Tachometer Question - Westerbeke W27a

After nearly 3 months out of the water (June 19th to Sep 11th) we’re back in the water following repairs from a lightning strike. Looks like our summer starts now. We should be able to get out a few times to shake the wrinkles out of our newly refurbished boat. Once the boat comes out of the water for the season I plan to write up the entire experience for the group.

One last nagging problem seems to be the tach. When we got hit the tachometer stopped working. Now since the tach got its feed through the external regulator I assumed that replacing the regulator would also solve my tach problem. Unfortunately that wasn’t so. So my questions for the group are:

How do I determine if the tach is getting the necessary signal? Where should it be measured from? And finally what should this signal look like? Is it a pulse? What value should it have?

BTW all of the other instruments in the cluster work normally and the alternator is charging properly.

Looking forward to resolving this issue…I hope it’s the last one.

Ron

Ron & Diane Schryver
“Alpha Waves” '87 NS30U #393
Georgian Bay Midland Ontario

My recollection is that the tach gets it’s signal from a terminal on the alternator even if you have a separate regulator. Make sure you have continuity between the tach terminal and it. The other item would be a bad ground at the tach. Is the hour meter working??
Joe Valinoti
S/V IL Gatto NS30U #221 (1984)
Sea Harbour Yacht Club
Oriental, NC

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