GPS speedometer

[4380r]

I finally got around to installing the Speedhut GPS speedometer in my Twin Cam. I have the 365 transmission, and when the speedo gear drive in the trans went out on me, the gear has proved either impossible to source, or unbelievably expensive.

For purists, having this gizmo in the car may be a no-no. But I picked a speedo, and 'built' it on the website to resemble the OEM Smiths gauge as much as possible. You can select the color of the indicator needle, color of lighting, face color, and can add graphics from their site (too bad they didn't have a 'Smith's' graphic), finish of the bezel.

It looks great in the car, and only a Lotus afficionado would notice it as non original. And it works great, can toggle from odo to an ellapsed time mode (for when I want to sidestep the clutch and do a 0-60 launch--jk).

Best of all, don't have to worry about speedo/cable/gear drive crapping out.

[3929R]

 
I would really like to see how it turned out as I have considered doing the same thing.

Fixing my speedometer is on my to do list.  I can see my cable is kinked where it enters the transmission but have not checked the gear drive.  I would prefer to keep the stock gage but your "impossible to source or unbelievably expensive" gear drive report has me dragging my feet.  So in the mean time I am using an app on my phone- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binarytoys.speedometer
I quite like it.  I may even like it enough to figure out a way to mount it more securely.  The other downside is it really draws down the phone battery, so I would need to install a hidden charging outlet for use on longer trips.  Such an outlet might be nice to have anyway.

[4380r]

I will take some pics of it in the car this weekend and post.

In the interim, here is a link to the specific gauge. You can play around with the customization features. I did not get the turn signals or high beams wired. I just have the speedo/odo, back light, and glow color for the indicator needle hooked up.

http://www.speedhut.com/gauge/GR338-GPS-02T/1/GPS-Speedometer-Gauge-140mph--(w--turn-signal-and-high-beam)

[EuropaTC]

That is impressive. I'm not sure it would be acceptable over here with our annual test, but it can only be a matter of time before they are fitted to mainstream cars. Once that's in the car you'd need be an expert to find fault with it, especially if you matched a rev counter to the same spec ?

Looking forward to the installation pics. (taken of course with an indicated 130mph on the dial        )

Brian

[4380r]

One of the unintended beauties of this is that changing wheel/tire height, which would ordinarily throw off a speedometer reading, has no impact at all on this.

[buzzer]

Personally I would look at the modern kit car type speedo which use Hall effect sensors and can be calibrated. I used one in my Westfield. I am sure looking at them that they could be fitted inside a lotus speedo
On eBay item number  181320932376
35 notes

Dave

[4380r]

Personally I would look at the modern kit car type speedo which use Hall effect sensors and can be calibrated. I used one in my Westfield. I am sure looking at them that they could be fitted inside a lotus speedo
On eBay item number  181320932376
35 notes

Dave

Good point, it would of course be nice if the speedo still looked exactly like the OEM unit. Still, outside of the pointer itself, this one has no moving parts to fail (other than satellites, of course), installed fairly easily, and is self calibrating.

Time will tell how well it works. I'm just glad to be knowing again how fast I'm going!

[EuropaTC]

Personally I would look at the modern kit car type speedo which use Hall effect sensors and can be calibrated. I used one in my Westfield. I am sure looking at them that they could be fitted inside a lotus speedo
On eBay item number  181320932376
35 notes

Dave

Wow, that is an interesting idea, it just shows how far behind the curve I'm getting.  Keep 'em coming folks !

I don't have a need for one at the moment, but it's almost worth £35 just to get one to play with and see if the internals can be adapted to the OEM speedo facia.  I suppose you could mount the sensor on the innermost drive coupling out of the gearbox on the Europa and it would do away with the usual long cable drive problems.

Brian

[3929R]

Personally I would look at the modern kit car type speedo which use Hall effect sensors and can be calibrated. I used one in my Westfield. I am sure looking at them that they could be fitted inside a lotus speedo
On eBay item number  181320932376
35 notes

Dave

Wow, that is an interesting idea, it just shows how far behind the curve I'm getting.  Keep 'em coming folks !

I don't have a need for one at the moment, but it's almost worth £35 just to get one to play with and see if the internals can be adapted to the OEM speedo facia.  I suppose you could mount the sensor on the innermost drive coupling out of the gearbox on the Europa and it would do away with the usual long cable drive problems.

Brian

By fitting it inside the old speedometer I'm assuming you would not have an odometer?

[buzzer]

On the odometer front I guess it depends on if you can get the old window to line up with the replacement. Typically there does seem to be some sort of logic to the location of the odometer but I've not done any checking. I should also be possible to get a new facia made up to look like the old one with hole in the right place.

Dave

[BDA]

I got the electronic speedo found on this page (http://www.gaugeguys.com/Smiths/classic.htm). It looks a lot like the stock speedo.

I have not installed it yet (I'm having my problems  ) but there is a guy on the lotuseuropa yahoo group that has and he likes his. It is supposed to be very easy to calibrate.

[buzzer]

 That looks pretty good. Post some pics of how it looks when you've fitted it. I fitted a similar VDO one to my Westfield, it was easy to calibrate. However it was tricky to get the correct clearance between the sensor and bolts on the driveshaft. But once set has given years of good service.

Dave

[BDA]

It comes with an angular bezel but they had some rounded ones that are similar to the old style and put one on for me. The big problem will be mounting the pickup and giving it something to pick up. I have a twin link rear suspension with inner CV joints from Banks. The CV joints are a rounded triangular shape with circumferential flange. I don't know if the triangular shape will be enough to trigger the speedo and I don't know if the flange will interfere with triggering. Right now, all that is secondary because I can't get my cross member back on (originally, it went on ok, I took it off to get the tranny out to have it looked at - the speedo gears got chewed up, thus the need for the electronic speedo - and now that I have the tranny back in, the X member won't fit any more!!!  ). When I get it all put together I'll post some pictures. Hopefully, that will be before everybody forgets about it! I want to drive the car to the LOG in Asheville so I'm working on it.

[buzzer]

Yes sounds like it could be tricky to get a good sensor position. Don't forget you could also pick up on the front hub if you can get a mounting point and there is enough clearance.

Dave

[BDA]

 Thanks for the suggestion. I'll definitely keep that in mind!