Hey guys,

Admittingly being mostly a spark plug and filters guy at best, your help is appreciated!

My '86s long standing oil leak was finally located- it was the O ring at the base of the distributor.

The mechanic replaced the O ring but I can tell he was in a rush- many fasteners and clips were broken. Additionally, the tach started acting up right after the job- sometimes jumpy or inop...now it is running but a good 2K high (engine is running normally).

I suspect a wire or sensor for the tach was knocked around. Can anyone advise me as to what to look for to see if someting is loose? Pic of same would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance, and happy New Year.


(Quoting a past member)-"Never underestimate a First Gen"

Ok John,

This is what I could find. Looks like it is a white wire. I scanned these from my manuals. Hope they help. I sold the 86 Cimarron with the 2.8, so I do not have an actual car to look at.








I do also have a complete wiring diagram for the 86 2.8 motor if you need it.


John

Hi John,

Thank you VERY much for taking the time to scan and post the info from your manuals! I did see mention of 'a white wire' on the V6 site (looking up posts w/ keyword 'tachometer'- very time consuming) but no details . Now w/ your scans, I can get a good look at the distributor area and play around a bit. I'll let you know how it goes.

Regards,

John


(Quoting a past member)-"Never underestimate a First Gen"

I know after I did my engine swap I was getting the check engine light on. The car ran fine but the code bugged me. I checked the pulses for the check engine light and it was a code 12. I reseated the connections at the distributor (per the factory GM manual) and the light went off. The car ran a little better when cold and all was good.

This is the code 12 from the 1984 Cavalier manual for the 2.0 motor. "This code should flash whenever the Test terminal is grounded with the ignition ON and the engine not running. If additional Trouble Codes are stored (indicating a problem), they will appear after this code has flashed three times. With the engine running, the appearance of this code indicated that no references from the distributor are reaching the ECM. Carefully check the four-terminal EST connector at the distributor. "

Do a search for crashdummy digi dash on her of v6z24.com. He is the guy that knows everything about digi dashes and he also has all the guides to convert from analog to digi and back. He would be best to talk to. Usually if the tach is high or a digi dash it is bad, the failure rate on them is like 9/10. Took me 4 dashes at the junk yard to find a working tach and they are different between 4cyl and v6s.




On the inside my car looks like a fighter jet.

Did you ever diagnos the problem yet? If not next wk I am off four days so,I will dig into my new nos manual (shop) version to suggest some checks to maybe help solve if you need it.I am going to work on your air box next wk ,just too busy to try and speed thru my idea to make it work the way I have it planned in my thoughts.

If it is the cluster as the failed part, I found a guy in Richmond VA that claims he can repair it for around $275. Maybe there are others who can but so far everyone else I have talked to either won"t touch them at all or can only repair the digital portion. I can look up the email again if you are interested in his number.

Also I have a spare digital cluster if after checking yours it does not pan out.Not sure if it all works but,will learn how to power it up and check it.I need to learn that being I have a manual that educates me on checking it.But then again I would like a car to go with it right.