{"id":22207,"date":"2015-12-17T12:12:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T20:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=22207"},"modified":"2015-12-24T12:11:33","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T20:11:33","slug":"tach-it-up-remember-sun-tachometers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/tach-it-up-remember-sun-tachometers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tach it Up: Remember Sun Tachometers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tach<\/p>\n

Check Out – Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTach it up, tach it up<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBuddy gonna shut you down<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened on the strip where the road is wide<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTwo cool shorts standin’ side by side<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, my fuel injected Stingray and a four-thirteen<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRevvin’ up our engines and it sounds real mean<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTach it up, tach it up, tach it up<\/em><\/p>\n

Buddy gonna shut you down\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shut Down.\u00a0 The Beach Boys sang about it.\u00a0 Plenty of us lived it.\u00a0 And one thing is for certain:\u00a0 The tachometer nailed to the top of your dash or strapped to your steering column was always (and still should be) front row center.\u00a0 You need a tach.\u00a0 Period. And if your car didn\u2019t have one, well, it was probably a pretender.\u00a0 Still applies today, although some racers simply prefer to simply use a shift light but, that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n

\"Here\u2019s
Here\u2019s a look at Sun\u2019s latest SST802R tach. If you turn back the clock, you\u2019ll recognize this. It\u2019s a dead-ringer for the original Super Tach that was near and dear to the hearts of many folks of the high performance car persuasion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ask any greybeard (like me) and most will agree that during the late ’50s\u00a0and part way through the early ’60s, the tach to have was 3-3\/8-inch \u201cFZ\u201d series model from Sun.\u00a0 Those tachometers had a 90-degree gauge sweep range, and the most desirable of the bunch read to 8,000 RPM.\u00a0 FZ series Sun tachs had a number of significant features \u2013 not the least of which was the distinctive appearance.\u00a0 Sun came up with an extremely attractive chrome plated mounting cup arrangement, and as noted earlier, it could either be steering column mounted or bolted to the dash.\u00a0 Naturally, then notion of positioning the tach directly in your line of sight meant you\u2019d never have to take your eyes off the road to bang gears.\u00a0 That\u2019s why dash top mounting was preferred.\u00a0 Besides, it also meant the world knew you had something under the hood too.\u00a0 The dash top tach drove home that point loud and clear.\u00a0 Of course, there was the odd car where you really couldn\u2019t mount the tach upstairs; so clamping it strategically to the steering column was the next best thing.\u00a0 The beautiful stepped chrome gauge bezel coupled with the distinctive staggered number face didn\u2019t hurt the popularity one bit either.\u00a0 Everybody loved them.<\/p>\n

\"Just
Just like the originals, the 270-degree sweep face incorporates the signature \u201cblue line\u201d graphic along with an adjustable redline. The deep bezel is part of what made these tachometers so memorable. And distinctive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When it came to hooking up the FZ model tachs, you\u2019ll probably recall they were actually two-piece jobs, mandating a transmitter that was specific to the engine type along with the appropriate electrical system (6 cylinder, 8 cylinder, six volt, twelve volt, etc) in order to function.\u00a0 Typically, the transmitter was installed under the hood, and in truth, the closer you mounted it to the distributor, the better.\u00a0 In this case, the wiring was typically consisted of this:\u00a0 A ground wire (engine ground), a wire to the distributor side of the coil and a pair of wires (positive and negative) to the back of the tach.\u00a0 The actual tach was wired to the vehicle lighting system (gauge lamps).\u00a0 There\u2019s more too:\u00a0 The tachometer mandated a separate 1.35-volt Duracell mercury battery for power.\u00a0 In addition, Sun included a plug within the transmitter body that lead to a screw.\u00a0 This setup was used to stabilize the needle on the face of the tachometer.<\/p>\n

\"Like
Like it\u2019s Super Tach brother, the \u201celder sibling\u201d FZ88R tach is, from all angles, an exact clone of the original. The staggered number face on the 90-degree sweep is identical to the first generation Sun tachs. The same applies to the stepped chrome bezel as well as the deep signature chrome cup.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Tach<\/p>\n

