Has anyone used the Parts Place Tic/Toc Tach replacement? Wondering what the install is like.
Dan

 

I had one in my vista before I went to the dakota digital VHX. Install was fine. As far as differences go, The faces are too shiny compared to originals (I have one that I sprayed the faces with semi gloss clear and it looks much better) The clock is a quartz movement so the motion of the second hand is slightly different than the original mechanical movement (some see this as a benefit). The tach needle is wider/ longer than original. The clock adjustment **** is a different shape and the stem does not have the rubber "grommet" that originals have where the stem goes through the lens. The inside of the tach housing is not painted vs. the originals being white or aqua which means the faces are very difficult to see at night. The tach comes apart pretty easily so you can paint the inside of the housing and install LED bulbs which helps with this issue. If you do this and can live with the other differences, the repop tachs bolt right in, plug into the factory harness (you will need to add the coil wire if the car did not come with a tach), and work fine. My holiday coupe has an original tic toc tach and I have the repop that I modified to look more original on a shelf. I can get some pics if you want.

 

Thanks for the input. No pics needed as I have a working one in my 442 but the tach is not calibrated correctly. I have a 72 vintage Sun Super Tach column mounted that is spot on and I thought for the price that repo might be worth the replacement, but appears not so much. Will just leave it as is and use the Sun. Thanks!

 

This explains a lot. My car has the original tach in a box but a reproduction installed and I wondered why it was so dark. I thought it was missing bulbs or something. I remembered my car in high school being well lit and easy to see. Would you mind posting a pic?

 

Until just recently I had the PP TTT in my '72 dash - it is dark even with LED bulbs behind it (I didn't pull it apart for paint) but it is a simple install and worked well over the 4+ years I had it in there.

Only recently though I decided to try something different - my car came with a clock-delete plate so I hole-cut the face out to install an Autometer 1298 tachometer (3-3/8"), which fit perfectly inside the housing, matching the depth of the factory gauges and somewhat the OEM original gauge face styling - literally a 15-minute swap and very cool dash appearance, matching the 3 smaller Autometer gauges (water, oil, volts) I have mounted in a center under-dash console styled after the 8-track housing enclosure

 

Here are some photos of the reproduction tach. Like I said, I took it apart to paint the inside ot the case and put a coat of flat clear on the faces. I also made a new lens with a hole the size of the stem and foam gaskets for the inside, but I will get to the gasket later. The reproduction tachs come with faces that are very shiny and noticably different from an original speedometer they will likely be sitting next to. I believe these faces are also made by applying a decal to a smooth face vs. the original faces with raised numbers/ letters but this is not very noticable now that the faces are not glossy anymore.



When I restored the original tach and gauges that I put in my hardtop I did not have the "gromets" that go between the stem and the lens. Here is a photo of a speed warning spedometer with the correct original grommet. The reproduction tach comes with a hole in the lens sized for one of these, but nothing there. So there is essentially a giant hole with a small stem going through it.

Here are photos of the original tach I restored installed in my hardtop. Notice the different **** (smaller and much shorter) and the different shape of the tach needle compared to the reproduction tach shown in the first pics.

I did not have any of the original "grommets" when I restored these so I used vacuum hose to make a stem shroud like the 67 dashes used.

There is one other thing that I forgot to mention in my earlier post. The reproduction tachs will often fog up on the inside of the lens on cold mornings like a car windshield. It is possible that this is because of the new plexiglass, but I believe it is because the new tachs do not come with a foam gasket that the original tachs had.
Here are some pics of an original 68 tach I restored. You can see the foam gasket I made using an original as an example. This is completely missing on the reproduction tachs. I made one of these for my original tach in the hardtop and the reproduction tach. There should also be a gasket like this in the fuel, temp, oil rally pack between the "brake" / "gen" warning light housing and the metal case. That gasket is not in the reproduction rally pack gauges either.

In these photos you han see the correct clock adjustment **** in the small pile of parts on the towel.



Again notice the low gloss finish on the original faces and the different shape of the tach needle.