-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Denman <mikedenman@earthlink.net>
To: british-cars@autox.team.net <british-cars@autox.team.net>
Date: Saturday, September 16, 2000 11:12 PM
Subject: Tachometers
>Hi Group,
>A couple of months ago (ok, it was probably last Spring) I asked the
>list for recommendations on Tachometer repair for a Smiths tachometer.
>I live near Palo Alto Speedometer and Instrument repair but have found
>them to be very very slow and fairly expensive. Someone on the list
>responded that they had their tachometer "repaired" by having someone
>put in a new type of "movement" that is better and more accurate while
>maintaining the original look etc. If that person could give me the
>vendors name again, I would appreciate it.
>Thanks,
>Mike Denman
>1966 Marcos
>1965 Lotus7
>1944 Brain and Body
Could have been me. I had the Smiths tach in my Europa gutted and the
insides replaced with a modern electronic pulse-counting rig. Guaranteed
acurate. The guy also cleaned the face and polished up the rim. Looks like
a brand-new Smiths tach and works better. As I recall, I paid circa 135
dollars USA in 1993.
Here is something I wrote back then:
=====================
APT Speedometer Specialists
9632 Humboldt Avenue So
Bloomington, MN 55431
(612) 881-7095
This place is amazing. A house and garage in an area that is generally
generic industrial park. The garage is really a shop. There are
disassembled instruments everywhere. The owner is a young guy who (all
my friends will find this hard to believe) can out-talk me by a ratio of
about five to one. I have a habit, when showing the Lotus project to
anyone, of giving them the five dollar tour. This guy surpassed my
finest efforts. He showed me dozens of projects. The two most
unusual: A 191? Studebaker speedometer that works on air pressure from
a tiny fan run by the speedometer cable. It was completely unlike
anything I had ever seen in a car. Looked like old submarine
instruments. It appeared brand new. The other was a faceplate for a
Harley upon which he had reproduced the biker's scorpion tattoo in full
color. The shop was full of fifties speedometers that had been
recalibrated for higher speeds, but in the original typefaces, and
instruments from antique cars that had been totally restored right down
to repainting the numbers on the odo dials.
He opened up the Smiths tach. He found a coil that had expired from
heat. It had jammed the movement so it could not move. How it got to
8000 is a matter for conjecture. He told me that he could fix it, but
it would cost a large amount of money. I should either try to find
another one, or let him put in different guts.
He told me that there were several disadvantages to the original
induction tach: They are often inaccurate (the one in my Midget was
wildly optimistic). Since they depend on the ignition components of the
car, they can change. There is no way to calibrate them in the shop, it
has to be done in the car. If the coil opens up in the tach, your car
stops running.
He said he could modernize the tach and it would look exactly the same
as original and be accurate. The new method uses electronic circuitry
to count the ignition pulses. He would: Clean everything. Repaint the
inside of the can white and the outside of the can gray. Refinish trim
parts as needed. Build a new movement using S-W or other parts.
Install the electronics. Calibrate with a square-wave generator.
Guarantee the lot for one year. Cost: $135.
The cheapest I have seen a new one is $200. I could probably find a
cheaper modern one to fit, but then it would not look right. Have to
have that Smiths orange and red pie look. So I told him to go ahead.
Trouble is, if he gets it that beautiful, the speedo will look dingy...
=============================
Well, he DID get it that beatiful.
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Suburban, 1962 Triumph TR4 CT2846L
LOON, MAC pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/
"It makes a nice noise when it goes faster"
- 4-year-old Adam, upon seeing a bitmap of Grandma Susie's TR4.
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