Home News Models Alternatives
 
Smart Car of America - America's Largest Smart Fortwo Enthusiast Community   Smart Fortwo, smart car, smartcar
HOME FORUMS GALLERY

Go Back   Smart Car of America Forums > Smart Car Technical > Smart Car Modifications

Notices

» Supporting Partner
» Recent Threads
Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 10-21-2008, 12:22 PM   #1 (permalink)
 
pitstopautoinc's Avatar
 
Location: Riverside, California, USA
Drive: Smart Fortwo and GSXR1000
My SCOA Gallery
How to add an aftermarket tach to a Smart Car

First of all I would like to thank Derrick Lynn from Walters Mercedes in Riverside, CA and also Joseph Mills from Autometer. Without their help, I would still be searching for an oscilloscope to make this happen. Thanks guys I really appreciate all your help.

Now on to the install. From the pictures you will notice, that I have a shift light and a Digital Pro-Shift System to opperate my shift light. If you purchase a tach that has a shift light already on it, then you do not need to purchase a separate controller for your shift light. The particular tach that I wanted, did not have a shift light that is why I added one. Once you mount your tach, and shift light if you want, next you will need to goto the engine area. Find your three coil packs and unplug the harness from each of the three coil packs. You will notice that there are three wires leading to each of the coil packs. I had to grab a magnifying glass to see this, but there are little numbers stamped below each wire. 1, 2, 3. #1 is 12v power when the key is on. #2 is for the trigger wire leading to your ECU and #3 is ground. You will connect all of your number #1 wires leading to each coil pack, then that will wire into autometer #9117 tach adapter. What this does, is it creates a 1.5 pulse signal for your tach to read from. You can mount your tach adapter where ever you want, I chose to mount mine on the left side on top of the bracket for your transmission mount. As for the tach, you need to make sure that it reads 1.5 pulse. If you are buying autometer, if it is a mini monster tach, you can configure this yourself. If you buy ANY of their other tachs, you can ship it directly to autometer and they will calibrate it for 1.5 pulse for you for a small charge. They did my tach for about $30 including return shipping to me. Aside from that, you just need to wire to 12v power, and follow all of the other standard instructions that come with the autometer product. Im sure that other tachs that read 1.5 pulse will work with this adapter, but I would support Autometer, as they have helped us. If you like the stuff in my car, we sell it, you can either reach me at sales@pitstopautoinc.com or you can call us at 909.996.3566 we are located in Corona, CA and we sell everything that you need to do this. If this information is helpful, we simply ask that you buy the parts from us. Afterall, if we stay in business we can keep on adding/improving various things for our little cars. And incase you're wondering, I hooked up a stock OEM smart tach, and put it side-by-side with my autometer, and they do read the same. Here are all the part numbers that I used on my car:

Autometer:
9117 Tach adapter $64.00
5312 Digital Pro-Shift System $98.00
5330 Shift Light $46.00
5780 Tach $131.00

We offer tons of tachs in white, black, carbon fiber, silver and other various colors as well.










pitstopautoinc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 12:25 PM   #2 (permalink)
 
pitstopautoinc's Avatar
 
Location: Riverside, California, USA
Drive: Smart Fortwo and GSXR1000
My SCOA Gallery
More Photos










pitstopautoinc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 12:27 PM   #3 (permalink)
 
pitstopautoinc's Avatar
 
Location: Riverside, California, USA
Drive: Smart Fortwo and GSXR1000
My SCOA Gallery
Last 4 Photos








pitstopautoinc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 01:04 PM   #4 (permalink)
 
spdickey's Avatar
 
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Drive: smart passion coupe
My SCOA Gallery
And how much better is all this over the factory tach and the shift indicator on display?

