1st Gen tach and MSD ignition
 

Hey guys, first time posting on this site. I have a 1988 ford ranger 2.3 with 535,xxx miles and has been used as a truck it’s entire life (bought new by my foster parents in 88). Iv recently gone down the rabbit hole of an intermittent miss/stumble. In my diagnosis with the oscilloscope Iv come up with the computer doing weird stuff for no reason. I drive this truck everyday about 50 miles so I need it to be reliable and fairly fuel efficient. Anyways A lot of bare copper showing as well from degradation and heat cycles. Easiest thing being is pulling the factory computer out with as much of its wiring as possible. Then replacing the factory TFI with and MSD driven distributor and a Holley sniper (I prefer fuel injection). I believe iv worked out most the problems except 1 the tach has to work. Iv looked at forums for hours and wiring diagrams for days but I can’t seem to figure out if I can use the tach/test wire and run it to the MSD tach output to make the tach work. I believe it was a tan and yellow wire. Or does it loop back through the ECU? Any thoughts help, thanks!

MSD unit should have a separate TACH output, not coil (-)

You should have a tan/yellow wire on cluster for tach hook up
Hook them together


Does the MSD distributor have Vacuum Adavance?
You need a Load Advance since the computer did that job for the TFI

Holly Sniper can do it as well but Holly sells there own distributors for that not sure if it works with MSD