tach on a 97

[Z3CHYD]

I have a 97 ranger 2.3 that i want to put an aftermarket tach in, the tach has the wires: +positive -ground illumination, and Distributor wire. My question would be, where do i wire up the dist wire? the tan/yellow wire on the back of my guage cluster didnt work. so anywere else? what wire on the coil? any wire? lol any help is appreciated, i have my tach mounted and ready to go!

 

[oldjohnny]

The PCM according to this.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/Tachwiring.html

When they say to splice directly behind the gauge cluster, it may not work since Ford universally sends the signal on an 8,000 pulse signal to the gauge cluster. Aftermarket tachs measure by cylinders, so you need the raw signal.

EDIT, I just realized that the same wire you splice on from the PCM is probably the same one you spliced into to begin with.

 

[sean9721]

There are 2 tan/yellow wires behind the gauge cluster. You may have spliced into the wrong one. On my 96, i spliced into the tan/yellow wire right at the PCM. It's Pin #48 i think.

 

[Z3CHYD]

yea i spliced into the tan/yellow wire right on the PCM, and it didnt work, so i got out my meter, and it reads the rpm, so I found out later that since my tach is around 40 years old, it wont work on a DIS engine....crap.....guess ill have to go buy a newer one soon then...i was thinking a monster mini tach maybe

 

[Prime_Ranger]

pm sent

 

[fastpakr]

You'd be better off just buying a cluster from a same year Ranger with a tach in it. Direct swap and everything would look OEM. Plug and play conversion.

 

[floodz]

You can also plug in to a, i believe its red/blue, wire off your crankshaft pos. sensor. Thats where I had to hook up my tach.

 

[genius0o7]

(Sunpro 5" Sport ST Tach)

To install the (usually green) wire on the tachometer, I found the connecting tan/yellow wire pretty easily behind the "big fuses" on my '96 2.3 liter ranger. On the fuse box near the firewall on the drivers side, there is a connector with two wires coming out of it, and a connector with a single wire coming out of it. The connector with the single wire is the one you're looking for. You can splice the tan/yellow wire without cutting it and electrical tape it up.

The green wire on my new tach was fed through the underside of the flexible plastic where the steering column runs through the firewall. From there, it's another 6 inches to home on the fuse box where the wire was cut.

This is specifically for the RPM wire, but you can run the power, ground, and illumination lights from the stereo bay after popping off the cover.

It's long enough with just the right amount of slack when the tack is mounted slightly left-center of the dash. I got a 5" and it was too big to mount on the left hand side comfortably and aesthetically but I'll probably have to redo it when i drop my 1968 ford mustang pre-emissions engine in... But that's a thread for another day. Hope it helps.