My tachometer has been reading off for a long time. On our recent run along
the coast, while my wife was chasing a little green Lotus Elan SII, she'd
buried the tach well into the red line, knowing full well it was way off,
but not how way off. I decided that if she was to continue driving it, the
tach needed fixing.
I'd read the stuff on-line about how to fix it myself, considered it, but
decided that since I was a complete futz when it comes to electrics it was
better left to more experienced hands than myself. Via e-mail I contacted a
fellow here in the San Francisco Bay Area that was supposed to know a lot
about tachometers and even sell calibration tool kits. He said, send it to
him and if I paid return postage he'd fix it for me. Huh, was he for real?
Well I packaged it up and included a nice bottle of wine the wife had bought
on the same trip. Three days later I get an email describing in great
detail the condition of my tach and how he had recalibrated it. Since these
things are rarely accurate along the whole length of the gauge, he'd set it
to be accurate at red-line with the added benefit that since it is in good
shape it is also accurate at the lower end and idle speeds. Two days after
that my tach arrived on the front porch.
I installed it that night. The next morning I could not see if it worked
correctly since I'd messed up the light bulb reinstalling it. On the way
home that afternoon, I was in the slow lane when two semi tractor trailer
rigs decided that my little red gnat was in their way. It was them or the
rabid Lexi (what is the plural of Lexus anyway, anyone know) and Sport
Brutes in the fast lane doing 80+mph, I brought the speedo up to 80mph and
the tach stayed well within operating limits at 5,000rpm. The semis backed
off a bit and this got me home with a much greater piece of mind and no
sweat.
Nice things do happen when you drive an Alpine, good people abound, it's
gotta be good Carma (if'll you'll pardon the excruciating pun).
-Patrick Wheeler
Tach'in along in Richmond CA
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