Digital tachs

[relentlesss]

Could anyone tell me. How hard is it. Also what is involv3ed and required to install these on my boat. 1996 Sea Ray 450Da 2000 Cat 3126

 

[fwebster]

If you mean Aetna Engineering's digital tachs, then the answer is.... very easy. The wiring is plug and play; even the Caterpillar sender is compatible with Aetna. The only problem you will have is the diameter of the Aetna tachs is smaller than the dash cutout. There are a couple of ways to handle that......one is to have a custom made bezel made to fill the gap. The Aetna hole is about 3.75" and the OEM cutout is about 5" so your tachs will have roughly a 3/4" metal ring around them. The other approach is to have your upper gauge panel remade to the Aetna cutout size. That is what I did:

 

[Boat Guy]

Frank's write-up is all you need....

Though, I will tell you that I replaced mine and I think it's a wise investment.

 

[tony357]

I installed a set of floscan gauges on pair of Volvos last year with magnetic triggers, had to make trigger wheels for balancers customer would not let me drill and tap his bell housings to run triggers off flywheel. They work great plus you have the floscans..

 

[tony357]

short vid trueing trigger wheel, and some pics. the adapter ended up being two piece. I used gokart sprockets for trigger wheels had to cut flats on top of teeth for trigger to read.

 

[Gimme Time]

Gentlemen,

I gotta ask what is the true benefit? How does the sichicronizer fit into the equation and function properly? I have to say I currently have a wide fluctuation issue with my port engine tach and I'm not sure if it's the electrical side which I believe it is or the conversion to electric through the sichicronizer system. I've replaced the fly wheel pickup devise twice already.

John

 

[carterchapman]

John,

It doesn't affect the syncronizer at all. As Frank W said - it is plug and play at the instrument itself. It solves the inaccurate mechanical tach problem...

http://www.aetnaengineering.com/8905-LCD-tachometer.asp

 

[1956olds]

Will the aetne's work on cummins engines with the magnetic pick up in the bell housing also?

 

[fwebster]

The problem with fluctuating and inaccurate tachs is common to Sea Rays using the Teleflex tach heads. The Aetna digital tach solves that problem for good.

As far as compatibility with Cummins senders, the Aetna Engineering website is thorough and will address that, but if your Cummins uses a magnetic tooth counter, handling the variances with different numbers of teeth is handled with dip switches insider the tach that you set up during installation.

 

[relentlesss]

Frank. Could you give me the model number you used. It seems we have the same boat.

 

[fwebster]

This is the Aetna product listing:

http://www.aetnaengineering.com/model-8905r-lcd-tachometer/


The one I used is 8905R-B-H-DS. It has a black bezel since my gauges are black. If your boat is a later model with stainless gauge bezels, then you will use 8905R-P-H-DS. both are LCD displays, with hour meters for diesel engines. Aetna also has a black trim ring that I used. I don't see it on their website so you will need to ask them for it if you choose black.