I have a 69 Camaro that has a new MSD Dist, 6AL, and 8920 tach adapter to run the factory tach. All was well and working fine until the tach started dropping to zero while driving around town and then working again. After an hour or so the tach fell to zero and I noticed electrical burning smell and a light puff of smoke near the air controls. I brought the car home and disconnected the battery and started to investigate. I found the tach circuit panel was fired. I called MSD and they were no help so I called Jegs and they exchanged the adapter. I purchased a now tach from Classic Industry ($250) and went to work. I checked that all the wiring was correct and it was according to the MSD diagram. It told me that I have a Voltage triggered tachometer so I followed that direction. I started the car and all was well until I started driving the car and the tach started dying again intermittently so again I took the car home quickly. What am I missing here? MSD is worthless in helping me and I am at wits end. I do not want to destroy a $250 tach again either. I want to keep the factory tach but with all this I am stuck. Please help. Thanks so much for your time.

 

Have you tried to hook up an old external tach to make sure the wiring is correct first? It should help you know weather the problem is in the msd or your in dash tach.

 

Thank you Smee78 for the response. I agree with you on the external tach. But let me also add that since then I finally got a response from MSD and they are now telling me that I do not need the tach adapter (go figure). So, I remove the adapter and hook the white tach lead from the MSD 6AL directly to the tach and after starting the car the tach worked for a minute or two then went to zero and the fuse to the dash popped. I changed the fuse and yet again it popped. Perplexed, I disconnected the plug to the tach and replaced the fuse yet again and all is good. So, all I can think is that the tach was damaged by the tach adapter the second round. I have the original tach for the camaro and will try to run it just to see if this happens again and before I pay another $250 for a new OER tach. Overall all I can think is that the new tach was damaged when I replaced the tach adapter. It just pisses me off that the MSD tech said that I needed to adapter when I really didn't. Now they are telling me that I can hook it directly from the box. I hope that this thread helps others that have to deal with this issue. Its getting to be an expensive education. Thanks again for you help.

 

I am also dealing with a similar issue.
69 Camaro w/ 383 stoker small block.
Accel supercoil hei , replaced with an MSD ready to run #8360 and blaster coil.
The tach worked great when attached to the yellow output lead on the old Accel hei unit. There is no stock ballast resistor as far as i can see. I have it connected now to the grey wire on the ready to run and I get nothing at the tach.
Aviator, which fuse is the tach connected to on the fuse panel ?
I either have a blown fuse or I need some sort of adapter, or my stock once working tach is fried.

 

motobro, I really dont know which fuse it is but I would just track it down and see. I am currently in discussion with Jegs and MSD about the issue. Last month the Jegs tech stated that I remove the tach adapter and run the white tach lead from the 6AL directly to the tach and "see" what happens. Well, the tach works for 20 seconds and then dies. This is a brand new OER tach ($240) and the third one in total since I started with project. I am now asking for Jegs to allow me to return the whole ignition system for a refund/credit and refund/credit for all the tachs that have burned up due to the MSD system. This is getting old. I like the MSD system with this one exception.

 

Update: So I finally spoke to Jegs tech who spoke to MSD and OER and of course they both blame each other. Go figure... I called MSD personally and hung up after 40 mins on hold. Jegs stepped up and said they will refund me on the MSD Dist, 6AL, and coil and offer me the racers discount for whatever I chose to replace it with. I spoke to Pertronix and they offer a setup that will work for my setup. I'm sick of dealing with MSD and will never again purchase anything from them again. Interesting to add that the Jegs tech stated that MSD was a much better company prior to being purchased by Holley. Im looking forward to seeing how this new system will work. I'll post my findings.

 

Another update: So, the final verdict.... OER is a POS! I installed the Pertronix system and yep another OER tach up in smoke. I contacted John with Redline Gauge repair, sent them my last burnt up OER and he stated what he figured was wrong. The cheap components used to build the OER tach was the issue. He rebuilt the tach with "quality" components and its working beautifully without the smoke signals anymore. I have emailed OER and Classic Industry about the issue. If any of you have issues like me, please contact John at Redline. He is such a nice guy and very willing to listen and help make a bad situation right. So MSD is not so bad after all, but they still lack the great customer service one would expect from a company as big as Holley (Holley owns MSD). Hope this has help someone out there to not spend a lot of money on OER. Thanks!