Autometer Tach Adapter

[Y2kNeon]

Alrighty, I am in the middle of installing my tach adapter but I came across a problem, and the instructions seemed a little hazy about this...

I have the adapter grounded, I have the gray wire going to my tach, and now I have 2 wires--one that is labelled "INPUT - 12v from ignition" and one labelled "OUTPUT - to 12V positive coil wire". Now I am just a dunce about this, cuz when I connect the "OUTPUT" wire to the wire I was SURE was the 12V + going to the pack, the whole engine shudders down like my sparkplugs aren't igniting. The instructions show a simple diagram that re-routes the 12V wire thru the adapter, but I didn't want to SEVER the wire going to the pack! heh...

All I'm asking is...which wire is which? It's a 2000 Neon. Or if anyone installed this, could I get some guidance on what wires to tap into so I don't screw this up?

Thanks in advance.

[bullet01]

first things is you are probaly looking for an alternate power source. way wrong choice
1. take the the 12v wire cut it in half
2. take the 2 wires on the tach adapter and do as follows
put the 12v power supply on side of the 12v wire away from the coil pack, then take the 12v coil power and connect to the side closest to the coil and all the other wires are slf explainatory and you should be set. good luck

[Y2kNeon]

So essentially, I take the 12v wire going into the coil, cut it, then re-route it thru the adapter? I might have had the wires on the adapter backwards, maybe that's why my engine did wierd stuff.

[Y2kNeon]

Ok, one last post from me to get everything straight. This is what I did:

-Black wire to ground.
-Gray wire to tach signal wire.


Here's the wires going into the coil:

]-----------------------------------------(gray/white stripe)
COILPACK]--------------------------------------(green/orange stripe)
]---------------------------------------(blue/orange stripe)

According to the generic diagram on the instructions, the 2 'outer' wires are negatives, and the center wire is the 12V+ wire. I spliced it into the adapter, car started up fine, got NO tach signal. Before, I had the tach signal wire plugged into the gray/white stripe outer wire, and it gave a slight signal (the tach read up to ~1200rpm at 70mph on freeway). Now I've got NO signal by doing everything right (?).

I only have one last thing to add, a stupid yet significant question...my tach isn't an Autometer, it's an Equus. Could the signal that the autometer tach adapter gives off not be right for the Equus? If so, I'm taking the tach out, firmly bashing it with a hammer, and taking pics of it. *sadistic grin*