The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Speedometer parts?

Anyone know where to find the two small grommets that the speedo head to back case mounting screws go through?

Detail - http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8086/8367191363_e34d09190e_c.jpg

Mine are all rotted and the head and face bounce around pretty freely.

I would look at a Ace hardware for a grommet of the right size and then reuse the old metal insert.

I did. Didn't find anything the right size and Ace by me has everything. I assume they have to be rubber to isolate the speedo head for some reason ... electric or just vibration damping? If they just dampen vibration, I could use flat rubber washers.

I did. Didn't find anything the right size and Ace by me has everything. I assume they have to be rubber to isolate the speedo head for some reason ... electric or just vibration damping?
If they just dampen vibration, I could use flat rubber washers.

I used small neo-washers too. I have thousands of them for my work, come on metal roofing screws.

So you just used four neo-washers and everything is fine?

I assumed they just isolate the speedo head from vibration but with everything grounding thru everything else and into the dash I want to be sure.

They probably just insulated the head from case for noise. The cable is a direct link to the drive train so you will get vibration clear up to the dash. An rubber material should work.

Joe

BLUEMEANIE

I bought grommets for my speedo housing at an electronics surplus/salvage store near me in Winter Park. (Greatest place in the world to find obscure parts and stuff that you didn't know you needed!) I'm sure that I bought extra, but the parts bin is MIA in my shop.

> Grommets and speedo housing
> Grommets closeup

Looks like the grommets isolate the speedo head from vibration. A rubber washer without the rubber part that goes inside the hole in the housing would not keep the bolt shaft from vibratiing against the housing and head.

Don't lose the metal insert while you are looking for a grommet. I lost one. Luckily, I had a couple of extra ones. Anybody know of a substitute for the insert?

By the way, my '54 speedo and gauge housings were painted turquoise with green stripes. The inside of the inner bezels were painted turquoise and flat black. Don't know about earlier housings.

> Photobucket gauge album. There are two sets of housings in the album. One is original inside. The other was painted silver by a previous owner. The back of the speedo was turquoise and cream.

Lonnie, I don't know why I didn't think of that. My friend and I rebuild tube amplifiers for guitar and home audio and we frequent a local electronics salvage shop that's not too far from my office.



This is my '51 speedo and combination meter when I pulled them apart. My assumption would be that before '54 they were all white on the inside of the case and back of the face.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7270446754_c8126c2af1_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7084/7281793878_98547dcee5_b.jpg

These are mine after repainting with a high gloss white.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7220/7270459606_55d8b141e1_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8028/7271619356_05853517cb_b.jpg
Like yours, there were some spots on the combination meter that were masked off originally, so I masked them off similarly.

Not exactly on topic, but after I got everything back together, the little round coloured plastic lens for the dimmer switch fell to the bottom of the gauge housing. I don't feel like taking all that apart again.

Paint the indicator bulb with a light spray of red paint or fingernail polish. The paint may burn off if you use the high beams a lot. If it does, remove and repaint.

Pepboys and other auto parts stores sell gel caps for dash bulbs.

I'm using one similar to this for my high beam indicator - http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/9210570/