D17 series I, distributor tach drive hex plug

I am not new to this forum. I lost my password and the email account I used to have is also gone, so I created a new account. Wasn’t sure what else to do.

Anyhow…

I have a very early D17. Serial number is under 1000th one built. It does not have a tach, but I had to get some new gauges and I saw a deal for the 3 gauges I needed, plus a fuel gauge which I don’t need, and a tachometer for $53. So I bought all that. I ordered a tachometer cable and nipple and drive adapter from djs.  On my distributor, which is a power steering tractor, I have a large hex plug on the backside of the distributor drive housing, facing the driver. It looks like that is where the stuff should go, but there is no hole in the hex plug for the threaded nipple. Are those hex plugs available with the hole in them? Or am I trying to install this in the wrong place. I don’t know how to post pictures on here. I used to have a photobucket account for posting but that’s long gone. It’s been at least 10 years since I posted to this forum. 

It looks like it would be a real pain for me to drill that hole on center and tap threads in it. I guess I could take it to a machine shop but I am still unsure if that is where it goes. I didn’t get the parts from djs yet, ordered them very recently so I don’t know if I am going about this correctly or not. I guess I don’t really need the tach, but it would be nice to have on the feed grinder and just to keep track of the hours. 

Any help would be appreciated thank you 

John (formerly John68)

That’s what I was looking at and now that I’m rereading it, it says, “bushing included” so that must mean that the nipple I bought from djs is just the nipple and doesn’t include the bushing. I guess that a trip to the hardware store might yield a reducer bushing but I am pretty sure most stuff they would sell is NPT, and not NPS, which is probably what it would be since its got a copper crush washer behind it, like an oil drain plug. So I guess I can just take the nipple and the hex plug to the hardware store and see if I can match something up. Seems like I should be able to do that. With my luck, it won’t work, but I will try that first. It’s a pretty good sized plug. I don’t recall seeing anything like that on the shelves before. Maybe if I order it from agco I will get the bushing also.

Thanks for the help, I’ll let you know how it turns out.

John

Hi Stan, 

Yes that is the piece I received today from djs. This was my first time putting it in my hands. So what it needs is a hex bushing to thread it into. The hex plug on the distributor housing is not drilled and tapped for it. So that is where I am at.

I haven’t had any luck finding a picture of a d17 with the cable and nipple installed. That would probably help me to at least visualize what it is supposed to look like. 

I appreciate you searching that for me! Thanks!

I was hoping the same thing until I had it in my hand. 

It looks like the threads on the nipple are the same pitch on both ends and it is about 3/4”. The hex bushing is 1 1/2” NPS so it is about double the size of the nipple. I’m not sure if the threads on the nipple are NPT since there doesn’t seem to be any copper crush washer, it is hard for me to tell. 

I guess I should order the whole thing from agco and see if it includes the hex bushing. I will try the hardware store and see what they have. I guess I should have just lived without the tachometer but once I get something in my head, I can be a bit stubborn about it! Major character flaws!

Thanks again for the help.

John

My direct Email address is: the1orangewizard@gmail.com

Yes! Thanks!

Glad you were able to make it work. I guess my biggest concern is whether I can get it centered correctly without having a lathe to use. I don’t know if it would be that crucial to have it centered 100% but I know that it would be spinning all the time and I don’t want to risk hurting the distributor drive just so I have a tachometer. 

Thanks for the advice! I will hopefully have the right parts soon, and I can put the old hex plug on a shelf for when this extremely cheap tachometer fails and I have to remove it 

John