Bluecollar :Want to add a tachometer. Where is the connection?

[Mark42]

I want to add a tachometer to a 98 Town Car. But I don't know where the connection is on this ignition.

Also, I am thinking of mounting it in the small pannel under the gage cluster to the left of the wheel. Do you know how this pannel comes off?

Any help you can give is GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks a million,

Mark

[BLUECOLLAR]

I'm sorry, I would have to see it myself to figure it out. There was WAY TO MANY cars to work on....and too many years in between to be able to remember those details.

[Mark42]

Well, maybe some info I got will help. There is supposed to be a diognotic (sp?) port somewhere under the hood where the computer plugged in. One of those pins will drive the tach.

Sound familiar? Do you have late model manuals? (1998, the newest style)?

Thanks for any inof/efforts. I always enjoy reading your posts.

Mark

[BLUECOLLAR]

Hey Mark, if you'll e-mail me (remind me) monday morning, I'll get one of my buds to look it up in an EVTM.

[invisik]

Hey,

You guys get anywhere with this? I'd like to do the same on my 96... Let me know. I have a 95 EVTM manual...

-m

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96 Town Car, Diamond Anniv
http://lincolntowncar.org

prev: 93 TC Signature, 87 Mercedes 560 SEL, 87 Mercedes 300 SDL, 80 Mercedes 300D

[Mark42]

Done. Just sent you a mail. Thanks.

[BLUECOLLAR]

I just came from a dealership and talked with one of my buds. He said to run the tach wire(the one that suppose to go to distributor) to the wire off the coil pack(Light Green/White). He said to run a 10 amp fuse on this wire going to the tach.

[Mark42]

Thanks! I'm going to do some looking this evening for the wire. Will let you know how it goes.

On my car, there is a coil on each spark plug. I assume that by "coil pack" you mean some sort of control module/box that drives each of the 8 coils?

Will try tracing the wire back from a coil to where ever it originates from and look for those color wires.

Thanks,

Mark

[BLUECOLLAR]

I'm sorry, I did mean the coil itself.

[Mark42]

This is what I found. Facing the engine, the front right spark plug coil pack has a light green wire with a yellow stripe, and a red w/grey stripe.

So what does this mean to me? Not too much. If I remember correctly, a tach runs by registering each spark plug firing. So, my guess is that if I connect to that lt green wire, the tach will have to know its a coil on plug ignition system.

I'm going to the speed shop and find out if these new tachs can run off of a single coil fire pulse.

Thanks for your help. Will keep you posted.

Mark

[Mark42]

Well here is the latest. I called Auto Meter tech support and was told that pin 48 of the 104 pin connector on the computer will drive their tach. But, Ford has stopped sending a signal to pin 48 on most coil-on-plug ignition systems.

Anyway, I would like to test pin 48, and need to know where to start looking for the computer in my car. I think that behind the passenger kick pannel is a common location. Do you know for sure before I start pulling everything apart?

Thanks.

[BLUECOLLAR]

the tach doesn't need to know what all the cylinders are doing, just 1. It needs to "see" the #1 or even the #8 plug so it knows that the engine has rotated 1 full turn.
The cylinders are as follows.
facing the front of the engine, the cylinder on the left and closest to you is #1,behind it is #2,etc.
The cylinder on the right closest to you is the #5 cylinder,behind it #6,etc.
The cyclinder closest to the driver seat is #8.
In theory, you could hook the wire to any of these(make sure you put a 10 amp fuse inline)

#1 Light Green w/White tracer
#2 Pink w/White tracer
#3 White w/Pink tracer
#4 Orange w/Pink tracer
#5 Light Green w/Yellow tracer
#6 Orange w/Violet tracer
#7 Pink w/Light Blue tracer
#8 White w/Blue tracer

The reason you need an inline fuse between the tach and the coil, is if it blows the MAIN fuse to all coils, "IT WON'T RUN".

[Mark42]

Ahhh. Thanks for the lesson. Sounds easy enough to hook up the tach and test it.

Just before logging in here, I was out under the dash of my car. I learned that where the computer ususlly is a "crash detactor" module is. Under the glove box is, well, the bottom of the glove box. The computer is located to the left of the center mounted radio, at the bottom of the dash (right in front of your right knee). Also, the diagnostic port is there. Thats as far as I went before logging in here.

Thanks again for all your help. Will keep things posted as they happen!

Mark