speedo died

[4380r]

So the speedo died yesterday. Any hints/tips to quickly diagnose if I'm dealing with a cable or speedo problem? It's a 5 speed trans. Thanks

[Arizona]

Check the gear at the transmission end of the cable. If it's not kept properly lubed it will strip.

[cal44]

What George said.
Then, start working your way forward.
mike

[EuropaTC]

I've had a couple of new cables on mine, in both cases the inner wire broke at the gearbox end. So my first thoughts would be to uncouple that end and take a look to see if it's snapped ?

If it looks ok, then although it sounds primitive I'd disconnect the speedo end and simple drive a few yards with the cable on my knee to see if the inner cable turned. If yes, then it's looking like a head unit failure. If not, and the cable isn't broken, it's something in the gearbox (and beyond my abilities to diagnose    )

Brian

[4380r]

Of course it's never the 'easy' thing on these cars, is it?

I disconnected the cable at the transmission, and put the end in my cordless Ryobi drill and gave it a spin, watching the speedometer. While I'm delighted to find my fully charged drill is capable of breathtaking 12 mph, I guess this means it's in the gearbox, correct? And fixing that would take....?

[Arizona]

Looks like the speedometer drive on the gearbox is stripped. This happened to me years ago and I was able to get a new drive gear back then and it's easy to replace (mine is a 336 trans but yours is probably similar). Don't know if the gears are still available. I'm careful to keep the speedo drive well greased now. Anyway, it's an easy fix if you can find the part.

[EuropaTC]

Oh shucks, now that does sound a nuisance.  I suppose the easiest route is to see if the gears are available but one other idea that came to me after reading your post was the possibility of converting to an electronic sensor drive. Thinking about how long the cable is on the car and having gone back through my records to see how often mine has broken, then it might be one way out.

I found this report about a guy converting his old Mini speedo to electronic and although it's not easy he's made a good job of it.  It got me thinking if any company offers this as an option ?

http://evmini.ca/post/41472767634/mechanical-to-electronic-speedometer-conversion

Brian

[4380r]

Oh shucks, now that does sound a nuisance.  I suppose the easiest route is to see if the gears are available but one other idea that came to me after reading your post was the possibility of converting to an electronic sensor drive. Thinking about how long the cable is on the car and having gone back through my records to see how often mine has broken, then it might be one way out.

I found this report about a guy converting his old Mini speedo to electronic and although it's not easy he's made a good job of it.  It got me thinking if any company offers this as an option ?

http://evmini.ca/post/41472767634/mechanical-to-electronic-speedometer-conversion

Brian

Thanks, Brian. I just did a quick search and there are a number of GPS gauges out there, complete with black faces that I could adapt. The disappointment is the odometer. With the exception of the 10 or so miles I put on after the speedo quit on me, the 41,009 mileage is accurate. I'd like to be able to represent to the next owner, when that happens, what the actual mileage is.

[4380r]

Actually I just ordered a GPS Speedo. Fits where the current speedo is, looks an awful lot like it. Has a built in odo (as well as 0 to 60 time, 1/4 mile time) so I can document total mileage.

While I'm fine with the car not being stock (obviously it's not a stock color), I do like the classic British gauges, so I will embark on a quest for the proper bits to fix it correctly, but until then will use this speedo which, to the untrained eye, really won't stick out as non stock.

Looks like fairly simple install.

[EuropaTC]

pictures please !!!

After you first posted this problem it got me thinking about just how suited the Europa is to an electronic conversion. I'm fortunate in that I'm only the 2nd owner of my car and the first guy was, well, obsessive about maintenance & record keeping. (example - I even know exactly how much petrol the guy put in the car with date & mileage ! )   So I know that he replaced the speedo head in less than 50k and the cable broke twice on him. I've also replaced the cable twice as well, so it's clearly something that can easily happen if you forget to lube it.

After seeing the conversion possibilities it seems an ideal candidate for electronics, and I wasn't even thinking about a GPS one. I think I'd be tempted if it works, especially if you could get a matching rev counter as well.

Brian

ps - I understand & respect your aim to keep the mileage log on the car, it makes a lot of sense. The original owner made detailed notes, even down to the mileage he "lost" between the cable or head unit going down and getting replaced. On the bill for the replacement speedo there's the mileage recorded on the original unit, stamped over by the dealer supplying the new one. These days we could just take a digital photo ?