• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

GPS Speedometer and West Valley Instruments

Share this page

BobbyD

BobbyD

Jedi Knight
Offline
One of my winter projects will have West Valley convert my gauges to the white face, convert the tach to electronic and, hopefully the speedo to GPS.

Morris is willing to work on the GPS conversion but the price will be dependent on how many he does and someone in here has also contacted him........so.........anybody else thinking of going this route? He asked me to call him to discuss further and I told him I'd post this first to see if there's any other interest level.

I would "assume" that converting my TR6 speedo would also work with other similar TR speedos i.e. TR4.

The beauty of a GPS speedo, besides accuracy, is that tranny, diff and tires never impacts its accuracy.

 
CinneaghTR said:
Thanks, Doug.

Okay, this actually sounds kind of promising. How much would the WVI conversion cost and is there any different wiring/setup? I guess I'll contact WVI directly.
Click to expand...

You can give Morris a call (I called him last week) but he's a couple of weeks away from pricing. He's studying the various component options for the conversion and how to put them all together. This work will be done around his other normal gauge work and will take a few weeks. Right now I've got about 10 guys in 6-Pack interested in the conversion and demand will drive the price to a degree..........the price will be above $300 (approx cost of parts) but how far above will depend on how many hours (@$90/hr) it takes to do the work. For me this is a winter project so if he's not ready until March it's OK with me.
 
CJD said:
So, gotta ask, does it work in a tunnel??

John
Click to expand...

Here's the same answer I gave in 6-Pack...... :p I've never driven my 6 in a tunnel but my DDs both have built-in navigation and the nav stays working in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.......my guess is that it's tied into my speedo somehow and just keeps the little car arrow moving. If I was in a tunnel with my 6 I'd just drive by the tach and stay with the traffic flow...........for me, at least, a tunnel that's 100' under water is the last place I'd be speeding!
 
Good point.

Tunnels, even long ones, are not so terribly long that a non-functioning speedometer should be an issue. I think the situation where I would worry about it would be if you were trying to keep VERY accurate odometer readings for some reason and you routinely went back and forth through a long tunnel as part of your daily commute.
 
BobbyD said:
You can give Morris a call (I called him last week) but he's a couple of weeks away from pricing. He's studying the various component options for the conversion and how to put them all together. This work will be done around his other normal gauge work and will take a few weeks. Right now I've got about 10 guys in 6-Pack interested in the conversion and demand will drive the price to a degree..........the price will be above $300 (approx cost of parts) but how far above will depend on how many hours (@$90/hr) it takes to do the work. For me this is a winter project so if he's not ready until March it's OK with me.
Click to expand...

Bob,
I'd be interested depending on the price.

jim
 
Last edited:
No speed traps in tunnels...you're really missing out if you're not speeding there!
 
I've relyed on my dash mounted Garmin GPS for the three years in my truck. Take away the navigation and I would think displaying speed (and mileage) would be a simple task. I've often wondered why know one offers a small stick-on GPS speedo. My existing mechanical speedo, unreliable as it is, could stay where it is... I'm not a purist.
Russ
 
It's been a long winter and I finally got my new Magnolia gauges with the tach converted to electronic and the speedo to GPS......... all quality work done by Morris at West Valley Instruments. I was going to send all the gauges to be refurbished and painted Magnolia but it was actually more cost effective to buy four new small gauges already with the Magnolia face.......... the best part was they only came in the early needle down style which I've always liked better then the later needle up style. The tach was converted to electronic and the speedo has the face of Smith and the GPS guts of VDO. The only tip off to it being GPS powered is the LED readout for the odometer. With the sensor/antennae "hot wired", satellite acquisition is instant......... the speedo actually registers my speed as I'm backing out of the garage! Morris is also working on some other variations for an electronic speedo so GPS isn't your only options for a cable-less speedo. I love how both the needles on both instruments are super smooth and accurate. Obviously a conversion that isn't for everyone and definitely not for the concours/originality gang but four guys in 6-Pack have now placed their orders already.

P1080349 (Custom).jpg


P1080351 (Custom).jpg

P1080350 (Custom).jpg
 
Back
Top