In the PHS documentation it mentions "Rally gauge cluster & hood mounted tach" column 44-4.

Is that true, did all rally gauge clusters come with the hood mounted tach?

Both were options. You could get the rally gauges without the hood tach.

Mine came with a Hood Tach and standard gauges.

Yes, definitely separate options. However, you didn't mention which year you were asking about?

I was always under the impression that the tach was available as an option to any type of gauge cluster.

Correct. Quite a few were added as dealer options as well.

Quite a few hood tachs sold over the counter, but this of course would not show up on the invoice or window sticker.

The rally gauges and hood tach should be separate like this:

TACH-HD-MT - Option 471
RALLY GA & CL - Option 484

Not that is is a big deal, but I would be curious to see how many were factory ordered compared to dealer installed.

Thanks everyone. I found it interesting that my PHS documentation lists it as "Rally gauge cluster & hood mounted tach"

I have the Rally gauges but no hood mounted tach and no reason to believe there ever was a hood mounted tach.

StealthBird: It is a 1967 400 convertible

If the PHS reads hood tach, it is likely the hood was replaced at some point. GM didn't practice billing options and not selling the car as such. It may...and I say may have been that the car was on the lot and the buyer didn't want the tach on the hood and the dealer replaced the hood.

You have no evidence of a harness?

No evidence of a harness. No where in the PHS docs do I see rally gauges or the hood tach listed separately. They only list them together in column 44 - 4

"Rally Gauge Cluster & Hood Mtd. Tach."

Probably a dealer replacing the hood to non tach to make a sale or the hood was replaced without the tach later on. The tach harness can be removed easily in less than 5 minutes with no obvious signs of one being there. One lead to the wiper motor and one to the distributor.

For originality purposes, if that is your concern....unless you have supporting docs from dealer showing they replaced hood, your car without the tach is incorrect.

For all intents and purposes, PHS trumps.

PHS may trump, but only in the case where all three VINs match the PHS.

Was referring to options.

I've got the same situation - my car came with rally gauges and no hood tach.

The PHS sheet has the "Rally Gauge Cluster & Hood Mtd. Tach." in column 44-4 highlighted with yellow marker. There is no other choice for Rally Gauges only.

The PHS reproduction window sticker has option "Cluster-Rally Gauge 444" with no mention of the hood tach.

Pete
'67 400 coupe

I'll shoot an email to a few people who will know for certain.

I will reply when they answer.

1967

Code 444 - Rally Gauges for $31.60.

Code 704 - Hood Tach for $63.19.

I'm not sure how the pricing broke down, and if the hood tach was included in Code 444. If it was, then it was a bargain compared to buying the hood tach separately!

I have a couple original 1967 Firebird 400 window stickers, one has Rally Gauges, no mention of a hood tach, and the other has a hood tach, no mention of gauges!

If someone received their packet from PHS for their 67 Bird, the order form should clear this up.

Or Banshee will come through...

Pete67400 and I have the same misleading docs. Something doesn't add up. The 67 order form could be misleading if what StealthBird posted is correct. I don't recall any reference to code 704. Only code 444 which says "Rally Gauge Cluster & Hood Mtd. Tach." on the order form.

Oh! There is a separate line for code 704 Tachometer, hood mounted.

I totally missed it before. Note that 444 includes the hood mounted tach. Maybe it was a misprint?

Pete

My 67 PHS has the 444 and 704.

The 68 PHS is different...Rally gauge cluster 444 and hood tach 434. No provision for both as a package.

The 68 sales manual has eachpriced seperately. If we had access to sales manual for 67 possibly we could see some ordering instructions regarding the 67's having both options (444) and to what specific model or powertrain this reduced cost option was permitted.

Maybe the rally gauge cluster (444) and the price for the gauge package was lowered if the rally gauges were ordered with the hood tach as a package. So 444 was say $63 alone (no tach) but if ordered with the tach it was $30.

Here is another twist to the mystery of 444. This is a TH400 automatic car. Other than it is a cool aesthetic appearance, what purpose does a tach really serve on an automatic car?

Drop it into Low and shift up yourself? I did this with a '74 Camaro I used to have. It certainly isn't a replacement for a manual, but you can play in the upper end of the range.

