2.3L ('83-'97) Autogage Tachometer wiring

[DALE MC]

I am installing an Autogage tachometer on my 1997 2.3l. A utube video showed connecting the green tach wire to the brown/yellow out of pin 48 on the PCM. Tach has no needle movement with engine running. Black wire is to negative battery post. red wire to 5 amp fuse out of panel. Any ideas appreciated.

 

[RonD]

Yes the Tan/yellow wire on pin 48 of PCM, it runs to the instrument cluster, same tan/yellow wire, it is on pin 15 of the 16 pin plug on the back of the cluster

Just FYI
1996 thru 2003 Ranger/Mazda instrument clusters are plug and play, 4cyl or V6 doesn't matter, cluster came with or without tachs but still plug and play

PCM Pin 48--------------------firewall 50+wire plug----------------cluster pin 15

Its possible there is a bad connection at the firewall connector, not too hard to unscrew the center bolt and then unplug it and then plug it back in to clean all the contacts, see if tach starts to work again

 

[scotts90ranger]

For a cleaner setup, you can pull a gauge cluster with tach from the junkyard and install that, I grabbed a cluster from a '95-01 Explorer and put it in my '97, I found a post on explorerforum or somewhere where you jump 2 of the 4 pins on the gauge stepper motor with a AA battery then noting the speed (mine was around 72mph) then pulling the needle, then putting my stock speedo/odo in the new cluster then putting the needle on at the same mph with the battery on...

I haven't tried putting an aftermarket tach in, I've swapped stock tach's in my '90 and '97 so far with good results

 

[DALE MC]

Yes the Tan/yellow wire on pin 48 of PCM, it runs to the instrument cluster, same tan/yellow wire, it is on pin 15 of the 16 pin plug on the back of the cluster

Just FYI
1996 thru 2003 Ranger/Mazda instrument clusters are plug and play, 4cyl or V6 doesn't matter, cluster came with or without tachs but still plug and play

PCM Pin 48--------------------firewall 50+wire plug----------------cluster pin 15

Its possible there is a bad connection at the firewall connector, not too hard to unscrew the center bolt and then unplug it and then plug it back in to clean all the contacts, see if tach starts to work again

thanks for the info. I watched a utube video showing attaching green tach wire under the hood at PCM connection. Still no movement on tach.

 

[DALE MC]

For a cleaner setup, you can pull a gauge cluster with tach from the junkyard and install that, I grabbed a cluster from a '95-01 Explorer and put it in my '97, I found a post on explorerforum or somewhere where you jump 2 of the 4 pins on the gauge stepper motor with a AA battery then noting the speed (mine was around 72mph) then pulling the needle, then putting my stock speedo/odo in the new cluster then putting the needle on at the same mph with the battery on...

I haven't tried putting an aftermarket tach in, I've swapped stock tach's in my '90 and '97 so far with good results

thanks. may try getting the new cluster if I cant get this tach working. Have an email to factory help.

 

[RonD]

You usually need to cut the tan/yellow wire then only connect added tach to the PCM end, because if the wire or cluster is grounded the added tach won't work

Another thing to try is to pull off the PCM connector and put it back on to clean all the pins/contacts, tach signal issue may have been a connection issue, and factory tach would start to work again, and/or added tach

 

[DALE MC]

I cut the brown /yellow and have tach hooked to PCM output only. No help. I have pulled the connector several times and cleaned with compressed air. Thanks Dale

 

[RonD]

Then I guess the PCM is at fault

You might be able to test it with a Volt meter
Set Volt meter to AC volts first
Start engine
Ground black meter probe to engine metal and then Red probe on the tan/yellow wire from PCM
Should see a steady AC voltage, probably in the 1 to 3v range, rev engine and voltage should go up


Tach actually uses DC volts but it pulses so fast Digital Volt meters usually don't see the voltage

 

[4BangerDangerRanger]

I am installing an Autogage tachometer on my 1997 2.3l. A utube video showed connecting the green tach wire to the brown/yellow out of pin 48 on the PCM. Tach has no needle movement with engine running. Black wire is to negative battery post. red wire to 5 amp fuse out of panel. Any ideas appreciated.

I had a similar issue with a tachometer from jegs for my 95, reading exactly half rpm. Something with the DIS waste spark ignition system, possibly part of your issue, I had to return the tach today because I couldn’t get it to work