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Hacking my way through the kudzu of wiring on the Tommy D, I've finally gotten to the point where I'd like to add something. 1980 15 Sport side console powered with a 2016 Mercury 60 Command Thrust, and has this fine connector at the helm (attached). Would love to add a tach, and perhaps some other basic engine gauges.
- use two (or more) of the single terminal wires in the pigtail
- use a connector off the 14 pin purple
- do the big spend and get a Smartcraft display (too much $$$)
- go wireless and view on a tablet (spend all day on the computer, would rather not be reminded on the water).
biggiefl wrote:
A tach should be simple enough. Most modern engines just plug & play. What does Mercury recommend?
Well, Mercury recommends I plunk $250 for an SC 1000 display and an additional sum for the harness from helm to gauge. Was pretty sure that there is a way to use legacy analog gauges given the number of options I seem to have; just trying to figure out the best approach.
I'm way behind you on the boat count, but this is the desert...
I would be hesitant to hack into the harness as they are not cheap. Have you tried E-Bay? A nice tach is $100+ so $250 is not bad(compared to Yamaha) I have not had great luck with tachs on 2cyl engines. I also never had much luck with aftermarket gauges except on Mercs. I always find an OEM tach on E-bay or a marine surplus store as Teleflex etc always seem to be incorrect. They do make small tachs that clip onto a plug wire for smaller engines. Not sure how they work either but it wold be attached to the engine so you have to either turn back to look or possible extend the wiring to reach the dash. Again, these all might interfere with accuracy. If a tach is not accurate, what good is it?
biggiefl wrote:
I would be hesitant to hack into the harness as they are not cheap. Have you tried E-Bay? A nice tach is $100+ so $250 is not bad(compared to Yamaha) I have not had great luck with tachs on 2cyl engines. I also never had much luck with aftermarket gauges except on Mercs. I always find an OEM tach on E-bay or a marine surplus store as Teleflex etc always seem to be incorrect. They do make small tachs that clip onto a plug wire for smaller engines. Not sure how they work either but it wold be attached to the engine so you have to either turn back to look or possible extend the wiring to reach the dash. Again, these all might interfere with accuracy. If a tach is not accurate, what good is it?
Wise advice about not hacking (ie cutting or splicing) into the harness itself. There are more than enough terminals there to make a simple tach connection, I'm sure - it is just a matter of someone describing how they did it and what was required.
Used or NOS Mercury analog tachs are cheap and easy enough to find from other refits. And agreed on the accuracy - how could you dial in the correct prop with bogus rev numbers?
