OldIHC

That is the start of what could be a really good idea. There are lots of very reliable miniature fiber belts. If there is room on the side of an SD 220 and I do not remember how much space is available, maybe a Ford or GM HEI six cylinder distributor could be adapted. I think the Ford unit is not so wide. A few minutes with a vernier caliper would tell someone if there is enough material to modify the stem to fit the SD block. I wonder if the OEM distributor shaft could be fitted to the new distributor along with the bevel gear for the mechanical drive. I would likely try to use the unusual IHC external vacuum advance to swivel the new distributor. It is just time in and about as much fun as a person can have with their cloths on.

This comes up fairly often
1st, for BRJ and the BLD 250, the BLD tach is driven off the dist. There is a special dist number for the tach drive one (I have 2, and if I remember, I'll post the number when I get home)

For the 220, 240,264 block, I have never seen a tach drive dist in the manuals. BUT, the same engine was used in the 706 tractor and it has a tach drive on the block. IIRC it has a small "gear box" that mounts inbetween the block and dist, essentially, an adaptor that goes into the block where the dist goes,and the dist goes into the adaptor. The problem is (again, if I am remembering correctly) the AG engine does not use a vacuum advance dist, and I'm not sure how it would work with the adaptor. A similer device or adaptor was used on the RED and RD series of engines to run the tach and governor.

Lastly, for the GRD (and HD) series, there wasn't a mechanical drive tach in any application that I know of.
Delco made "tach drive" generators for the Corvette and marine applications, one could fit one of these generators, or at least the armature (they are the same 6 volt or 12) and a ratio adaptor on the cable drive to correct generator RPM to 1/2 engine crankshaft speed.
Nikki, if your dist turned backwards, I may have been a BLD tach drive dist that someone fitted in place of the correct 220 dist. IIRC the BLD dist turns "backwards". I have no idea if one can interchange the dist between these two series physically, the mechanical advance and internals would be all wrong even if it would fit the hole and turn.

I travelled down this path over the course of the last several months. I have a similar tachometer that I wanted to put in my R112. After spending the better part of a day in a truck boneyard I saw 2 or 3 K/KB trucks with the tach running off of the distributor, but no other variations. The problem I had was also mentioned above, I wanted to keep the vacuum advance, so I considered using that distributor was out. I also went down the path of running the tach from a generator. Car generators with a tach drive outlet can be had, although a bit pricey. There are also tach drive fittings for generators (for tractors) that can be had fairly inexpensively. The down side is you will still need a longer rod for your generator, which also can be had. I'm sure with these 2 you could modify an existing generator to work or modify a tractor generator to put out the voltage and amperage you are needing which is the direction I'm wanting to go.

But until I can locate the above, my backup plan (I know won't be real popular) is to purchase a modern tach with 270 degree swing with the same RPM range and replace the face and the front of the housing with what's on the vintage tach. Again, a less than optimum "fix", but one that may work. Yes, a plan still not totally baked.

I would never allow myself to be swayed by popularity of one way over another. Opinions are like, you know, everybody has one. It has been my experience that those who have done less or nothing have more opinions on, how to. just about everything. They are surrounded by a life of failures and rusting junk. If it works for you and you have made a choice, no apology necessary. I like your idea of modern works in an old instrument. I wish I had thought of it.

What series K were looking at? the -6 and up all can be had with a cable driven tach from the factory (I have 2 -7's with tachs). I would be interested if you saw a smaller K series with a tach. I'm sure it can be done, if you have imagination, skill and tools. It would be nice to find a combination of AG and vehicle parts that would make it easy for anyone who follows in your footsteps.

My KB-6 has a tach which looks like the one in the first picture and is mechanical. It is about 50% of the reason I bought the truck. The red zone, at 3500 RPM reads "DANGER". Gotta love it. I have a KB-5 also and did some research and couldn't find anything that suggested that it ever was available with a tach, though the KBS-5, with the two speed rear end, would seem logical to have had the tach option available. I would love to hear members comments on this. I think the tachs are a very good looking part of the dash when they are present. Stickman207

220/240/264 distributor


560 tractor 263 gas engine distributor


These pics make it look like a bolt-in but I don't have a tractor distributor to measure. Also, the tach drive looks like it's part of the distributor, not a separate piece. As CB mentioned, the tractor distributor would not have vacuum advance. The diesel engine for that tractor was based on the same block and the tach drove from the same place on the engine as the distributor.



Maybe the truck engine distributor could be mated to the top of the diesel tach drive, with machining of course.

All of this is interesting to me, but does not help the OP with his K/KB engine.

Dean

Thanks, My memory is foggy, on the AG stuff because I never owned any. I thought it was a separate "adaptor". I can't remember if the RD tach/gov drive is part of the dist or a separate unit either. I thought I saw one that was a separate device, but could be wrong.

I don't recall the series for the trucks, but did dig up a couple of pictures. Actually one of them is an R (3rd from the left. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the distributors.





And I agree, for the original poster's situation he's probably better off running the tach from a generator or removing the face and putting it on a modern tach. Hopefully I can dig up some time in the next month or so to finish this off or at least get the details worked out.

If you still have access to these trucks and parts are available, it is quite likely that the bigger Binders will have the fresh air heater and electric wipers, both in 12 volt. Get the tach cables, the tach and the wiper towers.