I also had the problem with the tach being dead. When I'd floor it the tach would just fly up to like 5k and hang there, then when i let off it would swing down under the lil pin and get stuck. I took it out several times looking for a bad connection or something of that nature. After taking it out and reinstalling it about 4 times, before installing it the last time i pushed down on the gauges kinda hard to seat them a little more into the white plastic thing with all the metal connectors. It snapped in a touch more and i have not had a problem with the tach since. I cant believe mine was that easy to fix after dealing with it for over a year... hopefully it will be an easy fix for your friend, too.