My stock tacho hasnt been working for a while now, worked when i first got it back but then it didnt. so for about 3months the stocko didnt work, but now when i start the car the tacho jumps up to idle rpm for about 10secs then stops working again, then occasionally when changing gears the needle will jump around.... anyone got any ideas?

I was gonna say the motor to control it is stuffed.
and it may well be....
from the top of my head id say check the connections, and perhaps obtain a 2nd cluster and rig that, see if it works.
i had the problem with a mazda 323 and it was the rpm motor arm, when thered be a jolt of power the arm would bump, but when constantly flow of power it wouldnt move.
replaced the motor works a joy.

its a common gen1 problem to have the tacho die like that replace the unit and should be fine so long as you get a working one

Buy replace the unit do u mean the whole dash cluster?

yep or maybe try the wreckers and see if u can get a cluster with low kms then take it apart and swap just the tacho bit then u can keep ur Kms or even better get a digital dash :P

:S u can replace the whole cluster, but unless u know its perfct im sure something on it would be dead. and then ure back to salvaging anyway.
may as well just track down a cheap rpm motor.

:S u can replace the whole cluster, but unless u know its perfct im sure something on it would be dead. and then ure back to salvaging anyway.
may as well just track down a cheap rpm motor.
so if there not working u replace them with ur working one?? i say get a whole cluster any way cos theres always something dieing on them so ull have a spare for parts :D

Yeah. I rebuilt my fuel guage out of 3 separate clusters. And had fun reseting the odometer.

Whats the process for rebuilding the fuel gauge? Is it accurate now?

Mine was actually failure of the circuit board. I'm not entirely sure if it's accurate, as I've not really driven the car that far.

This is the cluster from the wagon. It used to be all over the place. Ran me dry twice...