I use mine all the time.

Not sure what the breakdown is on manual vs. auto cars with a hood tach, but you definitely use the hood tach on an automatic car to get the right shift points at the track. The factory shift governors were set for around 4800 upshifts. I modified my governor to get 5500 rpm upshifts under WOT, but I sometimes manually shift at 5800-6000 rpm.

What's REALLY strange is seeing a manual trans car without a tach. I've seen a few GTO and Firebirds with 4-speeds, even optional Ram Air engines, yet the owner felt they didn't need a tach. They may have decided to use an aftermarket tach when they ordered their car, I'm not sure.

Hood tachs were cool, but they did get some negative press on occasion. They had a tendency to fog up (which Pontiac corrected later with a separate hose to the heater box), they were hard to read at night, and if you have the sun behind you at a certain time of day, the reflection off the glass was like having someone shining a flashlight in your face.

Mike

I pulled out all the paperwork that was supplied when I bought the car. Which included the following.

- GM Convertible folding top operation
- Pontiac Owner Protection Plan, New vehicle Warranty
- Dealer invoice with all the options listed (type print)
335 341 342 394 444 471 472 474 491 501 502 532 544 554 631 654 731 77J

Then hand written the description for each. No mention of tach just Rally Gauge for 444 and no reference to 704

- Car Shipper lists all the trim options, spare tire, mats, tires, differential safe-t-track, turbo hydramatic transmission

I find it hard to believe that 444 included the tach with rally gauges for $31 when 704 (tach hood mounted) alone is $63. I can only conclude that the description of 444 "Rally gauge cluster & hood mtd tach is misleading as others (Pete67400) have witnessed also with his car.

My 68 vert 400 HO had STD gauges & hood tach but no mention of the tach on the window sticker. I do have the factory Hood Tach wiring present with tape over plug. Previous owner had hood popup in a wind storm and lost 400 hood & tach. 400 Hood replaced with 350 hood and no tach.

I assume he got the tach at the dealership.

Ahh... another logical explanation. Someone just forwarded this to me.

This car has the Fisher Body Unit Number 2,220 built in the 4th week of February. This could explain cars before or during the Feb/March time frame not having the tach with Rally Gauges and after Feb/March time frame cars having option 444 that included Rally Gauges & Hood Mounted tach.

The template that PHS uses is post Feb/March 67

https://firstgenfirebird.org/FAQ/interior/dash.html

A: The Hood Tach first became available sometime in Feb/Mar of '67 on all Pontiac Models. The first style was the "TALL" style which refers to the height of the case. Also, the first style used only a single light bulb and there were variations with the face colors and redlines depending on carline and engine. 1967 Firebird (and very early '68 Firebirds) used the Tall Style. Face background was Black with Green characters while the GTO and Full-Size had Steel Blue Backgrounds with White characters. After supplies of the 'Tall' Style Hood Tach were exhausted, the 2nd style came into production. This was a 'shorter' case (by an inch or so) and now had (2) bulbs instead of the previous (1). This new style was released into production on April 20th 1967 (even though early '68 Firebirds continued using the Tall Style). The face on this first 'short' style was of a circular pattern. On June 29th 1967, this face was changed to an 'oval' pattern. Face background was steel blue with white characters. The final major design change came with the '69 model. The face background was changed to black with white characters. The Hood Tach lasted through '72 production. From '67 - '72, there were many Redline variations for different engines/models including the OHC-6 cars and Ram Air engines. The '67 OHC-6 Firebird had a 6500 redline. This was later changed to 5500. RA II used the OHC-6 5500 redline. All other applications used a 5100 redline. The rarest would be the 'supposed' Hood Tach released for the RAV engine. Back in the 80's, "Purely PMD" from NM built a '69 Judge with a complete RAV engine and found what was described as the only known RAV Hood Tach that had a lights for 'shifting' built into the face.

Great information, always something new to learn 40+ years after the fact.

Interesting. My car was built in the first week of April.
Pete

My 67 400-spd was ordered with P/B, P/S, hood tach, standard gauges.
Think'n back then, people, maybe even many salesmen didnt know gauges and hood tach where separate options?