6 replies to this topic

[dklawson]

I'm always tinkering with gauges. It's a passion.

15 years ago we picked up my wife's Triumph-GT6 from her father as a restoration project. None of the gauges worked. At that time I swore that there had to be a better way than to rebuild the original instruments. My resources were limited at that time so I paid to have the speedometer professionally rebuilt and calibrated. However, I never lost sight of my desire to have modern instruments for the GT6.

I have now completed part of that project. I have finished my electronic upgrade of an original Smiths speedo. The converted gauge turned out much better than I had ever hoped. I'm not sure when I'll install the gauge as the rebuilt stock unit is working fine but I'm tickled to death over this conversion.

It's an early 1990s VDO aftermarket speedometer whose works have been transplanted behind the Smiths face. The cool thing about VDO is you can independently calibrate the pulses/mile and the sweep of the analog needle. I've bench calibrated the unit and it's "dead nuts" accurate and rock steady. Next I'll try and figure out how to best do this with my Mini Speedo.

See pictures at:
http://home.mindspri...awson/pictures/

[Brawlyrox]

Very clever stuff!

[Guess-Works.com]

Nicely done... I've done tacho's myself, but that's no hard... they look the B's-knees

[ian]

very nice, i still love the gt6, hope to have another one day just sold my vitesse :sad:
its a shame your so far away, i still have loads of spares for the vitesse/gt6 as they shared the running gear

[dklawson]

I did a matching Triumph tachometer conversion first. In that case I had a little more challenge as the tachometer was mechanical and I had to fabricate some mounting spacers and re-drill the gauge face to use the new electronics

The conversions I've found the most interesting adapt the electronics of late model tachs to power the movement of old Smiths RVI units. It's nice to be able and retain the period look yet eliminate problematic, old electronics.

The conversion of a Mini speedo is next on my list. That represents more of a challenge as I'm dealing with the old center mounted units. For all their size, there is really no room for the electronics. The Smiths fuel gauge is in the way and will force me to mount the electronics "remotely". I'll try this conversion first on a run-of-the-mill 90mph speedo before looking for a junk Cooper-S one.

[Bungle]

looks very good :grin:

[KillerHippy]

nice, i like the look of that.