I thought this was an interesting question, so I did a quick google search. I found a few threads that say to use a battery charger and if the tach is good, it should read 1800 rpm (V8 tachs).
Fair warning, I have never done this, so try it at your own risk....Here is the one post from a chevelle forum, everything below if from their post...
"How to Check Your Tachometer
I was doubting my tach and was wondering how to test it to see if it is actually accurate. On the alt.autos.rod-n-custom newsgroup from 2001 (used
www.dejanews.com to search), I found a discussion that talked about using a 12 volt battery charger to check the tach. So what the heck, I tried it.
The theory goes that a 120 Vac 60 Hz battery charger puts out an imperfect DC voltage. It is actually a pulsating DC voltage that corresponds to
* 1800 rpm for an 8 cylinder,
* 2400 for a 6 cylinder
* 3600 for a 4 cylinder
Well it works! When I hooked it up to my tach's input (+ve to tach +ve and -ve to gnd), it showed exactly 1800 rpm. The technical theory goes like this. The battery charger doesn't put out a DC signal, it is a 120 Hz full rectified waveform. When a battery charger is connected to a battery, the battery acts like a huge capacitor and smoothes out the waveform (simple explanation). I used a frequency counter to verify that the battery charger was putting out 120 Hz.
Here's the math:
120 Hz = 120 cycles/sec
120 cycles/sec * 60 = 7200 cycles/min
There are 8 cylinders, so 7200 / 8 = 900 cycles/min
but it is a 4 stroke engine which only fires on 1 firing stroke (combustion)
It fires once every 2 cycles
So 900 cycles/min *( 4 strokes/1 firing stroke) * (1 firing stroke/2 cycles) = 1800 cycles/min or 1800 rpm"
