Defender TD5 Tacho/rev counter upgrade YAE100790

[@theimbiber]

Hi Mike i used your guide to fit an ebay £17 tacho today (you might want to update your affiliate links as some dont exist now) my 2002 inconveniently didnt have the ECU to dash wire however i just ran another wire from pin19 to the tacho. added the resister you described (pack of 10 was the least i could buy 2 quid!) but for under £20 thanks to you i now have a functioning tacho for less than a tenth of the price of a "proper" one !! thank you

[@MikeMakesIt]

I’ll take a look at the links, thanks for the heads up. I’m glad you got your cheap upgrade. Mines still working great and very happy with the overall low cost. Thanks for the feedback and of course for watching👍🏽

[@walter.j2510]

Thanks a lot for the information contained through Tacho instalation. Well done. I have Landrover defender td5 1999 I did the same method to install myself.

[@MikeMakesIt]

Hi Walter. Thanks for the great comments and of course for watching, much appreciated 👍🏽

[@joncorry]

Great video and description, it’s a dry day so I’ll see what colour wires I’ve got!

[@MikeMakesIt]

Hi Jon, thanks for the feedback. It’s a good day here at the mo as well! Thanks for watching 👍🏽

[@ribraff]

Excellent info. Thankyou

[@MikeMakesIt]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the feedback and for watching 👍🏽

[@TheBenjaminBrowning]

This is what I need! I’ve got a TD5 with an R380 with the V8 5th gear and the 1.211 disco transfer box. I’d love to see how low my revs are now at 60mph with the new ratios

[@MikeMakesIt]

Sound like a nice motor. A tad quicker than the engine I have! Thanks for watching 👍🏽

[@BigJDMZ]

What is the reason for fitting the 10k resistor across the signal and feed connections? Did you just guess at 10k or is that a calculated value? Was your tacho originally designed to run from the W terminal on the alternator? I fitted one to my series 3 with a Thor 4.0 V8 engine in and when using the ECU signal the tacho reading is reading too high (1200rpm at idle and around 4000 at 70mph). Any ideas what I can do to get the reading to match the engine speed? Cheers.

[@MikeMakesIt]

Hi Big J. I believe the output from the ECU is what's called " open collector" www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transistor/open-collector-outputs.html so you need a "pull up" resistor connected from the ECU output to 12v+. A 10k resistor seemed to be a good starting point as it is a high enough value not to do any damage or "load" anything too much. Anything between 1k to 10k is a normal value to use so as I said I started high and it worked so left it there. Yes, the tacho was designed to be connected to an alternators W connector. On this actual tacho there is a blue calibration adjuster pot on the back. I simply adjusted this to a know rev output (Idle in my case using a Nanocom set to RPM for reference) and everything else fell in place. I hope this helps, thanks for the comments and for watching 👍🏽

[@BigJDMZ]

Brilliant thanks very much 👍

[@samcopson3981]

Hi Mike thanks for the great video just fitted this to my 2000 defender and works a treat. Did you ever dim the lighting down as you said its a bit bright compared to the other gauges .

[@MikeMakesIt]

It's on the list! I did add a couple of low value resistors in series with the back light power cable for the display but that is super sensitive to voltage variations so the brightness varied some what. I do need to revisit this as I do have another tacho unit I can experiment on. I also want to swap out the red led that lights the needle with a coloured one similar to the rest of the dials. I will get around to it but it's probably not going to be my next video. Thanks for watching 👍🏽

[@inakiruiz1941]

Did you place the resistor between the signal wire and the positive feed? Or just in the signal wire? Hard to see on the video. Thanks a lot

[@MikeMakesIt]

I cannot see all the comments for this video at the moment (At work!) but I’m sure I have already answered this question. Take a look through the comments and I think you will find the answer. Remember there are two parts to the video, the answer may be in the other one. If it’s not there come back to me and I’ll find the answer for you. Thanks for watching 👍

[@inakiruiz1941]

@@MikeMakesIt thank you so much! I found it. Somehow I missed you already answer it. Do you remember by any chance what voltage you had when measruing the signal wire? I can't seem to get any even though I used pin 19. Thanks so much

[@MikeMakesIt]

@@inakiruiz1941 It was measured on the scope but I would be guessing now if I said a figure. If you use a DVM I think you would just get an average voltage of the signal value. A scope is really what you need to measure the wave form. If the resistor isn’t connected at the right points you wont get anything!

[@inakiruiz1941]

@@MikeMakesIt thanks for the answers. I have tried with the 10k resistor and I’m getting nothing unfortunately. Any other ideas?

