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zetec tach

starjammir said:
While wire is it that you tap into for a tach on a 99?
Thanks
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Here's something I wrote up a long time ago about my tach installation. I've bolded where you find the tach signal from the PCM. I'm not sure if it applies to anything other than a Zetec ATX.
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If your car does not have the tach wire Ford so graciously left behind for some tach-less 'Tour owners here's the procedure.

First you'll need to add a wire to the plug on the driver's side of the instrument cluster (the longer of the two plugs). Leave enough length on the free end of the wire to run through the firewall and back across the car...probably about 8-10 feet to be safe. The wire will need to be inserted in the 8th slot in the plug (counting up from the bottom) such that it will contact the pins when the plug is inserted into the new cluster. Don't worry, the pressure of the snapped-in plug will hold it.

Run the free end of the wire through a grommet in the firewall (I used the one next to the brake pedal pivot). Run the wire behind the firewall insulation over to the PS reservoir. Slide out the PS reservoir (it may need a little prying). Unscrew the 10mm bolt holding the PCM connector in. Once you have the connector in hand, begin to CAREFULLY unsnap the dust cover off the connector. Look for pin 48 (white/black stripe wire). Remember that you count down from 52, so this should be the 5th wire in from the end. This is where the tach signal comes from. There are pin numbers at the beginning of each row, starting with 52 on this particular row. Take one of those quick-snap splicing thingies (the one's that don't require cutting into the wire) and place it around wire 48. Insert your tach wire (trimmed to the appropriate length), and crimp closed. Snap on the dust cover, and bolt the PCM connector back down. Replace the PS reservoir. Start the car and you should have a properly functioning stock tach! If it should not operate the first time, the problem is more than likely the wire you fed into the plug on the cluster. I had to redo it a time or two to get it right.
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anybody? I want to know what wire is the tach signal wire in the stock harness that plugs into the cluster. I want to check to see if I have the wire or not.
 
striker2 said:
how about any mystiques? IIRC they all came with tachs
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yes they did, thats why I found a cluster out of a 99 mystique that I might pluck...

Although I don't know if I want to dick around with the whole odometer crap.

alex894 said:
I tried keeping it stock but I can't find a good console with a tach for my 98 zetec that works; I need a tach.

any pics?
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I can get you some tomorrow. The tach is in my car.
 
yeah swapping the odometer in is kind of a PITA

if you have a GPS unit of some kind that makes it 10X easier
 
AliasJerk said:
anybody? I want to know what wire is the tach signal wire in the stock harness that plugs into the cluster. I want to check to see if I have the wire or not.
Click to expand...

Drumnut said:
First you'll need to add a wire to the plug on the driver's side of the instrument cluster (the longer of the two plugs). Leave enough length on the free end of the wire to run through the firewall and back across the car...probably about 8-10 feet to be safe. The wire will need to be inserted in the 8th slot in the plug (counting up from the bottom) such that it will contact the pins when the plug is inserted into the new cluster. Don't worry, the pressure of the snapped-in plug will hold it.
Click to expand...
..........
 
Last edited:
I caught that BK

I wanted to know what color the wire is on the harness thats behind the cluster.

So that i can check to see if I have a tach wire right in the harness, or if I need to run one from the PCM or not.
 
TourDeForce said:
I recon it's the #8 pin of the vertical connector. IIRC....
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Okay, so I wanted to do this right.

I went to a junk yard today and found a 96 Mystique I4, it had a cluster with tach, I pulled the cluster out of the car and found a 98 Zetec tour and pulled the cluster to find the wiring harness with the tach signal wire on it. So I cut out the harness, I took apart the harness and grabbed the Signal wire (so that I have no duplicates) and I added it to my harness, ran the signal wire and plugged it in, put the whole thing back together to get no tach activity and the speedometer and temperature gauge didnt work.

... Does a 96 cluster just not work in a 99?
 
I have no idea, but you should definately take a look at my sig. There could be an item there that someone in this thread is interested in. On my 96 it was plug and play, but i'm pretty sure it should work for the post-98s as well.

caleb d.
 
AliasJerk said:
Okay, so I wanted to do this right.

I went to a junk yard today and found a 96 Mystique I4, it had a cluster with tach, I pulled the cluster out of the car and found a 98 Zetec tour and pulled the cluster to find the wiring harness with the tach signal wire on it. So I cut out the harness, I took apart the harness and grabbed the Signal wire (so that I have no duplicates) and I added it to my harness, ran the signal wire and plugged it in, put the whole thing back together to get no tach activity and the speedometer and temperature gauge didnt work.

... Does a 96 cluster just not work in a 99?
Click to expand...
no remembr cause i did the samething and it didnt infact i tried it out of a 96 mystique too. you have to grab one from a post 98 tour like a mystique 4cyl i think the v6 post 98 works too i was told.
 
blakjak said:
the v6 tach will "work", but it won't give the correct read out, and if i remember correctly, the speedo won't work (atleast it didn't on mine)
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really, it all depends on year. I have been finding out that every single year the gauge cluster wiring updated/changed. In some cases its just so different that a light bulb wont light up, but the big differences were between the pre98s and the 98+ clusters. Any pre98 cluster I have tried hasnt worked in my tour' all I get are lights, none of the gauges work. I put a 99 V6 Cluster in my tour and the only thing that didnt work was the tach, my guess is due to the signal wire not being present, which is now fixed. I have the signal wire in the harness, but I havent gotten a chance to test the V6 Cluster.
 
i had a V6 tach in my zetec for about a year. i had to modify it with a resistor and then it was almost perfect
 
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