Hi, DD. Sorry it has taken so long for me to respond to this. Quite a few things went wrong on the bakkie that had to be sorted out before I could revisit the tacho.
I do remember reading something, on the tech wiki, about testing tach's on other vehicles but I don't think that's necessary anymore.
So the question about which exact EI system I'm running is difficult to answer.
It's a cheap Chinese kit that most spares shops here keep. There is no part number on the dizzy itself nor the EI coil. No part numbers on the box. Just a plain brown box. To be honest, I don't even think the coil included is an electronic coil, it might just be a standard coil. The shop I bought it from did tell me to bypass the ballast resistor so I deleted it. I did wire the ballast resistor back in but it didn't change anything. But I'm pretty sure the resistor has failed, the voltage reading at the coil is pretty much the same with and without the ballast resistor wired in. So I just deleted it again.
I'll attach a picture of the kit.
I ran the bakkie with this coil for a few months but two days after my first post it decided that it didn't wanna be a coil anymore and died. Did some research and the most recommended coil for 1400's with EI is the HUCO 110006 electronic coil. It has similar specs to the Bosch Blue coils but we don't really get those here (well, I can't find them).
After changing the coil I noticed that the tacho was reading... something. It sort of slowly crept up to the 500 rpm mark after a few minutes of idling (it's definitely an incorrect reading, the engine is idling at about 950 rpm) but when I revved the engine, it just stayed at the 500 rpm mark. When turning the bakkie off, the tacho dropped to 300 rpm and rested there. It no longer returned to or rested at 0.
So it seemed changing the coil made this whole issue even more interesting. But the carby and the alternator were giving me issues so I forgot about the tacho for a few weeks while waiting for parts and troubleshooting those issues. Last week I decided to go on FaceBook Marketplace to find a used set of rear corner bumpers/reflectors and I hit the jackpot. A guy, not too far from me, posted pictures full of 1400 spares; spares from multiple stripped bakkies. In amongst all the spares I spotted 3 facia boards with the clusters still attached and one of them looked like it had a tacho but I couldn't quite make it out because of the quality of the picture. Messaged him and sure enough it was a Champ speedo (the one with a tripmeter) and tacho, and the best part was that he only wanted R350 (about $19 US) for all of it! These usually for R1 000 (about $55 US) for the tacho's alone! Plus, I've never found anyone selling a tripmeter speedo.
Admittedly, there was some work to be done before I could fit it. It wasn't just a simple swap in. The instrument cluster had 3 issues: First, the PCB was in terrible shape, there were ribbons peeling off so I doubt all the circuits work. Second, one of the pins for the round connector was bent. And third, weirdly it didn't have the light for the brake? It's stamped with 2004 but I wasn't even aware some of the later models didn't come with a brake light? Especially a Champ which was the highest spec? Anyway, I decided to rather just remove the speedo unit from the rest of the cluster and swap it into mine which is in way better condition and has a brake light.
The tacho needle had fallen off so that had to be sorted before fitting it to my bakkie. The tacho wires had also been cut very close to the ring terminals rather than them being disconnected properly from the cluster and harness, and the tacho globe holders were missing. No biggie, just had to make new wires for it and I'm going to use the indicator bulb holders that came with the cluster as bulb holders for the tacho. Just need to go buy another bulb, I'm one short at the moment.
The Champ tacho's are way easier to wire in compared to the induction loop tacho's: 12v ignition to the red wire, B/W signal wire from the negative terminal on the coil and a ground wire. The globes are wired the same for both tacho's.
It works perfectly and matches the interior better than the lighter grey tacho so I couldn't be happier.
Here are a bunch of pictures.
Transfer
Distributor Kit.jpg (145.97 KB)
