Old school tach

[RCampbell]

Has anyone ever seen....or know anything about...a cable drive tach for a 409? I'ld sure like to have one....Russ

 

[409newby]

Only one I have seen are from early Corvette, cable came off the rear of the generator

 

[RCampbell]

After market cable drive tachs were common on upper end race cars in the late 60's and 70's...most were driven off the distributor... some off the front of the crank. I've never seen one on a 409. Anyone know something on the subject? Russ

 

[Fathead Racing]

After market cable drive tachs were common on upper end race cars in the late 60's and 70's...most were driven off the distributor... some off the front of the crank. I've never seen one on a 409. Anyone know something on the subject? Russ

Me thinks I have a big truck 409 dist. With the tach drive, but it has other accoutrements.

 

[models916]

Mallory and the likes made them I'm sure.

 

[RCampbell]

Interesting....Could the accoutrements be removed? I think a cable drive tach on a vintage race car would be just fine!

 

[BubbletopMan]

Russ,

I remember Lamar Walden having a tach drive distributor in the "29 Day Wonder" car he had in the mid 80's.

Jeremy

 

[Fathead Racing]

Interesting....Could the accoutrements be removed? I think a cable drive tach on a vintage race car would be just fine!

I'll take a look see.

 

[DonSSDD]

Corvettes also had tach drives off the distributor, which would work if you can make a SB or BB distributor work on a 409. They ran off a short speedo cable.

Don

 

[wburge409@gmail.com]

That summer in July '86 at Indy I met Lamar Walden and his newly constructed "29 Day Wonder".... and some swap meet guy named Phil Reed. The next season I was back in competition. Wild Bill

 

[62impala409]

Don't forget the '57 Chevy "Black Widow" stock cars conversions that had the 283 fuelie engine and the Stewart Warner mechanical tach mounted below the dash panel.

 

[RCampbell]

I'm not sure how you would modify a small block distributor to fit in a 409....thoughts?

 

[Fathead Racing]

I poked around in the garage just now. Found one truck dist. That I have made into an oil primer tool. Looks like that one was some kind of vacuum governed affair. I'll take pictures. Could find no gear drive that I would expect to find. This dist. Is one of two complete units I have dragged in here from engines pulled from trucks. One from a milk truck and one from a tractor trailer truck. I only found the one tonight. I'll look for the other this week.

 

[Fathead Racing]

http://www.show-cars.com/store/engine-external/348-409-small-block-distributor-adapter-sleeve.html

 

[Fathead Racing]

I did a search on the net for tack drive dist. For the 409 engine, none to be had. Many types and makes of small block distributors out there with the mechanical drives. So, with the adaptor you could get the job done.

 

[RCampbell]

Yes.....the adapter and the long cable drive distributor should do the trick....now all that is needed is the vintage tach and cable....many thanks...Russ

 

[threeimpalas]

I have a Spalding with a tach drive for a 348/409. It's one of those odd-ball dual coil distributors, though, and most of the Spaldings that you'll find don't have the tach drive installed.

 

[tripower]

Marine conversions usually used tach drive, most often seem to be Mallory, don't know if they made one for W.

 

[Fathead Racing]

Marine conversions usually used tach drive, most often seem to be Mallory, don't know if they made one for W.

I saw a couple marine W engine distributors when I was researching for Pat. The two that I did see made it a point that these were counter rotation distributors with the mechanical tach drive. What would be the difference?

 

[Don Jacks]

The advance mechanism would have to be different since these engines ran "backwards".