non contact tach for small engines

[CarLuver]

i fix enough small engine that i am looking for a non contact tach for checking rpm . i bought one of the wrap around wire tach and they are a pain to use. i have seen some tachs on some youtube channels, but a search lead me to nothing. even amazon only has one , but the reviews were so so .

any idea where i can find one?

 

[blufeb95]

You can get the old school Briggs 19200 completely mechanical gauge that uses the vibration frequency of the engine to determine RPM, to determine the RPM, you rotate it until the wire remains resonant, if you're trying to set the RPM, set it to the RPM you want, then adjust the governor until the wire remains resonant.

 

[CarLuver]

You can get the old school Briggs 19200 completely mechanical gauge that uses the vibration frequency of the engine to determine RPM, to determine the RPM, you rotate it until the wire remains resonant, if you're trying to set the RPM, set it to the RPM you want, then adjust the governor until the wire remains resonant.

wow cool. never seen one of those before. you tube vids are interesting

 

[MParr]

delete

 

[wag123]

i fix enough small engine that i am looking for a non contact tach for checking rpm . i bought one of the wrap around wire tach and they are a pain to use. i have seen some tachs on some youtube channels, but a search lead me to nothing. even amazon only has one , but the reviews were so so .

any idea where i can find one?

The B&S 19200 mechanical resonant tachometer won't work for high RPM engines like chainsaws.
I purchased a digital one on Amazon several years ago. I just did a search on there and found 13 pages of them listed, many of them for under $30. Put "non contact digital tachometer small engine" in the search box.

 

[FowVay]

In my hobbies I use the OPPAMA PET-1100ECR. It works as either contact or contactless. It is the labeled brand for ECHO and sold under various other branded names. It's not a $29,99 special but is more for the professional technician. I think Chickanic (youtube personality) uses this brand and sells the ECHO labeled model. Hers is not as adaptive as the model I use but it's more than adequate if you're tuning a single cylinder 2-stroke.

 

[racinjason]

I use a general technologies TA-100. I really like it. It’s pretty accurate. Sometimes you don’t even have to put it close to the wire. Working on a pb-2100 blower last week, the tach worked and was laying beside it.

TA100 Smartach+ Digital Tachometer

The TA100’s allows the user to perform quick and reliable diagnostics of non-starts, misfires, fouled up or damaged spark plugs and/or spark plug wires.

gtc.ca

 

[racinjason]

Oh yea, it keeps up with high and low rpm until you reset it. I “think” I paid around $145 a few years ago.

 

[RooflessVW]

I have the generic neiko from Amazon. Just need a piece of reflective tape on what you're measuring.

 

[wrcsixeight]

No idea if this could be adequate for the application, but I have an inexpensive optical tachometer.
Attach provide reflective sticker to hub, aim red laser at sticker, read rpm.

 

[jeepman3071]

I've had this one for a few years:

https://www.amazon.com/Tachometer-Inductive-Replaceable-Waterproof-Motorcycle/dp/B0BM9XXD6R/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=small+engine+tachometer+rpm+tester&qid=1684097172&sprefix=small+engine+t%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-3

Works great. Pretty easy to just clip it on the spark plug wire then select 2 or 4 stroke. I have another tachometer, a reflective tape one, and it works ok but the tape is a huge PITA and always falling off. It could just be the tape I got is defective. Either way the one I usually grab out of the drawer is the clip on one.

 

[bunnspecial]

I went hunting for one not too long ago, and ended up buying a smartphone app.

It may not be ideal for every situation, but in testing it agrees with the wrap around the spark plug wire type I have semi-permanently fitted to one of my other mowers.

It was not cheap as apps go(maybe $9), but it was less expensive than a dedicated tach and is easy to set up for different engine configs.

I should have mentioned this one is audio. For push mowers I lay my phone on top of the mower deck.