speedo and funny readings

[MColes]

In preparation for a speedo cable change I'm about to do tomorrow, because of inaccurate readings I'm getting, I disconnected the speedometer ready.

Now the speedometer is giving readout of 40mph when it's not even connected to anything let alone actually moving.

This may be an obvious one but as a complete novice I need some help. Will the speedo ever give a true reading again? And if so, how do I fix the problem and get the speedo back down to 0 when it's not moving.

Cheers

Matthew

[rayofleamington]

Your speedometer is far more likely to be the cause of bad readings than the cable! The cable can cause the occasional flutter when it is poorly (the cable gts wound up then releases, would up then releases) but these are normally small flutters.
The speedo itself can give all kinds of funny readings when it's playing up. The most well know place seems to give good service.

There are one or two companies doing renovation and/or calibration so you can follow that route or buy another speedo - second hand prices are good but you want some assurance that it's working correctly and needs to be the correct version for your diff ratio.

[MColes]

Cheers for the advice.

Think it's sorted now though. Think It was stuck and I just had a moment of blind panic when I thought I'd broken part of my new toy .

Although this is off topic I'll ask anyway.

The distributor cap I've bought to go on is top entry and the current one is side entry. The top entry fits the distributor can I just use this if I buy some leads for it or do I have to do some sort of conversion?

[rayofleamington]

It's harder to get the side entry parts, so most people are using top entry.
Just a new set of leads should do the trick as long as you get the right firing order

[MColes]

Once again thanks for the speedy relpy

No doubt you'll be hearing from me again soon