Getting Speedometer out of the Case

[John Turney]

A couple of years ago, I had my tach out, and because the case was rusty, I pulled the guts out, repainted the exterior of the case in grey and painted the interior white. It made a huge difference in being able to read it at night.



Now, I want to do the speedometer (the inside is rusty), but I can't get the guts out because of the reset on the bottom. I removed the knob, but I can't get the shaft in far enough to remove the guts. Do I have to remove the needle and face to pull the guts?

 

[British_Recovery]

I elongate the hole that the reset shaft passes through so that the whole inside stuff stays together. A small cut off wheel on a Dremel works well. Once the insides are out, you can clean up the hole. After reassembly, foil tape works around the shaft. Good time to clean and lube the odometer gears.
Good luck,
Bob

 

[British_Recovery]

Photos of opening.

 

[John Turney]

I opted to remove the needle and face, and reinstall, which turned out to be easier than I thought it would be.

I then painted the inside of the case white. Compare with the above photo of the speedo:

 

[red57]

Good job John.

I painted the inside of mine several years ago by cutting the can similar to Bob's method, but I did a cruder job of it.

I was afraid to remove the needle for fear of not getting it back in the same place and ruining the calibration.

So how did you manage getting the needle back in the right place?

Dave

 

[John Turney]

Dave,

There is a little black dot at about the -5 mph point on the dial. Align the needle with that. You will also notice a rivet head between that dot and zero. The zero peg is a wire from that rivet through a hole and up. Once the needle is pushed onto the shaft, you can gently push that peg down and move the needle to the positive side.

 

[red57]

Thank you John,

I figured there was some trick but had no idea what it was. I'm adding this little jewel to my file of 'how to' things.

I wish I had know that when I painted mine....wouldn't have nearly as ugly a can....

Dave