tach wire to coil, 90 camry 2.0

I can't seem to figure out exactly which wire coming off my distributor to hook my wire to from my tach. I just bought a small "MiniTach II", not because I'm thinking it's a hot rod, but just because I like to know my approximate RPM once in awhile.

So, I've hooked up tachs in my cars for over 30 years and they are all quite simple. But then 99% of my cars have been American cars like Ford, Chevy, & Chrysler. My Toyota is an oddball compared to a typical engine and distributor.

Can someone tell me which wire (color) to hook up my tach wire to? My car is a 1990 Toyota Camry with 2L 2000cc 16v inline 4 that has an internal coil (inside the distributor).

I can't figure out the right wire even though I have wiring diagrams in my Chilton AND my Haynes manual. It's frustrating!

If you could post a close-up picture of the correct tach drive wire (which would be the negative coil wire) that would be awesome! If not, at least tell me what the color is and where exactly it is. Is in on top of the distributor?

Thanks so much!

Is it any of the wires in these pictures? (Pardon the grease)

I'm kind of thinking it goes to the blue wire. Only because in the instruction sheet, it shows one of those little contraptions as being the tach drive. Still hoping someone can verify it. I suppose I could look at a dash wiring diagram from a Camry that has a tach, and follow that wire through the diagram to where it connects under the hood.

Often it's the Black-Red wire that is coil- and tacho. That is Isuzu's convention and many jap cars use similar wiring codes.

With ignition on but not running, the coil- wire should be +12V because the coil will pull it up.
The ignitor like points will pull it down (close) to GND to charge the coil before opening to fire the coil.

Most tachos won't be damaged by connecting their tacho/pulse input to GND or +12V (assuming its a 12V tacho - not 5V, and ECU etc).   


What "contraption" is the instruction referring to?

Got it! It was the blue wire in the pictures. It's the tach drive wire, used for mechanics to hook up tachs for engine tests. I just spliced into it. Everything turned out fine. It took longer to find the diagram that showed it than to hook it up.

The only logical place I could find to mount my new tach...

Thanks! But I wasn't hooking up a remote start, I was only hooking up a tach wire and figured it out awhile back. Thanks for you input though.