Tachometer Wiring Question

[scubasteve]

I am adding a tachometer to my VW based car. The instructions state to connect the ‘red wire’ to positive, ‘black wire’ to negative, ‘white wire’ to lights and the ‘green wire’ to the ‘negative side’ of the coil.

There is a big, fat BLACK wire that goes from the coil to the TOP of the distributor cap and a  small GREEN wire that goes from the coil to the SIDE of the distributor.

My question is, is the ‘negative side’ of the coil the GREEN wire that goes between the coil and the distributor? None of my VW books calls that wire the ‘negative side’ but the wiring schematic shows that wire going from the coil to the distributor then on to ground.

THANX for the brain pick! 😀

 

Amor Conquista Todo

[edward ericson]

Look carefully on the coil. One side has a +

[newkitman]

Sounds like a stock VW coil arrangement. The green wire on the coil is on the negative (-) side of the coil and goes to the condenser on the distributer. Positive side of the coil will typically have two or three black wires connected to it depending on the year model. One black wire runs up to the fuse panel, one runs to the fuel cutoff solenoid (on late models) and then to the choke and one runs through a separate in-line fuse to the back up light switch on the transaxle.

Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The Shack

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