BTW - Please tell me that is photoshopped and not a real image...[/QUOTE]


It`s real

 

It`s real[/QUOTE]

Oh my gosh... now, that's someone who really loved their bike! To each their own, but I think I'd like someone to enjoy my Pan-Shovel when I kick the bucket some day. Just don't have anyone in my family who likes motorcycles, so it's a bit of a quandary.

My next door neighbor and machinist for Creative Spridgets parts once showed me the prototype of some engraved aluminum cylinders with threaded caps that a customer inserted into the handlebars of his Harley. This is no joke: they were intended to contain a portion of the ashes of his late friend, so he could continue riding with his buddy.

OEM '45 speedo should be here Thursday...

 

Might be sooner than you think , if you don`t get that kitchen done

 

Ha! Exactly right...

Well, part of the glacial progress is the wife wanted to ditch the Fred Flinstone old design for flush-mount drawers and doors, but without scrapping the old cabinet carcasses. After agreeing to that (brilliant move), I insisted on making everything from scratch out of select pine to match the old built-ins--which needed new cross-members in most of the faces, an opening widened for a new sheet pan drawer, etc., etc. Of course, I decided I just had to make the doors with full mortise-and-tenon joints... so the slow progress is mostly self-inflicted injury.

This week, gotta align those self-closer drawer slides, sand the faded cabinet faces, put on the stain and Polycrylic... then it's on to refinishing (read that, rebuilding) the butcher block counters, refinishing the floor tiles... and the wife would like a new tile backsplash (naturally)...

And I'm talking about rebuilding a vintage speedo in my 'spare time'? Good thinking!

 

All righty then... the gauge came in and looks even better than in the ad photos. The outer chrome bezel looked like it's been taken off and crimped back on, rather crudely. So, since that'd be replaced regardless, I removed it to see what's what.

Once the dirty lens was off, the face looked to be in near perfect condition (2nd pic), so all it needs is a gentle cleaning. You can also see (3rd pic) the Stewart Warner print once the bezel is off.

The next pic shows the inner bezel, a more delicate tin affair that can be repainted and which I presume from its orientation is intended to help reflect light back onto the face. You'll notice in the 2nd photo that it's white except for the lower portion, which is black. So, presumably the 'police specal' lettering wasn't supposed to jump out at you after dark...? It gets a doughnut-type rubber ring seal, whereas there is a more standard sort of rubber seal between the chrome bezel and the glass.

The following photo shows what looks like a teensy roll pin retaining the trip odometer reset ****--which does work, as you can see in the last photo. In fact, the numbers click very nicely when you rotate the trip odometer, so my guess is the teeth on the drums are in great shape.

The drive mechanism turns very smoothly but does not advance the odometer (or trip), or move the speedo needle. However, once I removed the 'speed lock' mechanism (two screws)--which looks like an electronic servo that gently jumps inward to touch a felt pad against the speedo's inner cup and 'lock in' whatever speed the cop wanted to prove up at the hearing--I discovered that the clock spring is indeed intact and has nice tension. You can rotate it slightly with your finger tip though the same hole that the speed lock servo uses to jump into place, and when you release the needle, it returns to zero smartly and without bouncing around. (Tomorrow, I'll try out the servo but it moves freely, so no reason why it shouldn't work--and if it doesn't, easy to fix as it's just a simple electro magnet.). Hmmm... though wouldn't this ordinarily have received 6V rather than 12v? If so, I'd better use some flashlight batteries in series to generate the right voltage...?

I can see the worm gear turning when I rotate the brass drive collet into which the cable end inserts, so since the needle moves with the inner cup and the clock spring is intact, my guess is that the magnets just need re-magnetizing. Not yet sure why the worm gears aren't engaged, but peering through the speed lock hole it looks like all the parts are there... hmmm...

