|
Mech Smith's Speedo bouncing a little?
It seems that the occilations of my Smiths speedometer are getting a little wider as I start to put a few miles on it. The bounciness gets greater with speed but is around 5 mph +/- at 45 to 50 mph. I have the adaptor shimmed to avoid any binding of the speedometer mechanism so it shouldn't be that. I assumed the cable was good to go as delivered but possilbly it needs to be lubed. Anyone else have this issue with a new speedometer and figure it out?
|
Not much to do to the cables OTHER than lube it well ???)
|
If a reverse speedometer the reversing gear adapter needs to dis assembled, cleaned and 're assembled with a light moly grease. That should do it.
|
Which end does the cable come out on these - transmission end?
|
I helped mine by adjusting some of the bends in the cable routing. I had secured the cable in several places with cable ties and it seems that they constrained it too much. When I cut a couple of them and made the radii a little more generous, the oscillations were reduced significantly.
|
The tightest radius on mine is probably 6 or 7 inches where from the firewall grommet to the adaptor on the back of the speedometer (street dash layout). I don't know an easy way to improve that one any. I'll re-lube the adaptor and the lube the cable and see what it does.
Thanks. |
What are you using to lube the cable? I've always used powdered graphite on the speedo cable.
|
Quote:
|
Get some of this. Gravity does the work for you. The graphite is emulsified in a solvent that will evaporate leaving behind a film of lubricant. I use it on motorcycle cables, works great.
Bike Aid Dri Slide 4 oz w Needle Moly Dry Film Lubricant for Cables Housing New | eBay |
I have powdered graphite - but what end does the cable pull from - speedometer or transmission? Looking at Bob's manual, some of the drawings appear to show a shoulder on the speedometer end which would mean I need to pull it loose and out from there. Is this correct?
Edit 1: Never mind - speedometer end it is for the record. Edit 2: Lubed up cable with powdered graphite. Adaptor was too tight on back of the speedometer to get off for now. Went for a test drive but had no speedometer at all. I didn't have the cable engaged into the transmission gear - but the weather is looking too stormy now for another test drive. |
When I bought my car the speedo stopped working or was not working correctly immediately. The cable is actually to short or has too much back and forth movement inside the sheath. Turned out to be two items.
It would be able to travel into the reversing adapter at the speedo to far, by this happening it backed out of the plastic gear in the tranny eventually killing the square drive opening. With Doug's(ERA) guidance, made a 3/8 long shim out 1/8 brakeline and installed it right on the cable at the adapter end. This prevented it from walking out of the tranny gear to far and ruining it. Your problem of the intermittent jumping around sounds like it could be the end of the tranny gear. If I am right, it will get worse as the square drive gets more destroyed until just won't work at all. The good thing is this gear was designed to be the sacrificial lamb, that is why it is plastic and cheap |
Quote:
|
Check it all!
Same issue with mine. Turned out to be the worst possible outcome in that the speedo drive gear on the tail shaft of the TKO-600 was bad. The possible cause to this was that the clip that holds the gear to the transmission side of the cable had fallen off. Possible excessive run out of the cable and or gear put wear on the tail shaft gear. I found the clip in the bottom of the tail shaft housing.
Don't ignore it or think you will get to it later. Check everything from gauge to transmission to make sure all is in order. Mine started with a small bounce at the gauge. |
Quote:
I took another short drive but it started misting and had to curtail it. Still bouncing a little although seems slightly better. It seemed to get worse the other day after I accelerated up through the gears to about 70. I suspect it may be in the transmission gear - hopefully the driven gear. But it looks like I will have to pull the tunnel to get a good look at it. |
Quote:
|
I made a spacer out of aluminum tubing, approximately 1/4 in long to position the cable end back towards the transmission gear. That's pretty much what the play in the cable appeared to be. I'll give it a try tomorrow morning weather permitting.
|
Dan---
Leave the 'real, original' Smiths speedo for the DB's in the parking lot to ooh and ahhh over. Drive by the tach. Do the formula for MPH inputting your rear gear, 1:1 trans (4th) and tire diameter. Do it for each 1000RPM. Then just look at the tach when you're in the school zone for your sedate MPH. Also do it for near redline. For instance, 6200 in 4th with my combination was 155MPH. Which I enjoyed whenever space allowed............ |
Chas. is right. Because of this thread, I looked at my speedo this weekend for the first time in a long time (the Smiths speedo is in the middle of the dash). At 45MPH it was not holding perfectly steady, but was "wiggling" up and down about a half inch or so. I hardly ever look at it -- I've used the "tach" method forever. 7, 11, 17, 21, and 34 -- just do the quick math in your head. Cops tend to cut me more breaks in the Cobra than they do in my DD cars anyway.:cool:
|
Quote:
Police are feeling great pity that someone forced you to ride in a foam- insulated and beige example of what was by legend, a raw-boned sports racer... :CRY: |
Quote:
Edit:sep1 10:52 Never saw the part where you made the spacer...sorry |
| All times are GMT -7. The time now is 11:09 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0
The representations expressed are the representations and opinions of the clubcobra.com forum members and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and viewpoints of the site owners, moderators, Shelby American, any other replica manufacturer, Ford Motor Company. This website has been planned and developed by clubcobra.com and its forum members and should not be construed as being endorsed by Ford Motor Company, or Shelby American or any other manufacturer unless expressly noted by that entity. "Cobra" and the Cobra logo are registered trademarks for Ford Motor Co., Inc. clubcobra.com forum members agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyrighted material is owned by you. Although we do not and cannot review the messages posted and are not responsible for the content of any of these messages, we reserve the right to delete any message for any reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s). Thank you for visiting clubcobra.com. For full policy documentation refer to the following link: