Tacho Hell

[Biscuit3]

As must of us are fully aware, Karl is an automatic. Ever since I have owned him, he's had a tachometer instead of the clock on the right of the cluster. Well, I finally bought a clock to put in there and took the tacho out to make him a REAL automatic. Put it in, everything lights up and runs right, clock keeps perfect time, however, when I turn the accessories off, the clock no longer runs.

Now currect me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't all 2002A's come out with the clock and not the tacho? Do I have to wire it to the battery now and if so, how? Anybody got any pics of what a stock one should look like? I have a feeling now that my entire instrument cluster is not stock, but if anybody can help me, that would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you need a tacho, let me know. Regardless if I can get the clock to keep time when the accessories are off, I have no intentions of putting it back in. Thanks in advance.

[Mike Self]

a hot lead that's switched thru the ignition. You need to find a hot lead that's hot all the time. The clocks are wired a bit differently from the tachs, as the tach doesn't need to work when the engine is off. You should have gotten a small wiring harness with your clock or should have found an unused wire behind the instrument cluster since your car came with a clock to begin with. If you didn't, it's fairly easy to find a hot lead--if not near the instrument cluster, then simply run a wire from the + terminal on the clock down to the terminal on the ignition switch that's hot all the time.

A more elegant way (and this is the way the factory did it) is to run that hot lead to fuse 8 (12 fuse roundies) or fuse 2 (squarelights) on the underside of the fuse box.

That should solve your problem

cheers

mike

[condorw]

i saw an 74 auto with a tach and no clock -

don't know if the cluster was changed before or not.

[Simon]

My 1974 automatic also has a tach and not a clock. However, when I was having some engine issues, I decided I liked having the tach to keep an eye on how things were running.

Some radios have an "always on" lead, ie, like most after 1980. If you have an after market radio you might be able to splice in off the power feed at that point. Just a thought.

Simon

[oh2fly]

There is already a connector behind the temp gauge for the clock on your car. It may have a rubber plug covering it. Look for 3 male pins in a vertical line just above the big electrical connector. The clock wiring harness just plugs in.

[02Les]

As David said, the connection is already there for the clock.

Over to the right you can just make out the black rubber cover in the pic. You will need the correct clock wire harness though.

[Biscuit3]

Holy shit, Les! My tacho had tape where your clock does in the exact same way! That's like looking into a mirror. I noticed that the brown, silver, and red wires in the cluster were shorter for the clock than the tacho, so I switched the tacho ones with the clock and all works well. But I think I can vaguely remember that the back of the original clock instrument cluster WAS a little different than the tacho one. I'll have a look today after work seeing as I'll just have to change the time over again anyway. Thanks for all your help!

[oh2fly]

They all had that tape. It is special HansundFranz tape to keep out harmful dust from getting the gauges all dirty. There is a small gap between tach and speedo they thought needed filling.

[Skippy_the_Bush_Kangaroo]

My car use to be an auto and it had the tacho. i think its fairly normal on the RHD cars

[DukeRimmer]

(nt)

[Biscuit3]

Thank you very much Duke! That's exactly something I wanted! Thanks to everyone else as well!

[TMK-001]

I am 100% sure all 2002A imported into Australia by BMW Australia had a tacho rather than a clock.

Todd

[Biscuit3]

Woohoo!! My clock works! Thanks to you guys, I wired it up correctly this morning and am so happy with it! It always the little things that get me excited.