Well, anyway, tomorrow I'll drive out the roll pin in the trip odometer reset ****, which appears to be all that's holding the guts into the cup, now that I've removed the two screws in back (which weren't even stuck). I'm hoping there will be no reason to even separate the needle and face from the mechanism, though that's not a huge deal.

Fingers crossed, but if I'm lucky, all I'll need is a bezel kit, some light weight grease, and figure out how to refresh the magnets. Anyone know how to re-magnetize them?

Finally, could be that the worm gear mechanism is merely loose or something--but conceivably there could be a worn-out pinion gear. If so, with the resources people have included in earlier posts, I'm sure I could get some gears if need be. Anyway, we'll see tomorrow...

 

The wife was busy this evening, so I pushed out the roll pin and took a look inside.

After a little fiddling, I determined that the trip and odometer are indeed working. Compare the photos in the above post to this first photo...

In fact, the way this speedo is set up, there's no way for the trip and main odometer not to work unless the nylon gears have been worn through by the metal worm gear. As you can see in the 2nd photo there is very little wear on the nylon gear that turns the odometer where it is driven by the worn gear. On the other side of the worm gear, there's a smaller nylon gear which, in turn, revolves a metal toothed gear on the trip barrel. No discernible wear there, at all. The metal worm gear's other end has straight-cut gears that are turned by another, nylon worm gear @ 90 degrees whose other end is a straight cut gear, itself driven by a metal worm gear integral to the brass collet turned by the cable.

What I think was happening was either the seller was impatient to see if the unit was reading and just gave up turning his fingers (you can't see the action moving unless you look very closely), or he spun the unit with a drill motor--which could generate a burst of acceleration far greater than the unit ever encounters in operation. That might've caused the worm gear to shove the nylon driven gear away from the worm gear's axis slightly, so that it jumped the teeth.

Regardless, the unit does advance, in both the trip and main odometer barrels. And the trip reset actuates just fine. In fact, the seller may have been turning it the wrong direction because he told me it didn't reset or advance properly. In fact it does both--though if memory serves, it rotates in the opposite direction from the reset on my aftermarket speedo...? If you turn it the wrong way, it stops working temporarily as the barrels seem to get jacked a little. It started resetting after I turned the **** anti-clockwise for a moment.

So, it's looking like all this unit needs is cleaning, fresh lube, and some re-magnetized or new magnets. I can see them rotating nicely inside the cup, and there's zero scraping or other indications of contact or misalignment, and the bushes are very tight and smooth. The lens cleaned up just fine, so all I really need is a bezel and some gaskets.

You have to remove the needle in order to take off the face, which in turn is necessary to get at the screws holding the barrels in place to clean and lube them (and adjust the odometer to match the mileage elapsed on the new aftermarket speedo since I rebuilt the top end on this bike), and to access the magnets. I took photos (below) with a piece of paper indicating how the needle preload was originally set (the ridge aligns with 72 mph in this case). This one has no stop peg, so you have to know where the needle is supposed to point when at rest with a clock spring-and-magnet unit.

So, I will wait to tackle the rebuild for another day sometime soon, as I don't want to rush the process and would like to see if replacement magnets are available before I resort to re-magnetizing. But bottom line is, these speedos are an extremely simple design--much easier to deal with than the Smiths unit on my '67 Midget. Fewer parts and straightforward operating principle.

I think I'll refinish the cup while I'm at it, too, as it's got some corrosion and overspray on the outside.

The final photos show the cup alignment/adjustment screws, of which there are three. It looks pretty well aligned, but if I were really lucky, it isn't just alignment but somehow affects the spacing of the magnets, and all it needs is for the cup to be dialed in a bit or something... nah, couldn't be that simple!

 

There was a piece of lint inside the magnet cup. I got it out with tweezers, and the speedo now works. The magnets are fine!

I ended up using a pair of 90-degree snap ring pliers to remove the needle (see first photo). No damage to needle or face.

