Tacho install

[muhhan]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

Aim: To install a tachometer into an EK1.


Required:
Tools:
Drill
Screw drivers
Crimper or vice pliers

Materials:
Electrical tape
Female spade connectors
Heat shrink wrap
Cable ties

Steps:
1. Since you’re going to be mucking with the electrical system of the car and working close to the drivers airbag you should disconnect the negative battery lead, wait at least 3 minutes then disconnect the drivers airbag connector from under the steering wheel.


2. Find a nice place to mount your tacho. Somewhere that it won’t be in your way and so the po-po won’t get too narcky. I decided to mount mine on the A-pillar.


3. After removing the A-pillar, I already had the interior stripped, mark out and drill the holes for the mount. There’ll be at least one to secure the mount and you’ll need one to run the wires through.



4. After having made any adjustments on the tacho that are necessary such as selecting how many cylinders it is for. Secure the mount to the A-pillar and attach the tacho to the mount.



5. Run the wires through the hole. Your tacho kit may come with a grommet to place into the hole that you run the wires through. Mine didn’t so I covered the lot in black heat shrink wrap to protect it and keep it neat.


6. My tacho originally came with an external shift light but I didn’t want to use this so I cut the wires and covered them with electrical tape and secured them to the inside of the A-pillar.


7. Run the rest of the wires down the gap at the end of the A-pillar where it connects to the dash.


8. Remove the lower dash cover from the drivers side and you should be able to see where the wires have come through.


9. I kept all the wiring internal as I didn’t want to have to run any wires through the firewall and have any chance of water leaking through, although the chances of this may be nigh impossible. Firstly identify the various wires coming from your tacho. Mine are as follows: power (red wire), light (white wire), tacho signal (green wire), and ground (black wire). Check the picture above for an illustration.

10. Attach female spade connectors to the power and light wires and a ring terminal to the ground by stripping a bit of insulation off and crimping the terminals. Finish off the connections by covering the join in heat shrink wrap.


11. The ground wire needs to be connected to a metal part of the car. I conveniently had the kick panel off and used an existing bolt that was ground for something else to attach the tacho ground to. Sorry forgot to take a picture here.

12. The power and light wires can be tapped into any wire that is live when the car is on, ie. Key is in ON position, and when the dash lights are on respectively. To avoid having to cut into any wires and potentially the wrong wires I chose to connect my power and light wires to the under-dash fuse box. Just above the top row of fuses there are several sockets, hopefully the ones you need are empty, with male spade connectors. The second one from the left is for additional dash light accessories, that is it will be live when the dash lights are turned on. Connect the lights wire to this one. The far right port is for IGN2 that, according to the service manual, is live when the key is in ON position but not START. Connect your power wire to this one.


13. The tacho signal wire can be sourced from the engine bay, but as mentioned before I kept all wiring internal. This method may have been a lot harder than the install needed to be but I had fun! Although my civic didn’t come with a tacho from the factory it still has the wire for one in the connector behind the gauges, just that it doesn’t connect to anything in the gauge assembly. This is where I sourced my tacho signal from.

14. There are 2 screws holding the gauge assembly cover in place. Remove these with a chode Phillips screwdriver…you know the one I mean. Now gently pull the cover out. Work it around and pull straight out.


15. Unscrew the 4 screws holding the gauge assembly in place and gently pry it out. The wire you want to tap into is the blue one on connector C. It is in the 8th pin. There are 13 of them in the C connector. Not all the pins have wires attached. Just have a look at the picture, hopefully that helps.



16. Using a tapping connector, it may have come supplied with your kit, connect your new tacho signal wire to the blue tacho signal wire from the connector. Finish the connection off by covering it with electrical tape.



17. Before putting everything back together I secured the wires using cable ties to keep everything nice and neat. Now put back the gauge assembly, gauge cover and any other trim panels you may have removed in the process.



18. Reconnect the airbag connector and then the negative battery lead.

19. Test to see if everything works as it should.

BEFORE:


AFTER:



Other comments: I know tacho install guides are available elsewhere but hopefully this one will be useful to people. Thanks for reading.

[SiReal]

Awesome wirte up ddue, i'm sure it wil prove handy to alot of ppl.,

[ECU-MAN]

nice write up dude. good to see the precautions taken when working with a SRS equipped car.

you dont have to pull the cluster out to get to the tacho wire.

nice work

[NeRV]

good job on the write up, nicely detailed... ive never installed a aftermarket tacho before, but do people always need to drill a hole to mount it like that?? what if you dont want the tacho anymore??

[destrukshn]

good job on the write up, nicely detailed... ive never installed a aftermarket tacho before, but do people always need to drill a hole to mount it like that?? what if you dont want the tacho anymore??

then your left with 2 nice holes.
lol.

[Mrkrooz]

Awesome wirte up ddue, i'm sure it wil prove handy to alot of ppl.,

TOO RIGHT

[Killa From Manila]

an alternate way of removing the cluster would be to run the tacho signal wire through the existing hole in teh fire wall. its located under the dash right next to the hole where the throttle cable goes. if u look from the engine bay u can see a little plastic plug next to the coil pak, just pop that out. conveniently thats where u connect the tacho signal wire.

[TypeRice]

good job on the write up, nicely detailed... ive never installed a aftermarket tacho before, but do people always need to drill a hole to mount it like that?? what if you dont want the tacho anymore??

use double sided tape instead of screwing holes then i guess heeheh

EDIT: which shop do you buy these items from ?
Materials:
Electrical tape
Female spade connectors
Heat shrink wrap
Cable ties

[A.G.System]

which shop do you buy these items from ?
Materials:
Electrical tape
Female spade connectors
Heat shrink wrap
Cable ties

Jay Car, Motorquipe, Autobarn, Repco, Local Electronics shop, Bunnings.

Pretty much anywhere that does electrical stuff.

[dfekm3]

with the tacho mounted in that posistion, i noticed you had a tweetler behind there, can you still hear the tweetler or did you remount it?

[muhhan]

TypeRice, as AG systems said all those places. I found the cheapest place was bunnings if you want the sexy gold plated connectors then try repco or autobarn as they stock the aerpro gear.

dfekm3, that was one of my concerns when I was mounting the tacho but the tweeter on that side is actually aimed at the passenger and the tweeter on the passenger side is aimed at the driver. I did this to try and create a more balanced sound stage. In short yes you can still hear it, there is no dead spot there. I couldn't mount the tacho anymore forward because it gets in the way of your hand when you turn the wheel and it makes it very hard to read the tacho.

Glad to see this guide helping people out!

[A.G.System]

P.S. Muhhan +rep point Good guide btw