ok, so i'm fairly new to cars in general...and even newer to samurais.  i blew the engine on my first one after a few months, and am now moving onto my 2nd (gotta learn somehow). anyway, the problem i'm running into, is that this one doesn't have an RPM gauge. how do i go about adding on an RPM gauge if its not standardly equipped with one?

Ah, Grasshopper, you have come to the right place!

Actually, it is very simple. The hardest part is figuring out a place to mount the danged thing!

I mounted mine using a piece of steel that I bent so that the 25-buck Tach ended up in the upper corner of the windshield bolted onto the window frame mount held in place by the philips-head screw.

All I had to do to see what my engine was doing was to glance up and to the left.

Most aftermarket tachometers have pretty good wiring instructions.  If the instructions leave you mistified, you can download a FSM - or even better - go to the public library and check out a Chiltons or (shudder) Haynes repair manual and use the wiring diagram as a reference for your tach install.

It's really pretty easy to do.

Hey Ack, depending on years, you can pretty much plug and play...right??? take the gauges out of one with and put it in the one with out...  Thats what I did!!! I was also able to take some miles off my engine this way and now it runs great!!! LOL
Ebay has some listed!!!

Hey Ack, depending on years, you can pretty much plug and play...right??? take the gauges out of one with and put it in the one with out...  Thats what I did!!! I was also able to take some miles off my engine this way and now it runs great!!! LOL
Ebay has some listed!!!

Yep. I did that with the truck that I am parting out.  It had a tach dash and after double-checking the lamps, I just swapped it in and it worked (lost aout 30k on the odometer  ) .

The problem with a JX Tach Dash is that they are hard to find and the ones on eBay may or may not be good.  I knew mine worked because I drove the truck before buying it.

Besides the windowframe location that I used (BTW, it blocks the full motion of the viser), you can mount one in one of the vent holes on the dash if you have an older dash or build a meter panel for it above the vents and heater controls on the newer-style dash.

I used my Dremel to cut a nice clean hole in the dash on my 88.5 samurai.  I couldn't be happier with it.  It almost looks stock!