Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I requested info for a tach that would work on a Packard, I contacted Westach and purchased one. I installed it in less than an hour. The reading that I got was about double what I thought it should be. I called the help line and talked to Pete. He told me to send it back and he would recalibrate it. I had learned on this forum that idle rpm was between 450 and 500 rpm which gave him a baseline to start with. I recieved the recalibrated tach in less than a week and it worked as expected.Pete told me that most distributors run at half speed of the engine but packards are direct drive and run at the full speed.I am extremely happy with Westach and thier customer service guy Pete Cornelius and would recommend them. If you purchase anything from them I would recommend that you call them rather than off the web site and make sure you tell them it's for a Packard.
Jim

What year and model Packard do you have?

In 1939, tachs were an option.

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I'm not sure what this means as there is one spark per cylinder for every two revolutions. One revolution is the intake and compression stroke where the spark fires and the other is the exhaust stroke and I know of no 4-stroke engine with a distributor that's different than that.

My car is a 1940 110 I was not looking for a stock tachometer and all I want it for is to see how hard I pushing the engine at road speed. Westtach simply wires across the neg./pos. posts on the spark coil. No need for 6V power to the gauge unless you want a light option. Most engines run off three pulses per revolution Packards and some other makes run on six.this is due the way the distributor is powered. the ones that run on 3 pulses are gear driven to half speed on the distributor. Packards run direct or full speed of the engine.
I don't know how they make it work electronically but it make sense to me after he explained it the car is a 245 cu.in. six. The Tach is mounted under the dash. It works and I'm happy

Jim

Someone sent me a private message regarding this post. It has disappeared from my Emails. I don't know how to reply as it came through the forum with a do not reply post. I didn't know there was a private message available. If you would like to try again and add your email address or a phone number (prefered) I hope that I can help you. I'm in my 7th decade and not very computer savy and I can talk a hell of a lot eazier than type.
Jim

Just log in to the site and click Inbox at the upper left menu. Replying from there is very easy.

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Don't worry, no shortage of sympathetic ears here. Please check Don's advice on the previous post.

I'm in the same decade (well-into it) and I've always been a techie although not everyone is! Still, it's quite east to reply to a PM.