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Resetting a speedometer

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MG's don't have seals on the odometer....nobody will be the wiser & who cares - I say screw the DMV!

The speedometer on my 380SL broke - Mercedes put another in with the same mileage as when it broke - was that illegal? Nobody told the DMV, nobody filled out any forms, there's just an entry in the vehicle's maintenance/repair history that says the speedometer was replaced.

Basically, that's what he's doing
 
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Actually, Kenny, I asked her when I took the Mercedes to the shop...she said that so long as they were replacing a broken instrument with a working one & both carried the same mileage, there was no problem...she did tell me that the White GT I've been building for her mom for the last 5 years would be a little on the wrong side if I put a 0 mile odometer in it - I don't care...its a brand new car & I've got a brand new speedometer/odometer with 0 miles for it - my daughter, the lawyer, can figure out what to do about it after I die!
 
Bah, it is just as reasonable to set the spedo to 0 at a restroation as not. If you plunk a new spedo in guess what it is set at? How many times has the old one turned?

I beleive that the mileage is up to the owner on a car that has been "modified"
 
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I suppose there are legal issues to be concerned with. Most LBCs seem to loose their speedometer at some point. Given enough time I'm sure none of our cars will have 100% accurate odometers.

Rather than offer specifics on the speedos, I'd encourage you go Google for the 27 PDF document by Anthony Rhodes that discusses how to maintain Smiths and Jaeger speedos. The answers you want are in that document should you be inclined to open your speedo case.
 
Hey, Kenny - its all in friendship...I really hated it when my Vermillion Red '79 MGB rolled over to 00,000 a few years ago...I tried my darndest to keep from driving it - that's how I got the Pageant Blue '79...but, I just like that Red car...had it since new...so, My wife & daughter won't have any problem proving its 105XXX miles
 
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Thanks, Kenny....I try not to fool anybody

...the reason for that MG1100 speedo was the originality of the little car when I bought it (& we've got the records to prove it!)
...& my VR '79 - I put every mile on it from the time it came off the truck at the dealer
...I try to learn the mileage on all my cars - & verify it if possible (like the old '74-1/2 GT that nobody wants...its mileage is correct - around 84,XXX)

...but, the Glacier White GT - another story....I'm building it with everything new to my specs...its the best of every year MG (or at least the things I like best from every year)....so, to me the mileage on the old car is moot - its a new car!

& I've never tried to tell anybody anything else....the miles on the odometer will be the miles Jerri puts on it! & my daughter will have the records to prove that also - along with the entire rebuild process (its on my web)

I think we're both saying the same thing - I agree that the shyster lot lizzards are doing something illegal...I don't think putting a 0 mile odometer on a total rebuild & telling everybody is illegal - or immoral.
 
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FWIW:
I have neither advocated nor condoned misrepresenting a vehicle's displayed mileage. To the contrary! In post #165469: "...a way to disengage the detent and worm gear and roll the wheels to where your other one was."

If that is misinterpreted as :"go ahead and change the numbers to whatever..." it was misREAD.

*If* there were an individual with nefarious intent looking for a way to "roll back the clock" I doubt they'd glean much "how to" from this thread which they didn't already know.

As to the issue of reselling, we're talking 20+ year-old cars... if the DISPLAYED mileage is a PRIME selling point, you've got a classic Caveat Emptor situation. Authentic low mileage, high value vehicles will likely have traceability if genuine and would/should be examined by any potential buyer to confirm. Ultimately the price of -anything- is simply what the buyer and seller agree upon. Legislation and greed are just mixed in among the "other factors" both parties need consider. "Used Cars" is one of the last "Horse Trading" businesses, and is treated as such by all concerned. Naive buyers exist, as do immoral sellers. Neither should whine at being caught out. It's called "taking responsibility for your actions."

-- Next week we'll talk about: "Mortgage Brokers and the Banking Industry."
 
Hear hear. Anyway, in a car with over 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 years of experience it is very difficlut to tell which revoluton of ody it is on.
 
Agreed! This MGB has 43477 showing on it's CURRENT speedo... No idea how many times it's seen 00000!!!
 
Sorry guys, guess I was wrong. I removed my pieces from the playing table.
 
I wasn't saying anything last night when you finally came around, Kenny - hehehehe

But I do have to agree with you that just changing the numbers to lower the mileage for no reason is bad kharma!

& if my "screw the DMV" lead ya'll astray, I apologize...I just don't think they need to be meddling in a speedo repair or complete restoration mileage - they need to focus on the crooked lot lizards Kenny was concerned about (& they do exist around here!)
 
The legality issue has been beaten to death in this thread so I'll add only a couple of additional comments. The decision about whether or not to change your ODO is up to you in the end. There are legal ways to do this. You can send your speedo to Palo Alto Speedometer (and probably the others like Nisonger) and after you sign a waiver they will set the ODO where you want it... presumably to the miles on the ODO you're replacing.

I agree 100% with DrEntropy that when you're buying an old LBC... you'd be nuts to believe a 20+ year old car really had less than say 50k miles on it even if it was a barn find.

I take my GT6 in for inspection every year and each time the computer system tells the inspector to inquire about the car's mileage because it's "low". The speedometer was rebuilt as part of its restoration but it still reads only 23k. I don't know if my father-in-law ran the car over 100k and we're on the second go-round... or if the gauge froze up years before we got it. It doesn't matter in the end. No one is going to lock me up for not knowing the exact and correct mileage of this car.
 
A number of years ago the odometer on my '71 Corvette gave up. That fall I sent it away with directions to the repair shop to INCREASE the reading to approximate real life, as I kept track of the miles by way of fuel purchases. When they fixed the odometer (the way I asked) they totally screwed up the rotating sequence so it advanced the numbers on a random basis. Ie; turned to the next hundred while reading something like 71368. Same thing happened with all the other rollers. I did reset a Mustang speedo to zero for use in my Cobra replica and that one works fine. Bob
 
Don't know about the spedo. Stewart, but I must say that is one beautiful car! PJ /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
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