1963 Lark Tach? Questions...

[61Lark]

Here's a NOS tach head. The needle is a hair more red than orange, but if you leave in the sun it will turn orange in a hurry like every 63-66 speedometer that has been installed in a car.



So what's my point? (Pun intended) There is no point about which shade of orange the needle is supposed be because once it sees the sun it will be faded orange.

Further more, it won't matter once Allen puts a 1" x 2" (25.4 mm x 50.8 mm for you Canadians, Eh) sticker on the face of his tach stating that it has been restored.

[SN-60]

Hard to believe that's a NOS tach head!...As far as the correct color for the needles..I agree with You that red has a tendency to fade out if left in sunlight....My point was that it becomes even more obvious when the needle colors don't match each other 'Across The Board'. Perhaps Allen hasn't gotten to the secondary instruments in His Lark as yet?

[58PackardWagon]

Allen you did a beautiful job. How did you restore the face plate? I have two used ones with low miles and they do not match my two nos gauges. Also i have not been able to buy an nos one.

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

This is all great information. Thank you. Allen I tested the tach head with a battery after reading Robert McDonald's article from the January 1980 Turning Wheels, found on Bob Johnstone's website and got no reponse from the tach needle at all. That's why I concluded it needs repair. My multi-meter also shows an open circuit so I think something is schnitzled inside the tach. I'll open it up and take a look. I do prefer to fix things myself if possible. I will look for a GT Hawk bracket. Your gauge restoration looks great!

I think I'll need a rectangular Hawk sending unit as well. My car has a humble 259 with a old style Delco single-points distributor. After studying the parts book and the Forum it looks like the Jet Thrust cars had the round sender. I'm assuming that they are designed to work with the dual point distributor on the Jet Thrust engines. Does that sound right?

I have a retangular sending unit for sale and guaranteed to work. You're right the round sending units are for dual point distributors although the rectangualar sending units work with both distributors. I believe you will find with a dual point distributor and a rectangualar sending unit the tachometer needle will bounce more.

There is not much to go wrong in a tachometer. Here's a picture of a 1964 sending unit outside the can:

The voltages and resistances are so small I doubt your meter could read an open circuit. (I just put my Fluke multimeter on this tach head and it reads open as well)





Iron Core Ring



This is the electromagnet that rotates around the Iron Core Ring and moves the needle.



This screw holds the Iron Core Ring in place to enable the electromagnet rotate on the ring. The adjustment is fine, one way or the other and the electromagnet will bind. I would bet my bottom dollar that the tachometer you purchased has been thrown around in a box for years and has bumped the ring out of alignment causing it to bind on the ring.


Joe, I hope posting these pictures will provide you the confidence to open the gauge and see if the electromagnet is binding.

Further more, it won't matter once Allen puts a 1" x 2" (25.4 mm x 50.8 mm for you Canadians, Eh) sticker on the face of his tach stating that it has been restored.

That would be known as the "over-restored" look to people who seem to think that only their opinions matter over the vast majority. (one of many narcissitstic traits)

As for the color of my guage needles; light, shadow, time of day, camera flash, lack of camera flash, and even the make of your computer screen will cause a wide variance in color. Furthermore all of the gauges in my 1963 dash have the same "over-restored" fluorescent paint on them for a look of continuity between all three gauges.


Allen

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

Allen you did a beautiful job. How did you restore the face plate? I have two used ones with low miles and they do not match my two nos gauges. Also i have not been able to buy an nos one.

I simply washed it very lightly with mild kitchen dish soap and many Q-tips. It's hard to believe how much atmospheric soil gets into these gauges.

I did the same with a 1964 tach face and the paint came off. I believe the paint is much different between 1963 and 1964 whereas the 1964 is really really thin. Hence why I am now in the process of reproducing the 1964 tach face. I had my step son photoshop the image and now found a print shop to print me off a sheet of tachometer faces.


Allen

[R3studee]

Hey Big Al,

Your tach looks great! Too orange or not, it will soon fade a bit anyway.

Will you be accompanying us at South Bend for the May meet?

