L78 Nova Question

[Newman]

Saw a Nova at a local show recently was claimed as an L78 / M21 car. Was it possible to order a bench seat L78 4spd without an in dash tach? I would assume all L78s had a tach?

[1969L78Nova]

My bench seat L78 / M22 69 Nova did not have a factory installed tach. The in dash tach was an option on bench seat cars.

[CDNL-78]

Mine is also a bench seat L78/M21 with no tach from the factory

[92646]

Correct me if I am wrong but the only time I have ever seen a factory tach in the dash was when the car was ordered with factory bucket seats, a console and console gauges. The Nova did not have to be a L78 to get this combination of options and you could order the bucket seat interior without the tach and gauge package. If you ordered your Nova with a bench seat it would always come with the basic dash speedo with no tach but the clock was opional no matter what motor was in the car. There are a bunch of Novas out there with the aftermarket tach in the clock location but as good as it looks it was never factory.

[John Brown]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Newman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Saw a Nova at a local show recently was claimed as an L78 / M21 car. Was it possible to order a bench seat L78 4spd without an in dash tach? I would assume all L78s had a tach? </div></div>

Hard core racer types knew they were going to add in their favorite brand of tach so why bother ordering a factory tach that was mounted too low down to see anyway?

[Schonyenko2]

You are correct. You needed to have the console gauge setup for the fuel gauge as that's where the tach went. It never went to the right hand (clock) location. Gauges always needed to be ordered, or you got idiot lights.

[SeattleCarGuy]

My '69 L78/CX400 Nova doesn't have a factory tach and when I'm done restoring it, it won't have one either!

[Newman]

Thanks for the info, never would have guessed! Figured if you were rowing gears on an L78 some sort of tach would have been standard. Learn something new all the time.

[442w30]

As a rule, tachs were optional on muscle cars. Very few had them standard (I know the 1970 Cyclone Spoiler was one).

So what's the deal with the discussion on tachs connected to the seat configuration? I'm guessing a tach was optional on a Nova, so bench or buckets a tach needed to be ordered? And possibly it was standard with a console?

[92646]

Tach was part of the console gauge package that was only available with the bucket seat interior with the console. It was not available with the bench seat interior.

[442w30]

And was it possible to order a tach for a bench seat car, like in the dash?

[Schonyenko2]

No. Novas have from lft to rt on the dash, fuel gauge, speedo, nothing, or clock. There are no empty spaces for anything else like you would see on a Chevelle. Camaros can move the fuel gauge to the center for a tach option.

The tach replaces the fuel gauge when the console gauge option is ordered. That moves the fuel gauge to the console gauge area. This only works with the bucket seat application as there isn't enough room for a bench seat, console combination.

While better than nothing, they are a pretty usless tach. To small, bad location if you're racing. Way better to hang a big Sun on the column. Although that can be a problem if you leave the column interlock bar in.

[442w30]

So the only way to order a tach on the Nova was with a bucket seat console car?

[Schonyenko2]

To the best of my knowledge, yes.

[442w30]

That's kinda interesting. There prob wasn't another car like that that I can imagine!