Sticky Tach

Hope someone can help. I have a sticky tach on my 03 210. Sometimes it works fine but more increasingly it sticks at all different readings. A tap used to fix it but now it takes a pretty good thump to get it to work and often that doesn't work at all. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Flychukar

[btoups1122]

I have the same problem on my 2002 186 bay boat. I would love to know if there's any way to fix this problem.

[Codfish]

Hello Flychukar,

You do not mention the brand of outboard or tach but it is usually safe to assume the tach is supplied by the motor manufacturer. If not it will then be one of the universal types that can be set to work for several engine types. Once a tach requires tapping to get it to read correctly, it is starting to fail. It can be as simple however as a faulty or corroded wire connection. If tapping used to solve the problem, the bad wire could be at the back of the tach. I have seen this on a previous boat of mine. Believe it or not, salt corrosion will get into the inside of the console and attack the wires where ever it can get into a connection. Remember that your tach is part of the start/hot circuit so it is energized whenever the ingnition is in the on position. Wires that are energized are more prone to corrosion. Just know a constant hot will corrode much faster than other circuits.

I would start by checking the connections to the tach. If you can, pull them and do a reconnect, adding anti corrosion jell to forestal a second failure. If that does not do the trick, you may have to resort to replacement.

I once had an ignition circuit wire fail inside a gang plug (marine style) due to corrosion. It taught me a valuable lesson about hot wires and corrosion and the value of anti corrosion jelly. (Ruined a good day of fishing too.)

I hope these ideas help.

codfish