Bri892001
Grand Poobah Joined: September-27-2008 Location: Boston MA Status: Offline Points: 4947 |
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Ryan, is the tach your only gauge that's misbehaving?
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Ryan S.
Groupie Joined: October-03-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 53 |
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Yes, only the tach is acting up. Thanks
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Ryan
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lewy2001
Grand Poobah Joined: March-19-2008 Location: NSW Australia Status: Offline Points: 2234 |
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GT40 ?
If so the tach signal has a 22K ohm resistor in line. (Grey wire from ecoil) |
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If you're going through hell, keep going
89 Ski <a href="http://www.correctcraftfan.com/diaries/details.asp?ID=5685" ta |
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jtryon
Groupie Joined: June-18-2012 Location: CT Status: Offline Points: 64 |
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this has always been the case for my oil pressure gauge as well, it shows steady at the correct pressure but "bounces" instead of holding steady there. i'm interested in what you find this out to be.
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Bri892001
Grand Poobah Joined: September-27-2008 Location: Boston MA Status: Offline Points: 4947 |
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Josh, the oil pressure gauge works on a different principle from the tach. The oil pressure gauge is more similar to a temp gauge.
Basically, the OP gauge gets positive voltage via the purple, switched at the key. Then, the Oil Pressure sender, provides variable resistance to ground (the engine block) depending on how much pressure it is registering. If your OP guage is jumpy, you could have the same type of dirty or loose connections mentioned above or a bad sender. A good test is to remove the sender wire from the OP Sender. Then, take the wire and ground it directly to the block. If it pegs the gauge consistently, either the sender is bad or the connection to the sender was loose or dirty. |
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jtryon
Groupie Joined: June-18-2012 Location: CT Status: Offline Points: 64 |
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great to know, thanks Brian!
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