Diesel tach for sale
 

http://www.craigslist.org/sby/car/44025502.html

Not mine, no interest.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

do all diesel tachs hool up to alternators :confused:

MB turbodiesels offered in the US have tach triggers in the crank pulley or flywheel and tachs as well. NA Diesels in the US didn't come with tachs but you can probably retrofit the trigger and amp from the 78-83 617 turbos to just about any older MB Diesel. An alternator tach hook up seems easier IMO.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Only thing with the alternator-driven tachs is, IIRC, you have to calibrate it...which means that you have to know what RPM the engine's actually turning at somehow. Setting it to what the idle RPM should be is not necessarily good enough; what if your idle RPM's off one way or the other?

IMHO retrofitting a factory tach would look best on one of these cars, but an alternative is the TinyTach. Not sure where it could mount on an M-B dash without looking tacky, though. If I follow through with the Toyota conversion, I'll probably get one of these. Only $65 :)

Cool, I have been needing one for my '87 GMC Sierra 2500 4X4 diesel.......

Alternator driven tach issues.
 

There's two issues with alternator driven tachs which come to mind, one of which -- calibration -- already has been mentioned in this thread. The other is the degree of difficulty in getting the information which the tach needs out of the alternator. If the alternator has an external post for driving a tach, then the connection is simple. However, many alternators, including the Bosch alternators on my two 300D's, do not have this external post. An auto electrics shop should be able to modify at minimal cost an alternator (without an external post) to facilitate its connection to a tach.

Phil

'84 Euro 300D
'85 California 300D