Fast Eddie and company will be doing the barbecue again this year at our favorite hotel......get a room if you have not already as they are going fast. I want to start a raffle to help pay for the Barbeque (That Eddie and his wife graciously paid for last year and plan too again this year).

Its gonna be our mini nationals for sure.

Tom

[58PackardWagon]

Again, excellent work. Thanks for sharing

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

Hey Big Al,

Your tach looks great! Too orange or not, it will soon fade a bit anyway.

Will you be accompanying us at South Bend for the May meet?

Fast Eddie and company will be doing the barbecue again this year at our favorite hotel......get a room if you have not already as they are going fast. I want to start a raffle to help pay for the Barbeque (That Eddie and his wife graciously paid for last year and plan too again this year).

Its gonna be our mini nationals for sure.

Tom

Hey Tom,

Lurking again huh? That's the guts of your '64 tach pictured there! I'd like to get this tachometer back together again real soon. I still have to get the "green-gun metal blue" paint matched for the trim ring, then have the gauge face printed. I found a guy to do the job and is a car guy. He told me it is a losing proposition of a printing job, but if it is for a old car he would do it. On the other hand my buddy is a machinist and asked him if he could reproduce the gauge face in another piece of aluminum, so that you could have the original back and I could mount the decal on a new one. The tach face has a lip on the it to contain the inner bezel, so that is what is holding me up. I really don't want to put a decal on the 64 tach face out of this gauge. Maybe it would be easier to get a totally bad hawk gauge face and media blast it clean to stick the decal on. Have you got a bad 62-64 Hawk tach to sacrifice?

Any one have a scrap Hawk tach that has been taken apart and is in pieces?

Not to sure what South Bend looks like for us right now. I would like to make it to South Bend this spring, and would even take our little Lark on it's first road trip to the "mini nationals" since re-newing the powertrain. It would be a great break in for the engine.

We are in flux with our careers at this time so who really knows where we will wind up. If we do come I will make a point of having this 64 gauge completed to give back to you.

Allen

[nels]

Oldjoe, you forgot to do the absolute most important thing.....ask the vendor where he got it. That is a significant item that used to reside in a Avanti powered Lark. The car may still exist; maybe he plucked it out of a junkyard car. Who knows. Clues like this don't come up too often. All in all, a great find!

[StudeMichael]

Does anyone know a good place to have an Avanti tach converted to modern internals so that you don't have to use the sending unit?

[SN-60]

Does anyone know a good place to have an Avanti tach converted to modern internals so that you don't have to use the sending unit?

Dave Thibeault told Me He could get that done if someone wanted.

[58PackardWagon]

Allen prior to cleaning it, did you remove the face plate from the tach or did you clean it while still in the unit itself. Also if you did remove it, did you soak it in the soap and water for a little bit? Thanks

[candbstudebakers]

All this talk about this small size tach nothing was said about the larger special lark bezel needed to hold it in. I think SI still has some for $25.00 each.

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

Allen prior to cleaning it, did you remove the face plate from the tach or did you clean it while still in the unit itself. Also if you did remove it, did you soak it in the soap and water for a little bit? Thanks

NO. I actually took a 2.0 oz jigger, put in some mild dishwashing soap and mixred in some water - a good squirt of soap and fill the jigger. I used lots of Q-tips with the water/soap mixture dipping the Q-tip in the mixture and gently wiping the tach face. I kept the tach head to the tach face. I did not want to chance the paint from cracking on the tach face. Leave it all together. I may have left it in the can as well to save from man handling it.

As soon as I saw dirt on the Q-tip, I flipped to the other side, always noting the colour of the Q-tip. I probably used 20 Q-tips lightly passing over the Tach face. As cleaning a section I would use fresh water on another Q-tip and rinse then dry it with another. Q-tips are cheap and really good at cleaning.

Always note what is coming off the tach face, Questioning the swipes - is that dirt or PAINT. Take your time. the white tach lines and numbers get whiter and you will get a really nice tach.

Allen

[SN-60]

All this talk about this small size tach nothing was said about the larger special lark bezel needed to hold it in. I think SI still has some for $25.00 each.

Yes, that is a 'key' piece....made of pot metal, original ones can sometimes be quite deteriorated.