spdickey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 01:14 PM   #5 (permalink)
 
pitstopautoinc's Avatar
 
Location: Riverside, California, USA
Drive: Smart Fortwo and GSXR1000
My SCOA Gallery
Well not so much better, I mean a tach is tach pretty much. The Digital pro however will allow you to configure your Shift light to go on at any RPM down to the 10ths... ex. 2,010 RPM 2,020 RPM or what ever you want. It also will tell you the last Peak RPM you reached, so for instance if you some how ever reved your engine, you can log into your Digital pro and it will tell you that you blew it up at X RPM. Aside from that, alot of people on Forms kept asking for an alternative to the OEM tach, so we thought we would put a few ideas together for you guys. And lastly, the shift light, is super super bright, if you miss a shift and have that thing blinding you, then you have problems ha ha. =)

pitstopautoinc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 01:44 PM   #6 (permalink)
Jetfuel your my Hero!
SCOA Club
 
babybenz's Avatar
 
Location: Tampa,FL
Drive: 06 f150 89 stang 08 smart
My SCOA Gallery
OMG is all I can say this is not a race car

babybenz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 02:39 PM   #7 (permalink)
Moderator
SCOA Club
 
Wdhitch's Avatar
 
Location: Ruskin, FL (near Tampa)
Drive: 08 smart;00 Town & Country
My SCOA Gallery
The tach looks like the stock but worse... Same result for too much work...

Wdhitch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 02:52 PM   #8 (permalink)
 
pitstopautoinc's Avatar
 
Location: Riverside, California, USA
Drive: Smart Fortwo and GSXR1000
My SCOA Gallery
1. not a race car... at least yet... hayabusa engine swap is next on the list.

2. There are hundreds of tachs to choose from. That was my own personal preference, I just wanted to show you guys how it could be done, should you want to choose any other make/modle of tach because the install would be the same way.

pitstopautoinc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 02:53 PM   #9 (permalink)
HGB
SCOA Club
 
Location: 2 hours west of the mouse
Drive: A6 & a little red + black
Could anyone let me know how I can use an off the shelf plain tach that is adjustable for 4-6-8 cylinders on the smart's 3 cylinder configuration? That's all I need to know...

HGB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-2008, 02:57 PM   #10 (permalink)
 
pitstopautoinc's Avatar
 
Location: Riverside, California, USA
Drive: Smart Fortwo and GSXR1000
My SCOA Gallery
HGB

All you need to do, is find out if the pulse per revolution can be adjusted by you, or if it needs to be sent to the manufacturer. Almost any guage company can change the PPR to 1.5 and alot of tachs such as sun pro, autometer mini monster, and vdo have switches on the back side to change the PPR. When you buy a tach and it states 4cyl / 6cyl / 8cyl there are usually switches in the back associated with them that will also allow you to change the PPR.

Hope this helps,
-Chris

pitstopautoinc is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Today


This ad will not be shown if you are logged in.

Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
smart fortwo 451: Mounting clock and tach pods (DIY) jwight smart fortwo (451 - US vehicle) 34 10-28-2009 11:24 AM
Tach installation alt-088 Smart Car Modifications 6 09-25-2009 06:14 PM
adding the tach and clock JetJazz Interior & Exterior 56 11-05-2008 10:35 AM
Tach sirandme Smart Car General Discussion 4 10-21-2008 08:41 PM
Need Wholsale Smart Aftermarket parts TheSmart42 Smart Car Parts Marketplace 0 07-20-2007 10:55 PM

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.0.1

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 01:52 AM.


Smart Cars of America, LLC is not affiliated with, authorized by, associated with or have any connection with G&K, Zap, Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz AMG, Mercedes-Benz McLaren Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC, smart Canada Division, DaimlerChrysler, Chrysler LLC, DaimlerChrysler AG, Maybach, smart gmbh, a division of Mercedes Benz LLC, the manufacturer of SMART automobiles, smart USA Distributor, LLC, a division of Penske Automotive Group, Inc, the exclusive authorized U.S. importer and distributor of the smart vehicle or any of their official dealerships


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.3.0
Ad Management by RedTyger