Fellow mg netters,
A bit of story telling before my questions. If you don't have much time - the
questions are in the last paragraph. Most of my posts have been for help, not
because I don't have any comments or suggestions to make about other subjects,
but because I get the digest, sometimes read it a couple days late, and when I
have sent responses a couple days later, it's usually too late. Anyway, I
really enjoy reading the list and find it a great source of information and
help. Sure wish I was going to Indy this summer, and had a chance to meet a
bunch of you.
I'm about ready to move to Holland for a year, and I made the decision to leave
Maggie (68 brg B) here with my Dad while I'm gone. Believe me, I was very, very
close to shipping her to Holland so I wouldn't have to live without her for the
next year, but the rational part of my being eventually wrestled hard enough and
won. The real deciding factor was not really having weekends free over there
because we'll want to be touring around Europe, and the cost / difficulty
getting parts and / or work done in a foreign country. By the way, through this
list I've met Bert Otten and Frank van Dalen over there - they live about 10
minutes from me. I've been working there part time for about a year. I helped
Bert with his '67 restoration and a few weeks ago helped Frank take the head off
his '69 trying to identify a bothersome ticking (bad tappet - easy, cheap fix).
Knowing those two guys, working, and occasionally riding / driving around with
them will help ease the lbc withdrawal. It will be tough not having Maggie to
drive every day and work on on weekends. I think she's already starting to miss
me too, evidenced by yesterday's speedo failure.
Murphy's law at work. I've spent the last few months getting Maggie ready to
move to her temporary home with Dad. Tune up, oil change, top off ALL fluids,
lube front end, rotate / regrease wheels, etc. He's not much on troubleshooting
/ working on cars, so I was trying to take care of all squeaks, rattles,
potential problems etc. so he could just enjoy driving the car for a year.
After bragging to Dad just last Sunday that I had everything working and ready
for him to just drive, on the way home from work yesterday the speedo and tacho
both quit working. The tacko has been intermittent for some months - drops to
zero, springs back wildly from 0 to the peg, then stabilizes at the correct RPM
- no apparent pattern - seems to do it the most when it's hot (often, here in
Louisiana). Anybody have any ideas what that is ?
When the speedo needle dropped to zero, I could hear a grinding / ticking sound
behind the dash. The noise would change with speed and when I grabbed the cable
under the dash and moved it around, so I thought the cable had come loose from
the right angle drive (RAD) at the back of the box. I started disassembly while
still driving home, having done this procedure half a dozen times in the past,
and knowing the feel of things behind the dash. Silly thing to do though: at a
stop light, while taking off one of the round nuts with one hand, I dropped it
behind the dash, and of course can't find it. Early this morning I was out
troubleshooting (I'm in a hurry because I'm driving Maggie to my Dad's house
next Monday and leaving the country the following Friday). Took out the speedo,
drove around the driveway slowly, cable turns easily, speedo doesn't. Took off
the speedo RAD with the cable connected, and it turns easily. Connect the
speedo again, and the whole gauge tries to rotate when moving rather than just
the needle, so the internals of the speedo must be bad. Holding it steady, it
makes the grinding / ticking sound and needle doesn't move. You may not
remember, but the speedo was dormant for many years - at least since 1984 - and
I only got it working several months ago with sound advice from this list to
throw away the transmission side RAD and direct connect the cable there. So
I've had the speedo working for a couple thousand miles and now it's gone again.
Maybe the speedo is what caused the premature failure (23 miles) of the
transmission RAD I put in last year.
To add insult to injury - and at the risk of making myself look quite silly
while providing you all a chuckle, after a shower and breakfast I jumped in
Maggie to pick up my son at the ex's house to take him to school. I thought I
had a perfect opportunity to explain to him how the speedo system worked with
the instrument sitting on top of the steering column and the cable sticking out
through the hole in the dash. Where is that cable, I thought as I drove along.
I stuck my hand in the hole and felt around, no cable. I stuck my hand under
the dash, no cable. I pull away from the first stop sign wondering where the
cable has gone. I reached around the radio console to the transmission oil
filler hole where I had routed the cable after throwing away the RAD, no cable.
Gee it must have fallen through while I ate breakfast. Got up to about 30 mph
and heard the cable dragging on the ground. Just one mile at 30 mph to the ex's
house, I thought, I'll just disconnect it there in her driveway - she's used to
seeing me on my back under an lbc - contributor to the divorce I must admit
("you care more about that car than you do me!") - so I drive on. About half
way there, the dragging cable noise stopped, and when I got to her house and
looked at the cable, the fitting was gone and the cable was trashed. So I
reached under and disconnected it at the transmission, getting somewhat soiled
in my work clothes - threw the cable in the trunk, politely asked the ex if she
had a spare, and off I went to school / work. Explained how the speedo worked
to my son anyway. Hope you all enjoyed a good chuckle there.
So my question is - does anybody know a good place to get a speedo rebuilt ? I
checked VB this morning and a new one is $189. I'd prefer to rebuild for cost
and originality sake. Seems like I read on the list some time ago about places
that are good at this (Like Apple for brake / clutch cylinders), although I
remember one comment that local shops can also do it - what kind of local shops
? Will they have to order parts from Smiths ? Any idea how long / how much ?
Anybody have names and phone numbers ? I'll call around town this morning to my
local parts suppliers, but I'd like to get input from the list too. Another
unrelated question - I've run out of gas at 1/8 showing a month ago, and this
week I put 11.6 gallons in when showing 1/4 - what's up and is this malady
easily fixable - or should I just tell Dad to fill up every 200 miles (assuming
I get the speedo fixed)? I've asked majordomo to let me get resonses right away
instead of the digest so rapid reply's would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Rick "thousands of things to do without this too" Huber
'68 soon to B daily driver for Dad
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