pspeaks Paul Speaks Dallas, Texas (698 posts) Registered: 07/20/2009 06:40PM Main British Car: 1972 MGB-GT 1979 Ford 302 |
Speedometer Cable / Driven Gear
Well, I guess I've done it again. As I've probably mentioned more than once I have a lot of conversion components in my garage waiting to be assembled. Yesterday I decided to install the speedometer cable I bought two years ago and found that apparently I ordered a Lokar automatic cable which looks exactly the same as a standard cable. Except, the area on the housing that the driven gear rotates on is .013" larger than the ID of the T-5 driven gear; obviously this isn't going to work! The automatic driven gear, except for the ID, looks exactly like the T-5 gear and I hope using it will work. Before I start chasing my tail and spending a lot of money to find out how fast I'm going when I really don't care, has anybody ran into this before? Oh, and yes, I used the formula to find how many teeth it needed.
Paul Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2013 12:12AM by pspeaks. |
pspeaks Paul Speaks Dallas, Texas (698 posts) Registered: 07/20/2009 06:40PM Main British Car: 1972 MGB-GT 1979 Ford 302 |
Re: Speedometer Cable / Driven Gear
As I haven't gotten anywhere with this issue I contacted Lokar and they were way more supportive than I would have expected. Jeff, in their Tech Services Department, said "put it in a box, send it to me, and we'll find out what's wrong and make it work, even if we have to send it through our machine shop".
Paul |
pspeaks Paul Speaks Dallas, Texas (698 posts) Registered: 07/20/2009 06:40PM Main British Car: 1972 MGB-GT 1979 Ford 302 |
Re: Speedometer Cable / Driven Gear
OK, here's what Lokar found. Everything has a plus and minus and the cable housing was at the top of its tolerance while the driven gear was at the lowest so it was just too tight. Lokar took the cable assembly and driven gear into there shop and machined them to the correct clearance and Fedex'ed them back to me at no charge. Now, this doesn't mean the speedometer will be anywhere close to right but the math says it should be.
Paul |
pspeaks Paul Speaks Dallas, Texas (698 posts) Registered: 07/20/2009 06:40PM Main British Car: 1972 MGB-GT 1979 Ford 302 |
Re: Speedometer Cable / Driven Gear
Lokar repaired the cable for nothing and paid to UPS it back to me but it went to my agents address (the business info was on the bottom of my emails but not anymore). She's in LA and I'm getting nowhere with her, UPS says it delivered it to the correct address, I'll have to do without a speedometer for a while but the one in the Bucket never worked anyway and if I cared how fast I was going I'd be driving a Kia, wait, I do drive a Kia.
Paul Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2013 02:21PM by pspeaks. |
rficalora Rob Ficalora Willis, TX (2764 posts) Registered: 10/24/2007 02:46PM Main British Car: '76 MGB w/CB front, Sebring rear, early metal dash Ford 302 |
Re: Speedometer Cable / Driven Gear
I wouldn't accept that Paul. Call Lokar and ask to speak with the executive responsible for customer relations.
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pspeaks Paul Speaks Dallas, Texas (698 posts) Registered: 07/20/2009 06:40PM Main British Car: 1972 MGB-GT 1979 Ford 302 |
Re: Speedometer Cable / Driven Gear
Rob,
You're right, and maybe because I'm listening to friends and customers but I'm still stewing over this. The last time I talked to Lokar they said that there was enough blame to go around but they would sell me a new cable at cost, one that probably wouldn't work out of the box either. Excuse me, but I gave them the correct shipping address and they didn't read the email. My next step is to contact Lokar upper management and inform them that speaking as the Purchasing Agent for our company we have been using Lokar products almost exclusively for six years but will no longer use their products in our shop or be ordering from them for our customers. Paul |