95 F-150 tach wiring problem....

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I know that this really belongs in the Fullsize Ford forum... but since I've noticed some posts languish on there for days... I'm posting it here too in hopes of a quick answer since I have to put my dash back together PDQ.

Trying to get my tach wired up in my F-150. It's been bothering me that I don't have a tach in it since I got the truck. I can drive a 5-speed fine without one, it doesn't really affect me all that much after having driven pretty much nothing but manual trans trucks since I was 17.

Buuuuttt... the grinder has been singing and the welder humming as I try to prepare for another nasty winter by getting a plow fabbed together and on the truck. And since I had to tear the dash apart to do some wiring for the plow, I thought, hey, what better time than now to wire up my tach. Problem is, I'm on a time crunch and I can't find the right wire. Or in other words I have tomorrow (Sunday) and possibly Monday before I have to put my dash back together so the truck is driveable.

I have a ground, illumination and key-on power all picked out to tap into. I just can't seem to find a tach signal wire. I know there pretty much has to be one in the dash because the wiring should be there for the gauge cluster if Ford would have been bright enough to put a gauge cluster with a tach in a truck with a manual trans instead of in auto trans trucks.

I know that I can tap into the wire in the engine compartment where it comes off the coil. But I already have a dozen or so wires run through my firewall and would rather not poke a hole for another wire if I can avoid it. I tried looking in my Hanes manual for an appropriate diagram (lol, I should have known better), and I tried doing a couple searches online for the information (but everything just tells me to hook to the coil or to pick up the tan wire with yellow stripe). Problem is, I can't find a tan wire with a yellow stripe at the gauge cluster. I know I picked up the tach signal off a tan/yellow wire in my Ranger back when I wired that up and the wire went right up to the gauge cluster.

So can anyone give me a clue as to what wire would carry the tach signal to my gauge cluster??

Truck: 1995 F-150 xl, 4x4, 4.9L engine, 5-spd trans
Tach: (not that it makes a difference) Autometer Sport Comp

Thanks!

 

[gwaii]

tan/yellow is 99-up.yours should be dark green/yellow.

it'll be position 9 on the plug that runs vertical(r/h side of the cluster)

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Thanks Gwaii!

And thank you for the position too, looking at a pile of multi-colored wires sometimes they start to blur together for me.

 

[gwaii]

know exactly what you mean!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Hmm.... still not having any luck finding the right wire....

The wire that goes to position 9 on the right hand plug (brown plug) is a white/pink. Position 10 appears to be a black/yellow. Both correspond with copper tabs that go nowhere on the back of the gauge.

Can't find any dark green/yellow on any of the plugs, but there is a green/yellow on the black center plug for the speedo.

 

[gwaii]

they were changing colors around lots in those years.i'm looking at a 95 guage cluster right now,and what we have is position 13 is ign power for the tach,position 3 is ground,position 9 is labled sig,position 10 is labled 8cyl.they use the same tach for both 6 and 8 cylinder engines,and just have two inputs for them.so the input would be either 9 or 10 depending on which engine you have.as yours is a 4.9,it should be 9.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yea, I managed to check into things more, position 9 is what I needed. The one thing I found for position 10 says that it's a tach ground for 8 cyl only.

Got the wires soldiered up and put some liquid tape on there, I'll see about trying it out tomorrow.