Equus Tachometer Not Working On

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
I installed the 3-3/8'' Equus tachometer on my EZGO Workhorse with the 27hp Kawasaki. This tach uses an inductive pickup that clamps on the spark plug wire to get a reading which makes it possible to work on these engines. After trying all the troubleshooting, the tachometer is not working. There is only one power line that runs to a switched 12 volt source, a ground wire and then the inductive pickup line. Needless to say it would be hard to not hook it up correctly. The sensors inside the inductive pickup almost look as though they are not touching the plug wire, like the plug wire is to thin.
I think this is the tach that most people use for big blocked golf carts so I wanted to see if anybody had trouble with theirs not working. Any ideas what could be making it not work? Thanks!!
 

matt75

New Member
Sorry Ace this is not a reply to your tach problem..... but I do want to see pics of the EZGO Workhorse since you've finished it. Have you posted pics? It looks killer on your avatar. :thumbsup:
 

treeman

New Member
Merry Christmas.
I had trouble with an erratic Equus tach and got a replacement. No trouble with new unit. I have looked all over for a part number but so far haven't found one. I think Equus only makes one tach that is suitable for a two cylinder engine. My pickup for spark plug cable fits very tight. In fact tighter than I like. Make sure you have switched 12V and double check your ground. Has the needle moved at all? Have you gone through the calibration procedures? Regardless, the needle should move when the engine is running if you have 12V and a good ground. Let me know how you are doing and I'll help all I can. Good luck.
 

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
Thanks for the quick reply! The needle sits at 2000 rpm when in the off position, when the engine is started it will move back to 0 and stay there. I'm sure its getting a full 12 volts and has good ground connection. Treeman, do you remember what you calibrated yours to? Should it be set at 500 or 1000? I may be over looking something simple here or it could be a bad tach. I tried reversing the direction of the pickup on the plug wire with no luck. Where did you buy yours from?

Matt, I haven't posted pics of it yet but will get some on here soon. I know I'm slacking! :D Its just too much fun driving I hardly get a chance to post. :)

Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas!!
 

treeman

New Member
I got mine from a company thru E-bay. Sounds like you do have 12v and ground. I calibrated mine to the 1000 RPM position. When I turn my ignition switch to off the tach stays at last engine RPM. When I turn switch to run positon the tach goes to zero. Then when engine starts the RPM is rigistered. You mentioned 2000 RPM. Does the guage go to 2000 when engine starts? Is your tach white in color? Mine is. On my pickup the arrow points towarad the spark plug. I havent't hooked up the white light wire.
 

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
Yep if yours is the 8068 we have the same one. Mine will only go to 2000 when the ignition is turned off, otherwise when the ignition is turned to the run position(engine on and idling) the tach will move to 0 and stay there no matter how high the engine is reved. Seems like it is not get a signal from the plug wire.
I have the white wire for the back lighting hooked up to a toggle switch that operates all 4 gauges wired in a series. One thing I haven't tried is running it with the gauge lights turned on. Maybe the back lighting being hooked up to a seperate switch and not turned on is keeping the tach from working? But it if was in a car you wouldn't want the light on all the time. Hmmmm.
I think I'll try clamping the pickup line to one of the plug wires on my truck and see if anything happens. I just don't see the magnet looking sensor inside the plastic clamp box touching the Kawasaki's plug.
Thanks for the help. :coolest:
 

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
Just got back from trying the sensor on my truck's plug wire and it works. How about that. I then tried it again on the workhorse and after wiggling the sensor around on the plug wire the tach showed a reading but it was very erratic and hard to find the right spot on the plug wire where it would give a reading. I'm thinking it is a bad tach or sensor. At least we know it isn't a freak plug wire or something on the Kawasaki's part.
 

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
Yes I forgot to mention, I switched it to the other plug and that is when it started to work but not for long. It was very hard to get it to keep working even when it was on my truck. I bought the tach locally from O'Reilly Auto Parts so hopefully it will be easy to swap out for a new one. Will let you know if the new one does the trick. Thanks again for the help.
 

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
Hmmmm...2 tachs down and neither of them work right. I swapped out the first tach for a new one today and it seems to be doing the same thing. Could it be operator error? What I am doing differently than I guess most would is the 12 volts comes from a seperate toggle switch all by itself instead of the ignition. This shouldn't really matter though should it? From what I understand, the ignition doesn't have to be the only source for the 12 volts that it needs, right?
This new tach seems to clamp down much tighter than the old one was able to. Also, when I calibrated it to the 1000 it stayed there when power is turned off. The other one, when calibrated the same way, would stay at the original factory setting of 2000 when it was turned off. Can the pickup line be clamped to a curved portion of the plug cable? When routed under the frame, the pickup line will only reach number 1 spark plug, which happens to be the shortest of the two and has no flat straight location on it. I did, however, try it on both cables, #2 is longer and flat but still nothing.
I noticed the tach will only get a reading when the pickup is just loosly set on the cable and wiggled around untill it starts to show something, if its tightened down, the tach goes to 0.
 