[@peteroliver585]

hi Mike finnaly got mine in and working brilliant .. just one thing is it poss to dim the leds at all its quite bright at night ? 😅

[@MikeMakesIt]

Hi Peter, I put a resistor in series with the cable for the backlighting for the tacho. It did help a little but the needle I believe is powered directly so this doesn’t dim. It’s still a little too bright for me and I need to revisit this issue but so far haven’t had the chance to. I think I tried 470ohm resistor then altered the value until I got something I liked. Remember the resistor has to go in series (in line) with the cable that connects to the lighting circuit.

[@peteroliver585]

@MikeMakesIt ok Mike thanks will have a look into again didn't look to much inside so not sure if there's several leds or not hoping I can black out some of them lol 😉

[@ralphj4012]

When you opened the second box (oil temp) I was expecting to see a tin of Airfix white, ho, ho.

[@MikeMakesIt]

Hi Ralph, that comes later! Thanks for watching 👍🏽

[@ignaciodepuig2505]

I saw in a forum some ppl use a 3k3 resistor. Which one should we use

[@MikeMakesIt]

3.3k should work ok but I know the value I picked worked worth my setup.

[@seanlindsey3060]

Hi Mike, thanks for such a detailed video! I bought my 2002 110 Td5 18 months ago and it has been fitted with a VDO tacho. They have run a single wire from it, out of the bulkhead and underneath and back into the underseat box and spliced on to the black ECU connector. A bit of a bodge, so I will trace the wire through the connector and can remove the wire to make a much neater job, cheers for the info. Also, mine has a disco transfer box fitted (1.211 ratio) and it sits at 2,300 revs at 70 MPH in 5th, so would be interested in seeing what revs you get with your roamerdrive. On another note, I can see you have a MUSTOOL MT8208 scope? How well does it perform, and can you recommend it? I have on old tube Tektronix dual channel storage scope, and as you can imagine, its HUGE, and very heavy. I need to sell it as I do not use it often and that little meter you are using sounds like an ideal replacement for my needs. Keep up the great work, your videos are really good and informative 👍

[@MikeMakesIt]

Hi Sean thanks for the great comments, they are very welcome. Before the Roamerdrive @60mph the rev's were 2400rpm measured on the Nanocom. With the Roamerdrive fitted and engaged its around 1900rpm. Roamerdrive say there is a reduction of 28% across all the gears which sounds about right to me. I bought the MT8202 especially for this job (Tacho) as I was a bit worried about using a mains powered one and somehow blowing the ECU. As you can see it worked very well for this application. I would say it depends how in depth your future scope use needs to be as this scope is quite basic but for me it did the job I needed it to do and will be used on future projects. I do have a "proper" scope if need though. Remember if you have ABS the colours of the cables may be different to mine but I do suspect there will be a cable to pin 14 (I think) in the instrument loom like mine you could use but every Defender is different. Good luck and thanks for watching 👍🏽

[@seanlindsey3060]

@@MikeMakesIt thanks Mike, forgot to say, mine does not have ABS either,so hopefully will be the same wiring. I will keep an eye on the scope multimeter to see if I can grab it for a good price 😎

[@peteroliver585]

hi don't suppose you could sell me a tacho with the pull up resistor attached ny any chance or send me a pic on how to fit it ? cheers pete from doncaster 😊

[@MikeMakesIt]

Hi, I'll have look to see what pictures I have that may be useful, give me a couple of days.

[@MikeMakesIt]

Right, I've looked though my info but don't actually have a photo of the pull resistor fitted. Here are 2 links to my 2 videos where I mention the resistor though. With my tacho I needed to add it, possibly on other tachos you don't. I connected mine between the 12v+ feed to the tacho and the signal lead from the ECU on the inside of the tacho for neatness. It was a 10k value resistor. I hope this helps kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZW4kmmInNWnrdk and kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6qze2SYpJeBj9k

[@peteroliver585]

@@MikeMakesIt does it matter which way round the resistor goes Mike?? cheers pete

[@MikeMakesIt]

@@peteroliver585 Hi Pete, no it doesn’t matter so long as it’s on the correct terminals/connectors.

[@peteroliver585]

@MikeMakesIt ok Mike thanks will get one ordered off ebay sorry for all the questions lol .is it just a normal 10k resistor ?

[@032254855]

was going to do this one day but got a nanocom that shows the rpm

[@MikeMakesIt]

Hi Roza, I used a Nanocom for a while, indeed when I was doing the upgrade to set the new tacho but I always had to go into the Nano's menu and set for revs where as this option is a bit more streamlined. Thanks for the comments and of course for watching 👍🏽