Here's how to remove the speedometer in a 68 MGB:
First, abandon all hope of seeing what your hands are doing, and of
getting any tool in there. The fasteners in question are all knurled
nuts, so build up your hand muscles before attempting this.
Next, it's probably a good idea to lift the negative battery cable
before groping around in there blind.
Now sit in the driver's seat with your legs outside, and (if you're
around 5'4") pin your head between the wiper control arm and the
gear shift. You are now in position to insert your right hand up to the
right of the steering shaft, just behind the dash. Your hand will scrape
the triangular steering support bracket. Allow your fingers to follow
the trip meter reset cable. To the left of where the reset cable enters
the speedo, the speedo cable will be coming in perpendicular, to meet the
angle drive. I find that with a slight repositioning of my hand, I can
lay my thumb up against the knurled nut while my forefinger curls over the
top of the nut. Loosening means that the top of the nut will rotate towards
you.
If you want to actually remove the speedo unit, now is a good time
to remove the fastener at about 4 o'clock on the back side of the speedo.
This is again a knurled nut, about 1/2 inch in diameter and 1/8th inch thick.
The 8-32 (or so) stud it's on is quite long. Be sure not to let it slip away,
they find hidden places in the dash where your fingers really can't go. The
other fastener is at about 11 o'clock. To get to this one, insert the left
hand into the big space next to the bonnet release pull and reach all the
way up to the defrost vent. Slide your hand along beneath the vent, above
the instrument cluster until you are past the oil pressure gauge, then bring
the fingertips down to find the nut.
After removing the nuts the brackets they secured will probably still
be stuck with friction, so from here on out it's a lot of wiggling, shaking,
and swearing.
However, BEFORE you attempt ANYTHING behind the dash, check the
angle drive at the transmission. Three out of five times this is the component
that's failed me. The last time was particularly nasty because the cable
portion broke off and stuck in the transmission socket. Much finesse was
required to remove it. Another failure was the angle drive on the back
of the speedo unit. Only once has the speedo unit actually failed.
Unfortunately, these angle drives are actually more expensive new from Moss
than a speedo rebuild. So I get junk from junkyards.
Anyways, good luck TeriAnn, and let me know how it goes.
Jean@spock.usc.edu
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