treeman

New Member
I know just how you feel. My first tach about drove me crazy until I convinced myself that it was defective. Yours sounds different than my first one. Mine is clamped to curved spark plug cable but mine fits very tight. Can't move it once screw is tightened. I sure wouldn't think it would matter where you get the 12V so long as there is a common ground. Just in case it does matter is it possible to connect it to your switched 12V? On my Briggs I connected mine where my fuel solenoid gets it's switched 12V. My Briggs idles at 1500RPM. When I turn the ignition OFF the tach remains at 1500. Next time I turn switch to ON (RUN) tach goes to zero and stays there until engine starts again. Just maybe the initial zeroing by turning switch to RUN does program the tach somehow. I think I'd give that a go.
 

treeman

New Member
Before you turn ON the ignition switch, turn ON your tach switch and the tach should go to zero. If not, something must be wrong with the tach. If it does go to zero, start your engine and see what the tach does. Then when you are ready to shut down, turn OFF the tach first. This should simulate switched 12V.
 

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
Thanks I will try that next time and let you know what happens. Mine is just so random when it works or doesn't. If the inductive pickup is clamped down tight it never works and the needle just sits at 0. When it is placed on the cable loosly it will sometimes give a reading but it goes up and down constantly between 1500 and 0.

The magnet looking piece inside the plastic inductive pickup case, does both sides of it touch your plug cable? Mine will only touch one side at a time.
 

treeman

New Member
My pickup touches my cable all the way through the sensor. The outside clamps press against the rubber covering to hold it in place. You might want to wrap a piece of rubber ( inner tube or rubber off a piece of cable) around your cable to bring the diameter up to about 1/4 inch so pickup stays in one place. Tape might work but gets messy when hot.
 

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
I was curious what exactly does the inductive pickup sense? I know its the pulse through the plug wire but does the pickup sense it magnetically or actually feel the pulse? Funny thing is I was able to make the tach work flawlessly on my truck's V8 engine when I hooked it back up today. Not wanting to hack into the trucks electrical system, I had the tach getting constant power from being hooked up directly to a 12 volt lawn mower battery after calibrating it for the 8 cylinders. Then with the reassurance that the tach is in fact in good working order, I messed around hooking it back up to the Kawasaki. I recalibrated it to the 1000 rpm and double checked everything was wired correctly. Started it up and the darn needle still just moves to 0 and stays there. :wallbash:

As a last desperate attempt, thinking Equus maybe has changed something on the newer 8068 model tachs, I hooked it up to my lawn mower's 23hp V-twin Kohler engine and believe it or not the tach works but jumps up and down. First said the engine was idling steady at 800 rpm. I thought ok thats a good sign, then gave it full throttle and it happily stayed at 800 rpm. :unsure: So I tried it again on a different setting and the other plug, next thing I know the tach starts jumping up and down from 0 to 3000 rpms. I may hook it back up to the workhorse and bring it to O'Reilly, see if they could find check it out. Only thing is then the warranty would be void since its installed on an off road vehicle(listed in the fine print).
 

ACEGOLFCARTGUY

Cartaholic
Had an interesting result after playing around with the tach some more. I installed it on my JD lawn mower again since I knew I would be starting and stopping it often and didn't want to put that wear on the Kawi. Now the interesting part is the tach seems to be more accurate than before. I fired up the engine and the tach showed a steady 1000 rpms at a slow idle (thank goodness we're getting somewhere) then it starts sporadically jumping to 0 and then back to 1000 over and over again. I then increased throttle and it seemed to go up smoothly and accurately eventually hitting 3600 rpms but the entire time constantly hitting 0 and then going back to the accurate rpm. Is this normal for these tachs to do? I let the engine run for about 15 mins and as it warmed up the tach seemed to jump less but never completely stopped doing that. This made me think there might be a loose wire in the tach? 2 bad tachs in a row? I can get a vid of what its doing if that will help explain it better. Thanks again for hanging in there with me!! We'll get it sooner or later.
 

treeman

New Member
It is a magnetic pickup. It really sounds like you have gotten two defective tachs for two cylinder operation. The first one I tried would not go to zero. It would reset to about 700RPM. When running it would jump all over the place for a short time then go to 700 and stay there. By luck, I suppose, the next one works flawlessly. I was told by the supplier that they both worked on V8 engines before they were shipped but were not checked on two cylinder engines. I tried to contact Equus but they were no help. They informed me that they are into automotive tachs. You have used up my bag of suggestions. Wish I could do more. Good luck. If you find out more please let me know.
 
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