I just bought an Autogauge 5" Tach by Autometer. It came out of a 1995 civic and i got it cheap for 20 bucks, it was my friend and he needed the money i guess. Everything is there including the shift light. I know that on 4 cylinder cars, you have to cut the two little wires (orange and brown) coming out of the tach. The green wire goes to the civic diagnostic tach under the hood, ground it out some where and the red and white wires power up the back light and shift light. Well i hooked up the green wire and grounded it out, and i had no reading on it what so ever. then just for laughs i grounded it out and put the red wire on the battery to see if any light would be possible, well no light, but the tach needle dropped to zero, similar to a magnet. Note that the car was not running when i hooked it to the battery. Does any one have knowledge of tachometer installs on civics, am i doing something wrong? any help would be great.

 

Sounds right to me, I used to have the same tach, I hooked up the green under the hood, grounded the black, the white I ran to my light dimmer control, and the red I ran to a empty fuse slot under my dash. The fuse slot gets power as soon as I turn the key.

 

thanks mill, i think im just going to try it out and see what happens. your install advice sounds clean and reliable. I know my diagnostic tach works cus i hooked up a voltmeter to it and it is reading 13.44 volts, maybe my ground wasn't good or sumthing. thanks for the info