The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Speedometer: Rebuild? Reproduction?

I got the speedo out and now I need to figure out what to do.

The thing self destructed in the dash. All of the little screws were laying in there, the needle came off it's disc, the worm gear was rolling around loose, etc.

Is there anybody that you have used who will rebuild this unit?

Should I buy a repro unit? If so, does it matter from whom?

I'd post pics but my phone won't download to my computer anymore for some reason.

For re-installation, I'm thinking of using wing nuts if I can find any that fit.

Buy a new reproduction speedometer. They look nice and work. The only difference in appearance is the bright metal bezels. They are stainless steel instead of chrome. The profile of the bezels are more rounded on the edges on the aftermarket ones.

Some of the places sell the entire assembly or you can buy the guts and reuse the original bezel. Any preference?

Have you bought a new one? Where did you get it?

I bought a rebuilt Speedo from Jim Carter. It looks good and works well, although I haven’t checked the accuracy.

On my 51 3100, I bought new reproduction ones from LMC back in early 2019. Speedometer is and has been dead on from day one.

Here's the speedo. It just shook itrself apart one day.

The face looks really good. The date stamped on the back says Sep 8,1950.

I'll probably end up buying new guts from somewhere. It's about $100 less than the whole assembly. A local speedo shop told me $350 to rebuild the old one. I'll pass.

After the Chinese fuel pump fiasco, I'm leery of any new parts. I was leaning toward buying the new guts from one of the usual suspects and installing them in my housing.

Instead, I'm going with Kevin's choice and buying one of Jim Carter's rebuilt units. He said that they've sold over 2000 rebuilt speedos and only one was returned for a problem.

He sends them out to somebody for rebuild (probably Then and Now, hahaha) and won't send you one off the shelf until he receives your original core. $341.00

I bought some 10-32 wing nuts to use for re-assembly. It's easier to get my fingers in there than it is to get a tool on a nut, even with the radio grill removed.

Otto, rather than wing nuts, which might not be able to turn all the way around in the confined spaces, you might consider knurled nuts that would be much smaller.
Link

I have trouble with putting on a wing nut when I am sitting at the table with good lighting. I couldn't imagine how it would go behind the dash where you need and extra elbow to get to these studs. I am a huge fan of the knurled nuts. The next guy will thank you, since the brass won't get rusted tight.

That may be a good idea. Once I removed the radio grill I was able to get in there fairly readily. It was the tool that was difficult to fit in.

Before you spend the $$$, see if what you have is fixable. I bought a 50 1/2 ton with needle laying in the bottom and the brown paint had turned gray. I removed the speedometer from the dash and pried off the bezel to remove the round glass face off. From there I could see the tiny shaft and clock spring was still intact. I hand spun the speedometer cable connection and saw some movement. I bought a new needle, decal, gasket, glass and bezel. Care has to be taken to firmly press the new needle straight down without damage on the shaft. The other parts were easy. Worked great. In your case, it looks like the 2 tiny screws on the inner circle of the face, have worked loose and took the needle down with it.

BTW, if you change the decal, the gauge will look new but may be noticeably darker than the other faded gauges in your dash. I had to install the other decals. Special care is needed not to crimp the gas-filled capillary tube on the temperature gauge.

FWIW a local radiator shop also did speedometers I bought some parts from him and picked his brain. Seems GM used the same speedo guts for decades and he had some NOS parts from sometime in the 70s. I used them on my 51 speedo. But eventually, something else went wrong with it and his shop had become a hamburger joint. So I bought a new repro one but I don't remember from whom. It has worked fine for a decade but do check for accuracy before you put it in (see my other post for method).

One alternative to either wing nuts or knurled thumbscrews would be a "coupling nut"- - - - -it's an all-threaded nut about an inch long that's usually used to join two sections of threaded rod together for various purposes. It will give those arthritic fingers something to hold onto while you're starting the nut onto the threads in a blind spot.

For example:

www.ebay.com/itm/305788928519?

Jerry

I bought some knurled nuts. The big coupling nuts are a good idea. Fortunately I don't have arthritis or anything.