Hiya,
I am a newcomer to the list. A very good friend, known as Vegaman Dan or
Flinters, introduced me to the Spitfire. I am not sorry, even after large
repair bills not less than a month after acquiring my 1980 Spitfire
(details to be covered in another posting...)
My dilemma is over getting the speedometer to work. Hopefully somebody out
there will have some sage advice for me, and can validate or dispute the
following story.
The car I purchased supposedly had a newly rebuilt transmission in it. Of
course, the work was done under the table. After getting it in running
condition, then having a local shop fix the tranny when stuck in gear, we
tried to replace a broken speedo cable. Examining the speedo revealed that
it was frozen.
OK, I shelled out the $$$ to get another used speedo. But wait... on
driving the car off the repair shop lot, I realized that the speedo was not
working... Back to the shop. They pondered whether or not the right-hand
speedo cable drive was bad (Flinters and I checked it out in advance, and
it was good). Then the question was over the speedo gear. The shop had
one in stock, so they pulled the drive gear. Nope, the original gear was
good. What is up with the speedo?
Twisting the speedo cable from the tranny end verified that the speedo
worked, and that the right-hand drive appeared to twist the cable as
well. Why doesn't the speedo work?
The shop claimed that there might be a problem with a missing spacer in the
Overdrive unit. The spacer fits behind the speedo gear and prevents it
from moving out of alignment with the speedo cable drive gear.
The previous owner stated that the Overdrive unit worked in the car at one
point, and he had the tranny rebuilt from pieces from a second tranny
(trashed cluster gear - stripped clean). No mention that the OD unit was
rebuilt from this owner.
Bottom Line: What else could cause speedo problems, considering that there
is a new cable and the speedo tests as working? Even after rechecking
connections, the speedo worked for 1/10 of a mile and then went back to sleep.
Your help, advice and shoulder will be greatly appreciated.
Ron Deaver, 80 Russet Brown Spit
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