Tack & Safety

The pictures are a Stihl tack that is very useful for gas engines. The pick up wire is simply hooked over the plug wire. Actually anywhere close will work. Start the engine and the tack comes on. Stop the engine and after a minute the tack turns off.

The very best feature is that I don’t need to get anywhere close to the spinning propeller to read the RPM. The prop for a gas engine at WOT is more than a little dangerous. Mount the tack and loop the pick up over the plug wire and your full concentration can then be focused on setting the needles.

Bill

Where did you buy it? How much? Tried it on a 4 stroke yet?

A Stihl dealer gave me several because they did not work. Turned out that it was a sealed unit and the watch batteries were dead. I took it apart and replaced the batteries. Now have NiCad batteries mounted to the back.

The tack counts pulses to the spark plug. I have used it on a 4-stroke car but must be careful that the pick up wire doesn’t detect a pulse from more than one plug.

Bill

Bill
those are sweet !were they part of a saw or a tool used in repair or what?I need to know where to look
I absolutely hate holding thae tach and trying to tune the carb this looks like an excellent solution!

The tack is a Stihl tool that chain saw dealers use to adjust saws and blowers.

In answer to the 4-stroke question: I have also used the tack to check the governor on my Toro mower.

About a week ago I looped the pick up over the plug wire on a model engine and made 4 prop changes for each engine change. Never disconnecting anything while testing for two hours.

Somewhere I have seen similar inductive tacks for lawnmowers and farm tractors in the $35 to $40 price range. I am looking for the source now.

Bill

In case the Stihl was expensive or not available I did a search on ‘mower tachometer’ and ‘tractor tachometer’ and found the following.
http://www.jackssmallengines.com/hour_meter.cfm
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...&cm_ite=Google

Both are in the $40 range.

Bill