Yeah, me neither. I've always just shifted by ear, but I wanted a tach just for the cool factor.

 

Not to jack the thread but can you remove the idiot light panel on my 73 and replace it with a tach? I was going to do it but there's a circut board on the rear of the instrument cluster, is it nessesary if I have installed water, volt, and oil pressure guages? Mounting the tach on the steering column blocks my fuel gauge.

 

Yeah, you really do need most of that stuff. If you remove the water guage, for an example, and a hose clamp breaks, you could very easily burn up your motor and not even know it. Same thing with the oil guage.

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear; I have replaced the idiot lights with gauges. The idiots lights no longer serve a purpose. What I am wondering is can I remove that instrument cluster and replace it with an after market tach? I would probably replace the speedo and fuel gauge so they match.

 

Actually, it's not just a cool factor. I use the tach on my 03 Mach1 everytime I shift. Normal driving is about 4K. I especially use it at 4th and 5th gears. I don't like to lug an engine down, so if it drops below 2K, I shift down. The medium shift point on these old 289's is about 3K. They breathe better at medium to higher RPM's. On my old 65, I can tell by ear when it starts to strain. It's just a feel.