Ok about a year ago we paid an auto electrician to fix up the lights and dash, specifically the tacho in my ute and they pretty much did nothing and charged us a buttload.
so today i decided to have a go at the non working tacho sitting in the dash and the first thing i realised was that there was no ground coming off the tacho and that the loop wire was just bolted directly to the tacho off the coil.
The positive was taken off the ignition knob thing on the instrument cluster.
I ran a ground wire and ran the cable off the coil looped through the tacho and to the nearest black white striped plug and fired it up.
The oil and charge lights lit up on accessories, the tacho jumped around and the engine kicked over but wouldnt start and i noticed a funny smell and a tiny bit of white smoke coming from under the bonnet.
i put everything back to where it was before i mucked around and it still wont start so what the hell did i blow up?

and did i wire the tacho up properly?