Corvair Forum

On March 25,2025 replaced with one on 69 that has 66 Corsa Dash with custom built 69-66 Corsa wiring so no pieced together wiring . On Friday worked fine on Saturday dead. Checked wiring OK . Connected tach/dwell in engine tach readings worked . Next went under dash and hooked up to wires on tach and meter worked. Yes, I have ground wire to all dash gauges on dash separate from dash housing. Up to Saturday tach worked great. Anybody have issues?
Will call Clarks Monday AM. Don't know if a warranty on these Tach's from Vairtrix LLC ?
Anybody used them?
Jim Stranc

Your independent test meter you used suggest there is a signal from the coil up to the gauge.

Does the Varitrix unit do the "startup" self test??? If not the power or ground is open, OR the unit has failed.

As I stated in post I have been running this unit over a month .
Jim

JimStranc wrote: ↑Sun May 04, 2025 2:43 pm As I stated in post I have been running this unit over a month .
Jim

I've been running over a month, does not mean I'll be running tomorrow

The Question was ---- Does the Varitrix unit do the "startup" self test???

I’ve had my VairTrix tach in for a month and seems fine.

I do check the self diag at startup on the tach, speedo and CH temp.

I’ve replaced all of them and so far looking great.

Jake wrote: ↑Mon May 05, 2025 9:40 am I do check the self diag at startup on the tach, speedo and CH temp.

I’ve replaced all of them and so far looking great.

Yup check the selftest and the warning lamps. On my home built temp gauge driver boxes (I installed on for each head) I made a start up selftest to tell me if the "box", gauge, and thermal couple are working. If the thermal couple shorts or goes open the "box" sends the temp needle to MAXIUM.

More than one fatal aviation accident has happened because "gauges" quit and they would go to "nominal" and looked like all was well. Now when a gauge driver fails, most gauges go WAY OUT of normal range to get the pilots attention!!!!

No response from Jim about if his tach's "self test" worked. Maybe he will respond about what Clark's has to say.

The self worked at first BUT, as I stated worked fine one day but next at start-up didn't self checked. Will send back to Clark after convention. Has 1 year warranty .Maybe at convention I can find good original 66 Corsa tach that works and is accurate ? .
Jim

I’ve got my old tach, works, but not great.

I’d love to get it fixed but there’s no one in my area that i know of that’s capable of doing it.

You guys know of a shop I could mail it to?
It’d be nice to put the original back in some day if the VairTrix stops working.

Jake wrote: ↑Fri May 09, 2025 12:51 pm I’ve got my old tach, works, but not great.

I’d love to get it fixed but there’s no one in my area that i know of that’s capable of doing it.

You guys know of a shop I could mail it to?
It’d be nice to put the original back in some day if the VairTrix stops working.

cnicol repaired them for awhile then quit. I repaired about six for myself and buddies, but the Corasa tachometers are time consuming to calibrate so costs would be excessive. I will not longer do them - PERIOD.

The Corvair tachometer design was good for it's time, BUT now the major problem is not electrical, it is mechanical. The needle armature springs (fragile and NOT repairable) are breaking. There are other meter age related meter problems depending which style meter was used (three designs I am aware of - all interchangeable).

I fixed up one Corsa tachometer and calibrated it and the meter needle armature spring broke a month later! It first repair was a favor and I fixed it again at my cost by installing another used meter to the rebuilt circuit board and calibrated it again rather than listen to "You just rebuilt it and it failed".

Some shops can "make them work", but to do it correctly requires changing all the old capacitors, fixing solder joints (especially terminal posts), and calibrating the needle counter weights and circuit gain for full scale linearity (painting the needle will throw off the lower and higher range by about 500 RPM even if you get it to read correctly at 3,000 RPM!!! I averaged about five hours on each tachometer!!

I came up with a modern circuit to drive the common gauge motors used in the GM cars and trucks before they went to the cheap "heat and twist armature" junk gauges. Then Vairtrix came out with a relatively inexpensive tachometer kit so I put my design on the self. The one thing I don't like about all these aftermarket tachometers from vendors for 60's cars is they don't specify accuracy or lifespan.

I’ve prob driven 300 miles with my new tach.
I like it but couldn’t speak to its true accuracy.

It sounds and feels like it’s relatively acccurate.

I had a question about it and found VairTrix pretty impossible to contact.
The good people at Clarks answered what they could but questions about accuracy they referred me to a phone number on the VairTrix paperwork that I couldn’t find

Best way to contact Vairtrix is vairtrix@gmail.com

Thanks