As for the trip odometer, I determined something was missing and John was nice enough to sell me another drive gear with a spring that advances the first wheel (that, in turn, drives the others). You can see in the second photo that there's nothing connecting the little wings or tabs on the metal cylinder attached to the stamped gear to turn the first wheel. The spring or whatever it is evidently broke and ejected itself from the unit, not uncommon per John. He charged me $10 (plus virtually nothing for shipping) and instructed me how to install it when it arrives.

*Note: John advised not to disassemble the barrels apart from refitting the gear on the end, as they can be difficult to reassemble. I'll show how to do the repair in the next post when the part gets here.

So, all I have to do is soak the drive shaft in a shot glass filled with light oil (air tool oil is fine) over night as there's no port to oil the shaft, install the new trip odometer gear/spring, clean up the barrels and balance of the unit--which is fine to run dry as regards the worm gears per John.

I cleaned up the grime on the face with McGuire's detailer w/o conditioner on a microfiber, which came out fine save for sun damage (see photos). So, just need to get and install the new bezel and gaskets.

I will remove the minor corrosion from the outside of the cup. I am not going to repaint the interior because it's okay if a bit faded--and I don't want to destroy or try painting around the original manufacturer sticker. I will, however, remove the surface rust from the two-color ring that reflects light back onto the face @ the perimeter and restore the white and black scheme discussed earlier.

I'll update the thread with photos when done.

But there's a hitch. The seller told me this was a 2:1 unit and John says no, the Police Special was not made until '62, and mine is a '67 or thereabouts (made in Florida and tested in July of that year - see photos). It's a 1:1.

But I have discovered a workaround. The old Bonneville I'm working on uses a rear axle speedo drive and they come in various ratios. The one pictured is 1.25:1, which is actually not that far off, given that I am running a taller tranny sprocket. So, all I'll have to do is machine a little disc to drive the unit from my rear star hub (a quick morning's work), run the bike and clock my actual speed, then put one of those inline boxes that increases or reduces the ratio. It can be mounted inconspicuously down behind the tranny.

When there's a will, there's a way...

 

Awesome work, NM. It's good to see someone who isn't afraid of diving in and solving mysteries inside black (grey) boxes. Also, great work finding a 1.25 ratio drive. But 1:1 transmissions are usually driven by the transmission, can you make that work?

 

Thanks, man. I know I'm an oddball, but this kind of tinkering is half the fun of owning a vintage machine.

Yes, on the drive issue, evidently my existing tranny drive is 2:1. I'm not aware of the ability to simply R&R the tranny drive (which I replaced when rebuilding the tranny) for a 1:1. If that were the case, I assume John would've advised me to do that, which would've taken a few minutes.

As for the rear-axle drive option, I know that I can configure it to work mechanically, but am less sure that what I'm contemplating will work ratio-wise. Obviously, we'll see when I try it out. But the classic Triumph Bonneville outlets sell 2:1 and 1.25:1 units, both of which can be bought bored to accept a 3/4" axle. Of course, in that case we're talking either 2:1 or 1.25:1 vis-a-vis the rear wheel, and not the tranny's output shaft. So, seems like I should be able to get it into the ballpark, whereupon I can adjust a fairly significant amount using the custom 'speed up' or 'slow down' inline boxes you insert into the cable. (A guy sells them in Colorado. You just select the percentage you want to speed up or slow down the speedo, and he inserts the right gears.)

The final issue is cable compatibility, but the same guy who sells the inline boxes makes cables with whatever ends you wish--or will splice your cable per your measurements and specs. I've got a cable that will fit this speedo (pretty standard sleeve and square drive), so it should be straightforward. And as I've said, the ratio adjuster box is very small (about a pack of chewing gum) and can sit behind the tranny on a little flange attached to one of the rear tranny bolts.

 

So my 63' has a speedo glass that vibrates at speed. I have been thinking about pulling the bezel off and replacing it with a new gasket.
I believe JZ said VTwin has a good replacement.

What is the best way to get the bezel off.