My tach needle is Jumping !!!!

Hey guys,

I have gotten alot of mixed answers about this one, but I'm not to sure as to which is the correct answer, so I have decided to bring the subject here. My Tach needle likes to dance alot when I'm driving my car. It tends to jump only when I punch it and once the tach goes over 3000 RPM and it's getting real annoying because I dont know what my actual RPM's are I have taken it to a local shop but the people here in UTAH are stupid. I really miss LA, anyway ahy help in this matter would be greatly appreiciated it. Thanks

Did you touch it. This needle is fragile. I had this probleme because I removed it and replaced it. I tried everything and the only solution I found was to replace the whole cluster for 25$ at the scrapyard.

Does your car run weird or anything when the tach jumps? My tach did the same thing when my coil was going bad. It could also be your igniter. If it turns out to be the coil I'd replace the whole dizzy, cause I got my coil replaced in my crx and now the igniter is making it do the same thing, again. I'd address this problem ASAP cause my car ended up dying in the parking lot of a grocery store.

Well thanks you guys I appreciate the feedback. My car does "tug" when I punch it and thats when I notice that needle starts to jump. I think I will be going to a junkyard this weekend and see if I can pick up a whole unit.

Distributor...exact thing happened to me.

yep, the EXACT same thing has been happening to me and i've replaced everthing but the dizzy, so yea do that =)

btw, i was driving yesterday and the tugging and tach-jumping is getting worse, and just last night I was driving and out of no where is just cut power, then the battery and oil lights came on. Managed to finally get it back to my house after letting it sit for a while and a very rough ride home. Now a day later, it's running back to it's semi-decent way-so far..

still sound like the dizzy would do that?

Yeah, dude. Mine did the same time. You should just get a new dizzy, it will save you the headache. You're going to end up stranded somewhere, and its going to suck.

Hey...try unplugging the plug from the distributor and plugging it back in. I'm pretty sure you're just losing connection somewhere. I believe there are multiple wires that regulate the tach. Check all of them for continuity. I really think this is ur problem. The RPM's on ur tach is produced by the sensors in ur dizzy. Either the sensor is bad, or there is a bad connection. The only things that go bad on ur dizzy are the cap, rotor, coil, and the sensors. The coil, rotor, and cap create the spark and send it to ur engine...so they have nothing to do with ur tach. So it has to be the sensors or a bad connection. Did you do a MPFI swap? I've had the IDENTICAL problem with my MPFI swap before. Try moving ur harness around and also check the plug at the firewall for a good connection. Take off ur dizzy cap and check to see if there are any loose wires in there and see if something looks funny. Make sure the wires are making a good connection and make sure there aren't any cut wires. also, i'm pretty sure it's not ur guages. If all this fails....just buy a new dizzy. hope that helps.

So I'm assuming your not feeling any performance problems then? Mine use to jump around and the car would sputter and take long to start up after sitting for a while. Poped off you dizzy cap and look to see if there is any dust or anything in there. Check your engine grounds, try resanding them if you need too. If you not having any problem with the performance of the car, check out a honda book to see how the tach breaks down.

...My car does "tug" when I punch it and thats when I notice that needle starts to jump...

Well he said his car is "tugging" when he punches it so I doubt its just a connection if he's feeling it in his engine as well. This exact thing happened to me and it was the dizzy.

Hey guys I really appreciate all the feedback but it was the dizzy I ran into these guys at walmart and one of them was the owner of this performance shop and I told him my problem and we went to his shop (Might I mention it like 10:30pm already and replaced it from a motor he had just pulled out of a CRX DX which he was doing a swap on we hooked it an walla !!! everything is working fine. He was a little drunk so he ended up just letting me have it. But like I said I appreciate the feedback from you guys, thanks alot

I hope your crx is a dx. if its a hf or si im pretty sure it wont work cause of it being for dpfi. and because it doesnt match your ecu.

no mine is a DX so no problem!!!

before you go and replace your distributor and stuff, replace your ground wire from the chassi to the Block, and make sure it's gettin a good ground. My car did this and after I replaced the cap, coil and various other small parts talked to my mech and he told me ground wire... had nothing to loose so I checked my ground... and guess what it was bad. Problem solved.

Kun

What USDM model/year to do go with when replacing a dizzy (or coil and igniter) on a b16a? Has anyone had any luck after replacing the coil and igniter...long term?