Glow Shift 3 Cyl Tach in a Metro

[Mogal]

Odd.. the car is still cycling between 1000-1800rpm this morning.
While in motion and gliding, the car would sit at 1800 rpm... (outa gear)
not until the car came to a complete stop would it drop back to 1000, but then 'click' and kick back to 1800... then slowly drop to 1000 then 'click' again...

any guesses on this one?

All that was done, was the tach install...

[winkosmosis]

It clicks and revs up to power the AC compressor. You should calculate the RPM it should spin at a certain speed in a certain gear, and compare that to what the tach says, to verify its accuracy

[Mogal]

Theres no A/C on the GEO...

Mind you, its a different engine then stock, and possibly a diff ECU as well that could of had an A/C.

[TestDrive]

Could be an intake/vacuum leak.

1. Engine idles down
2. Mixture goes lean due to leak.
3. ECU adds additional fuel which causes faster idle
4. ECU adjusts fuel mixture down due fast idle.

Rinse and repeat.

[Mogal]

I unplugged the batt for about 2 hrs after work, then started it up again.
The car started on a high idle(almost 2k) and slowly came down to about 1200rpm... as it warmed up...

I went for a spin around the block, and once up to temp, the engine started to cycle again...
Running though my head what was going on, and a way to fix it, I pulled up to a stop light...
still cycling between 1000-1800rpm...
And for whatever reason it 'clicked' went to 1800rpm, then dropped down to idle(850rpm) at that stop light, and so far hasn't done it since.

But one thing I have noticed, is when I glide, the car drops down to about 1100rpm durning the glide, only dropping to 850rpm if the car comes to a full complete stop.

Over the weekend, I'll be making a mount for the tach sitting in the cluster cubby hole(or on the steering column)... I'll post pics when I'm done if anyone is interested.

Thanks once again for the help.

Chris

[doviatt]

I'm interested in seeing your completed install pics. I'm installing a tach and a vacuum gauge in a couple of weeks in my '89 Metro (3 cyl). I was thinking of getting both from Glow Shift. Does anyone have any bad experiences with Glow Shift products.

Mogal,
Are you still happy with your tach? Did you get your idle stabalized? BTW is yours a 3 or 4 cyl?

[Mogal]

Hi Doviatt,

Attached is my install. The mount for the tach is home made, made from an
old piece of 1/16" plastic. Drilled the appropriate hole, bent and shaped the plate
and double sided sticky taped it into position.
The Vac Gage, I took out the uhm? 'blank switch plates' and the
vac gage slid snuggly into place, then I mounted the securing bracket.

The vac gage is hard to see in this pic, I can take a better pic if you'd like.
When driving the vac gage is in full view.

The tach is "ok" it seems to have a slow response, but the way I'm driving,
fast response isn't required. I would not buy the tinted version again. Has
to be constantly lit, and with the sun just right, its VERY hard to read.

The vac gage is NOT from glowshift, but locally purchased the the local auto store.
Its just a generic gage, nothing special about it, but works great.
The night time pic is a little fuzzy, but you get the picture

As for the idle, NO idea of what happened, it just went away one day. Mines a 3 cyl.

[doviatt]

Mogal,

Thanks for the pics. You made it easier than I imagined it to be and you gave me some good ideas. I haven't ordered mine yet but plan to this week. I only have weekends to work on mine and we are supposed to have rain. I might put it off.

Good luck. Hope it helps driving style.

Thanks again

[doviatt]

I hooked up my glow-shift tach and glow-shift vacuum gauges last weekend. I still need to mount them but I wanted to make sure they work properly first.

On the tach I noticed my rpm's were high and unstable as Mogal described. I tried changing the cyl selector switch on the back of the tach to 6cyl and now things read normal. Yeah, I've got a 3 cyl but the tach isn't counting the pulses correctly.

Mogal, Did you get yours stabalized? Have you tried changing the switch? Your idle should read well below 1000 if it sounds like a normal idle.

Edit: Oh by the way Mogal. You did end up with the correct tach source. The brown or brown/black wire is the negative side of the coil which is what the tach expects to read.

[Mogal]

Originally Posted by doviatt

Mogal, Did you get yours stabalized? Have you tried changing the switch? Your idle should read well below 1000 if it sounds like a normal idle.

Edit: Oh by the way Mogal. You did end up with the correct tach source. The brown or brown/black wire is the negative side of the coil which is what the tach expects to read.

I never had an issue with the tach reading incorrectly, just slow to repond.
Mine reads correctly at 850rpm at a warm idle.

Wiring was fine as well, although I never hooked up the dimmer wire.

Glad you got it going!! you'll enjoy them!
If yea can post pics!