GPS Speedometer

[Michael Oritt]

Hi Michael,
I still have the same tank sender. I just soldered a flexible metal wire strand to the sender to make a good solid sending unit connection on the advice of a good Healey friend. I’ll see if I can find the photo to post.
Patrick

Patrick--

I would appreciate seeing that for sure!

Michael DSalter posted a fix a few months back consisting of, as I recall, wrapping some light wire around the base of the sending arm to serve as a damper.
I am going to contact him and ask him to send me his message and will post it here.

This aftrnoon I filled up the tank after last weekend's ride and my mpg reverted from 15 according to the original speedo, which I knew had to be erroneous, to 22 which is about where it has been in past years. Based on this dramatic difference in performance the new speedo should pay for itself in no time!

 

[Bob_Spidell]

I get 15MPG on my BJ8 (when I'm doing 80).

 

[red57]

Here is Michael Salter's fix for fuel ending units. Mine was erratic and I did his cure about 3-4 years ago and it has been rock steady ever since - I did not even have the gauge rebuilt, the whole problem in my case was the sender.
> Smiths and Jaegar Fuel Gauge Solution – Precision Sportscar <

BTW, I had my speedometer rebuilt and calibrated by West Valley Instruments 3 years ago and have been pleased to see 20-22mpg

 

[Michael Oritt]

Post-script: Neither of the new Speedhut instruments has an ignition warning light as does the original tach, and when I uninstalled the original instruments I simply cut the white and brown/yellow leads to the light and joined them with a butt connector.

During my first around-the-block road test everything seemed fine. However, about a week later I went out for the first ride of any distance and the voltmeter was all over the place, swinging from 11 to 15 volts.

My knowledge of electronics is somewhat rudimentary and after wasting a lot of time checking for either a bad regulator or defective alternator I finally learned that the light does more than warn us of an issue in the charging system as the resistance of the bulb sends a signal via the brown/yellow wire to the generator/alternator to turn on once the engine starts and spins it.

I wasted a day going to several car parts stores trying to find a small two-wire dash light with an incandescent bulb as apparently an LED bulb will not supply the necessary resistance and finally had to order one online. I got it today, installed it between the white and brown/yellow wires and VOILA all is well at a steady 14 volts.

 

[WHT]

Hi Michael,
I still have the same tank sender. I just soldered a flexible metal wire strand to the sender to make a good solid sending unit connection on the advice of a good Healey friend. I’ll see if I can find the photo to post.
Patrick

Patrick--

I would appreciate seeing that for sure!

Michael DSalter posted a fix a few months back consisting of, as I recall, wrapping some light wire around the base of the sending arm to serve as a damper.
I am going to contact him and ask him to send me his message and will post it here.

This aftrnoon I filled up the tank after last weekend's ride and my mpg reverted from 15 according to the original speedo, which I knew had to be erroneous, to 22 which is about where it has been in past years. Based on this dramatic difference in performance the new speedo should pay for itself in no time!

Me too!!

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

Hi Michael,
I still have the same tank sender. I just soldered a flexible metal wire strand to the sender to make a good solid sending unit connection on the advice of a good Healey friend. I’ll see if I can find the photo to post.
Patrick

Patrick--

I would appreciate seeing that for sure!

Michael DSalter posted a fix a few months back consisting of, as I recall, wrapping some light wire around the base of the sending arm to serve as a damper.
I am going to contact him and ask him to send me his message and will post it here.

This aftrnoon I filled up the tank after last weekend's ride and my mpg reverted from 15 according to the original speedo, which I knew had to be erroneous, to 22 which is about where it has been in past years. Based on this dramatic difference in performance the new speedo should pay for itself in no time!

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

Hi Michael,
I still have the same tank sender. I just soldered a flexible metal wire strand to the sender to make a good solid sending unit connection on the advice of a good Healey friend. I’ll see if I can find the photo to post.
Patrick

Patrick--

I would appreciate seeing that for sure!

Michael DSalter posted a fix a few months back consisting of, as I recall, wrapping some light wire around the base of the sending arm to serve as a damper.
I am going to contact him and ask him to send me his message and will post it here.

This aftrnoon I filled up the tank after last weekend's ride and my mpg reverted from 15 according to the original speedo, which I knew had to be erroneous, to 22 which is about where it has been in past years. Based on this dramatic difference in performance the new speedo should pay for itself in no time!

Me too!!

I’m still looking for it, but I may need to pull the sending unit back out for another reason, gasket seal, and then I’ll do another photo to post.

 

[red57]

Patrick, In post #23 above I linked to Michael Salters grounding wire (with picture) - is that what you did?

 

[WHT]

Patrick, In post #23 above I linked to Michael Salters grounding wire (with picture) - is that what you did?

I think most of us followed Michael's recommendations for grounding the fuel sender, with maybe slightly different approaches. But he paved the way.

The Speedhut fuel gauge is easy to calibrate to the original Healey fuel sender, and the fuel gauge now works as well as any fuel gauge on a modern car.