RT Engineering tachometer tester/calibrator

[Duodec]

I bought the RTE TS-1 (maybe TS-1A) tach calibrator years ago, then lost it in my parts pile so never tested the '71 tach that came with the rallye cluster I purchased soon after.  Found it!  So I decided to hook it up to the tach.   I tested it with the two 9V batteries attached, and also using a bench DC power supply, with no response from the tach. 

Voltmeter says the tester is outputting 11.75-12V to the tach with 18v input (the two 9V batteries) up to 22V from the bench power supply per their FAQ which says to use that range and that the tester has a voltage regulator that controls voltage to the tach.  Supposedly the tach also has a voltage regulator per their FAQ.

The '71 tach may be nonfunctional; I never tried hooking it up to my car (standard cluster) while it was running; the needle moves freely. 

I asked RTE about how to verify the tester is working and they said I should just hook the tach to a car (not possible at this time) and "Stock requires high voltage to trigger, ts1a only outs out low voltage."...

That doesn't make sense; the tester reportedly doesn't work with OER and other reproduction tachs but is supposed to be for factory tachs.  Since its apparently not for sale any more on the site, I can't verify what it originally might have said.  Both of the instruction sheets that came with the tester (one TS-1, the other TS-1A) say its for Mopar tachs, and the FAQs don't dispute that.

As for the voltage supplied to the tester, it says: 

"18V to 22V is a good input range. There is a voltage regulator on the TS-1A board that will reduce this to 12V for the tach. TS-1A will NOT work with a 12V input, it must be 16V to 20V. If the TS-1A voltage source is allowed to go below 16V then it will not calibrate the tachometer correctly because the 12V power going to the tachometer from the TS-1A might be too low.

The tach will work correctly with a power input of 12V to 18V. The tach has an onboard regulator that reduces and stabilizes this input voltage."

So anyone know the real deal on the tester working with genuine Mopar tachs, tester putting out low voltage, etc?

Thanks.  I may try hooking the tach up to my points distributor and the benchtop power supply and spinning it up with a drill to see if it responds.

Somewhere buried in the parts stash I have a pair of A-body tachs that were refurbed in the 1980s; if I can find them I'll try the tester on them too.

[Duodec]

So kudos to RT Engineering for following up on my questions so quickly and on a Saturday.

Their TS-1 calibrator testers are only for use with their upgrade tach boards and cannot drive a factory tach board.  Also odds are the capacitors on my original tach are aged out (they dry out) so a replacement board makes sense.  I'm still going to try to find a way to test it on the bench (some interesting options with a battery and a 12V battery charger; I don't have a signal generator). 

Rich