Tachometer wars......

7:46 am - Friday - March 27th - Wittmann, AZ - 41° F, 55% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west by southwest.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 61° F.

Thursday I tackled another project off my 'TO DO' list......fix the tachometer, which hasn't worked for 9 years.  I've gotten by without it for all this time, so why fix it now? Well, I just want all my stuff to work.  The tachometer signal generator is located at he 'front' of the big 6v92 between the front of the engine, and the radiator.  There are a lot of hoses, and other equipment blocking direct access to the generator.....if I could just remove the radiator (takes a forklift to do so) I could have fixed it in 30 minutes, but I can't.  I was able to remove the fuel filter, which helped......

.....it was only possible to get one hand at a time in that tight space, and it took me close to 3 hours to remove the ratio adapter.  I did not remove the signal generator as I knew from a few years ago that it was working fine.  The problem is in the ratio adapter which connects the generator to the output port on the front of the engine to relay the RPM's to the generator, which in turn sends a signal to the actual tachometer on my dashboard.  I discovered that the drive tip, or tang that plugs into the output port on the engine was broken.  The rest of the ratio adapter worked fine, but since the drive tip is broken nothing is turning inside the ratio adapter.....

This is a spare signal generator/ratio adapter so you can see what it looks like

 The rascally tachometer signal generator/ratio adapter located between the front of the 6v92, and the radiator.  Note the three fan belts right next to it.

This picture gives perspective....you can see how much stuff is between me and the tachometer signal generator/ratio adapter....I could only get one arm in at a time......very, very tight

......unfortunately, one of the broken pieces of the drive tip/tang is stuck in the output port, and short of removing the radiator I cannot get at it to remove it.  It appears to be stuck pretty hard, and the only way I can get it loose would be to apply some heat to the output port directly.  I had this same issue with the speedometer ratio adapter.  The same drive tip/tang was broken and stuck in the output port.  The difference there was the output port was very accessible, and I was able to apply heat to the port, and got out the broken piece.  So, a big portion of the day spent removing, and reinstalling a broken part without a good outcome.  I had to reinstall it as if I don't oil will leak out the output port.  I'll have to see if I can procure a cap to close off the port.

By the time I had everything back together, had put away my tools, and taken a shower it was 4:30 pm.  I felt a little deflated after spending so much time in a futile effort, but that is life.  I'm going to research replacing my tachometer with an electronic one that receives its signal from the alternator, but that is a story for another day.

TLE and I are still asymptomatic to the China virus.  We continue to be healthy, and safe.  We have all we need....plenty of food, plenty of TP, and plenty of love.  Cases here in Arizona are up to 508 with 8 deaths attributed to the virus.   299 of those cases and 3 deaths are centered in Maricopa County, where there is a large retirement population, and where we are located at the time.

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