Hopefully, this isn't a bad time to mention that if your speedo gear is NLA (there was a discussion maybe a couple of years ago that replacement speedo gears were not available for at least for some trannies - I don't remember which ones) or if you are worried about the drive system (cable, cable routing, lubrication, etc.) for any reason, you do have options. Smiths makes an electronic speedo that can be driven by a Hall effect sensor or a GPS antenna. SpeedHut sells customizable gauges, including a GPS speedo, that can be made to look very similar to the original Smiths speedo. Here is a thread about it here (
http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=660.msg4256#msg4256). A picture of the actual speedo in the dash is at the end of the thread.
I should also say that I've also trod this path. My speedo gear destroyed itself when I was driving in my neighborhood leaving me with only third and fourth gear. When I got home, I opened up the tranny and found nylon shards all over the place. I had it cleaned out and put back together. Then I replaced the original speedo with a Smiths electronic unit and eventually with a GPS antenna. I don't know why the speedo gear destroyed itself. I thought I had lubricated the cable properly. I thought I had run the cable so as not to have any sharp bends. It could very easily be because of something I did or didn't do as well as I should or maybe something shifted just a little bit in the tranny so one gear ate the other or maybe age could have played a part(?). In any case, I'm happy not to have to worry about it any more.
I just thought a different perspective might be useful.