Time didn\u2019t stand still for Sun. While the FZ tachs pretty much ruled the roost, they upped the ante with a new tachometer, released in the mid Sixties. And like the first generation FZ tach, the new tach (appropriately dubbed \u201cThe Super Tach\u201d) pretty much became a necessity on the street or the strip.\u00a0 The new Super Tach was decidedly modern.\u00a0 It had a much larger sweep (270-degrees) and actually did away with the remote transmitter, the operational battery and much of the wiring.\u00a0 And it was a knockout:\u00a0 The face didn\u2019t have staggered RPM levels (like the FZ series tachs).\u00a0 Instead, the Super Tach had a range of single digits, underscored by a signature \u201cblue line\u201d graphic. While several models were available (with different RPM ceilings), the most popular had to be the 8,000-RPM range tach.\u00a0 Adding more to the frenzy was the fact the Super Tach came equipped with an easily adjustable, easy to spot redline pointer.\u00a0 Fitted with a knurled situated within the center of the tach, you could easily adjust the redline to suit your engine.<\/p>\n

\"Both
Both tachs (the new Super Tach and the new FZ88R) have similar internals. It\u2019s all modern movements inside. You can see the cylinder switch at the top left, along with wiring terminals below. The text offers insight into the wiring either tach \u2013 it\u2019s extremely simple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wiring was simplified too:\u00a0 It consisted of four wires \u2013 Ground, Coil, Power (to a fuse box ignition \u201con\u201d source) along with a lighting circuit wire (typically spliced into the instrument cluster light circuit).\u00a0 The mounting arrangement was identical to the setup found on the earlier FZ tachs \u2013 a signature chrome cup and your choice of a pedestal or column mount.<\/p>\n

Over the years, time passed by the vintage Sun tachometers.\u00a0 Sadly, they were eventually discontinued.\u00a0 But then something happened.\u00a0 Retro became new news.\u00a0 The folks from Sunpro<\/a> recognized the potential.\u00a0 Both the FZ model tachs and Super Tach were retooled and re-released.\u00a0\u00a0 While they look absolutely identical to the vintage tachs, you\u2019ll find they now make use of modern electronic movements.\u00a0 Internally, the lighting is now 360 degrees (instead of single bulb) and both tachometer models can be set for 1,2.4,6,8 and 10 cylinder engines (by simply sliding a switch on the back of the tach \u2013 see the accompanying photos for a closer look).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The instrument bodies are all metal and they include a removable chrome cup, two mount brackets (one for the dash top and another for the steering column), a steering column clamp as well as a rubber clamp insulator.\u00a0 Neither mandates the use of a separate transmitter (that\u2019s a considerable improvement).\u00a0 The basic electrical hookup is easy for conventional distributor equipped vehicles, and it includes:\u00a0 Ground wire, switched 12-volt (ignition \u201con\u201d), engine (negative side of the coil or the tach terminal on aftermarket ignition boxes) and a wire spliced into the instrument panel lamps.\u00a0 If the engine is a late model and has a coil on plug ignition system, Sunpro offers a separate tach signal adapter (available as part number CP7560).<\/p>\n

\"Another
Another pair of pieces offered alongside the pair of tachometers is a separate cup and mount kit arrangement. They\u2019re identical to the components included with the tachometer assemblies, but they\u2019re also era correct for refitting to a vintage tachometer. Included in the mount package is a chrome cup, a pair of mounts, band clamp, clamp vibration band and mount hardware.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Tach<\/p>\n

The bottom line is, you\u2019ll be hard pressed to find any differences between these tachs and the originals when you examine them on the outside.\u00a0 Sun has done a fabulous job with these tachometers.\u00a0 I\u2019m using one on a period correct car I\u2019m building and honestly, they\u2019re impressive.<\/p>\n

Shut Down?\u00a0 We\u2019re not quite done. Next issue, we\u2019ll have a look at a modern contemporary for the Sun Super tach, and that\u2019s AutoMeter<\/a>\u2019s honking Pro Comp Monster. Watch for it!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tachometer is an essential component of your performance machine, and Sun’s tachs were the cream of the crop back in the day. Now, Sunpro is back with an old favorite.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":22209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,3698],"tags":[961,1545,3861,3860,3858,3857,3859,321],"class_list":["post-22207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product-reviews","category-tech","tag-drag-race-101","tag-performance","tag-speed","tag-sun-tach","tag-sun-tachometer","tag-sunpro","tag-tach","tag-wayne-scraba"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Tach-1-Feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-5Mb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22377,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22207\/revisions\/22377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}