Tach quit-oil pressure gauge flickers

[lakespirit]

All my lights, horn and signals are working. I removed the sensor at the flywheel and it is in good shape. No blown fuses. But, the tach just quit one day and ever since, the oil pressure gauge has been jumping around.

 

[Red55]

Lakespirit-

Whenever I had a weird electrical problem is was usually one of two things- a bad ground or a loose connection. My jinma was driving me nuts with excessive voltage (17.43volts) Found that one of the tabs for the voltage regulator was backing out reform the locking tab and cleaned and tighten connections at alernator and problem resolved. You may want to clean and use a star washer with your grounds. Good luck -Ed

 

[greg_g]

Do you have the instrument cluster, or individual gauges?

//greg//

 

[lakespirit]

Do you have the instrument cluster, or individual gauges?

//greg//

cluster

 

[greg_g]

I don't like coincidence, but the tach on my 354 just quit outa the blue yesterday too. But in my case it may be just a connector problem, I'm going to work on it this morning. Pretty sure the cluster itself uses a common ground, so - since other gauges are working - that particular ground should be ok. But check the connectors behind the cluster to make sure.

It's possible also, that your OPSU and tach sender share an intermediate ground point somewhere between themselves and the cluster. The tach sender should have two wires, and the OPSU just one. See if your can follow all three backwards and if/find where two of them may intersect.

//greg//

 

[lakespirit]

I don't like coincidence, but the tach on my 354 just quit outa the blue yesterday too. But in my case it may be just a connector problem, I'm going to work on it this morning. Pretty sure the cluster itself uses a common ground, so - since other gauges are working - that particular ground should be ok. But check the connectors behind the cluster to make sure.

It's possible also, that your OPSU and tach sender share an intermediate ground point somewhere between themselves and the cluster. The tach sender should have two wires, and the OPSU just one. See if your can follow all three backwards and if/find where two of them may intersect.

//greg//

Been there tried those, but still no tach and the flickering oil gauge. Not sure what else to look at???

 

[lakespirit]

Been there tried those, but still no tach and the flickering oil gauge. Not sure what else to look at???

One other concern is that the hour meter isn't working either. I could live without the tach.

If I wanted to install an hour meter, what would it take to hook one up??

 

[greg_g]

One other concern is that the hour meter isn't working either. I could live without the tach.

If I wanted to install an hour meter, what would it take to hook one up??

The hour meter is tach driven. No tach - no hour meter. I looked at the wiring behind our cluster, there's only one common ground wire for the whole unit (not counting the ammeter ground). So the flickering oil gauge is almost certainly a separate problem.

But let's clear something up first. When I see the word "flicker" I think of a light. And there is a LOW OIL idiot light in that cluster (far left, bottom). Is it that light that's flickering? or is it actually the needle on the oil pressure gauge that jumping around?

//greg//

 

[3RRL]

The hour meter is tach driven. No tach - no hour meter. I looked at the wiring behind our cluster, there's only one common ground wire for the whole unit (not counting the ammeter ground). So the flickering oil gauge is almost certainly a separate problem.

But let's clear something up first. When I see the word "flicker" I think of a light. And there is a LOW OIL idiot light in that cluster (far left, bottom). Is it that light that's flickering? or is it actually the needle on the oil pressure gauge that jumping around?

//greg//

Coincidence or what?
Right after reading this thread my fuel gauge needle started jumping, like there is a bad connection or ground.

 

[greg_g]

I don't like coincidence, but the tach on my 354 just quit outa the blue yesterday too.

My tach problem did in fact turn out to be a connector problem, the two wire plastic connector on the sending unit pigtail. Something wrong with the plastic itself, so I just removed the spades and tossed the plastic. Reconnected spade to spade and wrapped with electrical tape. Tach came right back to life

//greg//