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Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: jpane on Monday,April 05, 2021, 05:31:26 AM

Title: Speedometer Bounce
Post by: jpane on Monday,April 05, 2021, 05:31:26 AM

I just got my car back after a major reconstruction. On the ride home, I noticed that the speedometer needle bounced, which I don't remember it doing before. It has a new speedo cable.
Any ideas?
I know, most likely is that it should have bounced before, so new cable fixed the problem.

Title: Re: Speedometer Bounce
Post by: BDA on Monday,April 05, 2021, 05:56:14 AM

It might be that the guy who installed your new cable didn’t lubricate it first. I would try some  gear oil poured down the cable from the tranny end.

Title: Re: Speedometer Bounce
Post by: jpane on Monday,April 05, 2021, 06:06:59 AM

Thanks, I'll try that. May not be able to report results for a while, about to leave for three week.

Title: Re: Speedometer Bounce
Post by: MRN I J on Monday,April 05, 2021, 12:25:33 PM

The cable needs a small amount of lubricant, if a lot gets in the head it will need a rebuild.
More likely its not routed correctly, use a right angle drive from an MG Midget which helps with the routing under/ behind the dash

Title: Re: Speedometer Bounce
Post by: Kendo on Monday,April 05, 2021, 12:44:47 PM

MRN I J, could you point me to the Midget RA drive you mentioned? Looking at Moss Motors, I found a straight-thru drive, item 14 here: https://mossmotors.com/mg-midget-austin-healey-sprite/dashboard/gauges (https://mossmotors.com/mg-midget-austin-healey-sprite/dashboard/gauges) For the Jaguar E-Type, I found this RA drive: https://mossmotors.com/jaguar-e-type/dashboard/speedometer-cables-and-angle-drives (https://mossmotors.com/jaguar-e-type/dashboard/speedometer-cables-and-angle-drives) I have a new speedometer cable ready to attach to the gauge in my Europa.

Title: Re: Speedometer Bounce
Post by: MRN I J on Monday,April 05, 2021, 01:16:16 PM

part no. BHA4794 1974-1977 MG Midget, also fitted to many other Brit cars inc early Range Rovers, later Classic Mini's
often called angle drive adaptor, speedo
Rimmer Bros do them 579164P1, expensive but once you have broken 2 speedo cables like I did, its not so bad

Title: Re: Speedometer Bounce
Post by: BDA on Monday,April 05, 2021, 01:38:36 PM

A search of MRN's number on mossmotors.com didn't yield anything for me but that could easily be due to ignorance on my part. In case you're similarly clueless, here is the results of a search of the site I did that might be useful. Make sure you page through the results so you don't miss potential options.

https://mossmotors.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=&q=speedometer+cable+right+angle

Title: Re: Speedometer Bounce
Post by: MRN I J on Monday,April 05, 2021, 02:02:24 PM

Jaguar C44880 & C24589 should be good numbers, try ebay rather than Moss Motors who we never bother with in the UK as they never have what you want