When my speedo wasn't working,my wife and I went out on
the highway. I had her set the cruise control at 55 and
I "paced" her. My tach read just about 2900-3000 RPM's
at that speed. 1977 Spit-1500cc everything standard as
far as I know
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff McNeal <jmcneal@ohms.com>
To: Spitfire List <spitfires@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2000 10:31 AM
Subject: Speedo/tach out of whack?
Hello all,
I haven't tried jacking up my rear wheel yet to give it
a spin and check to
see what diff I have, but in driving on the freeway
yesterday, it sure
didn't seem like the engine was screaming when I was
hitting 60-65 MPH,
which the tack said was in the 4250-4500 range.
I noticed in third gear the speedo/tach read 30/3000
and in fourth gear it
was 40/3000. Even though I was driving in the slow
lane and keeping my
speed at around 60MPH, I didn't notice traffic just
flying by me as I
expected it to. The fast lane drivers on I-15 are
usually hitting 75-80 MPH
and they didn't look like they were going 15-20 MPH
faster than I was. This
leads me to suspect that my tach might be good, but
that the speedo is
probably not properly calibrated. I need to buy a
stopwatch and that will
be my next test after I mark off a mile somewhere...
Another reason that I
don't believe I have a 4.55:1 diff is that I should
have much better
launching torque from a standing stop than I do now.
I've yet to start off
from a stop light and pull ahead (or even) with the guy
in the next lane.
Time for some performance tuning... The valve tappets
are making a pretty
good racket. Guess I'll adjust those after I buy a
replacement cork gasket
for the valve cover. Are those available locally Or
will I have to mail
order those in, too?
Cheers,
Jeff in San Diego
|