Ford 5 Speed 'box speedo cable fitting.

[jaguar68]

Hi chaps,

does anyone with a type 9 'box have any advice on the routing of the speedo cable? As the cable exit is at right angles to the gearbox, i'm guessing that the cable should exit as straight as possible, however, the chassis rail is quite close meaning that the cable would have to make a pretty sharp turn to run along the chassis rail.

Any suggestions?

Regards

John

[daveyl]

I have a similar problem with my Non-Austin/Morris box. I fitted the cable as least stressed as possible (touching the chassis leg and running parallel). Unfortunately, this made the cable too short to reach the speedo, unless it was pulled too taut.

Sooo, I ran it into the cab via the front end of the G/box cover using tin-snips to gain access and hid it behind the the carpet.

Is it a cable you've had 'professionally' made, or one you've made up yourself?

[jaguar68]

The cable is the one supplied with the Birmingham Morris Minor Centre's gearbox fitting kit. I'm going to take the floor up (again) tomorrow so I will see if I can reroute the cable in a more gentle route and see if this stops the 0-110 mph speedo readings

[chrisryder]

I just took mine in as progressive a curve as possible.

I then routed it under the gearbox to come up the standard speedo cable route. Considered bringing it up the drivers side, but didn't fancy getting in caught in the clutch linkages (still got the mechanical linkages on mine).

Speedo is a bit wavey, but not sure if it's due to cable routing or speedometer wear!

[jaguar68]

I suppose i could try running it under the gearbox, at the moment it runs down the driver's side chassis leg in loose curves, which might be adding to the problem. I've still got the mechanical linkages on my car too.

[granneb]

Hi chaps,

does anyone with a type 9 'box have any advice on the routing of the speedo cable? As the cable exit is at right angles to the gearbox, i'm guessing that the cable should exit as straight as possible, however, the chassis rail is quite close meaning that the cable would have to make a pretty sharp turn to run along the chassis rail.

Any suggestions?

Regards

John

Not sure if this helps as I can't get under the car at the moment to check the exit from the gearbox, but from what's visiable the cable runs between the dome covering the back of the starter motor and the gearbox and then up the the usual position in a rather nice curve. The cable is as supplied from David Manners
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[jaguar68]

I've pulled the cable further through the bulk head in an effort to reduce the potential strain on the speedo mechanism, however, this hasn't cured the maniacal wavering of the speedo needle. More often than not the needle is resting on the underside of the stop . I'm going to try easing the cable route at the gearbox end of the cable tomorrow when I can remove the floor (yet again). If that doesn't cure the problem I'm going to disconnect the cable from the speedo head to save any potential damage until I can afford to get the speedo serviced and recalibrated.

Regards

John

[daveyl]

It might be an idea to drive the car with the top of the speedo cable in disconnected and in view and check if it's working consistently, just to eliminate the gearbox drive.
May be prudent to take an assistant with you. Don't touch the inner cable though!

[mike.perry]

You can buy a 90 deg angle drive. Europa Spares www.europaspares.com

[jaguar68]

I think the right angle drive is probably the way to go as it will eliminate the quite tight turn from the speedo drive on the gearbox to run alongside the chassis leg.

Regards

John

[Declan_Burns]

It costs £95.00!
Regards
Declan

[jaguar68]

I spotted that too!! Add that to the £100ish for speedo servicing and recalibration, oh, and the cost of a new speedo cable as the Ford one has a different fitting, it's all beginning to mount up. I stopped counting at 1700 quid for the cost of upgrading to the 1275 engine and 5 speed 'box, but I guess it owes me another couple of hundred quid on top of that!!!

[jmcar]

Based on these figures and a similar setup, I still have it in mind to fit a different speedo unit with an electronic sender. Probably not that more expensive and apparently easy to calibrate yourself. Wouldn't maintain that original look but then not much on my old girl does!

[54woody]

You can get the right anlge drive a bit cheaper from the manufacturer, Speedograph Richfield - see here http://www.speedograph-richfield.com/html/rgb1030.html. The adapter is available with different internal gearing. If you figure out how much your speedo is off by, you may be able to get a right angle adapter with the proper gearing to correct your speedo. I have a Sierra 5 speed in my MGA and found that the 1:1.4 unit puts the speedo pretty much spot on. Not sure what gearing would be needed for the Minor but if somebody does the math to figure it out, please post the result here for the benefit of others.

By the way, before installing the right angle drive, my MGA speedo needle would wave back and forth by 10 mph or more. Since installing it the speedo needle is virtually rock solid, so it really does make the difference.

[Matt]

Ford speedos all work at 1000TPM...

But that means there are different pinion drives... and given the morris speedos all work on differning TPM you won't get a "standard" angle ratio that will work. It will have to be calculated on an individual basis.

[jaguar68]

Thanks Matt for the info on the Ford speedo.

I think the best thing to do is to get a 1:1 ratio right angle adaptor and then have the speedo recalibrated.

Surely somewher there must be a way to calculate the error in speedo reading for different diff ratio's. The car is running Bridgestone 145R14 tyres with the standard 1098 4.22 diff. What I would like to know is the difference in speedo reading in, say, changing the diff ratio for a 3.9 or 3.7.

Regards

John

[Matt]

thats dead easy

You will be going 4.22/3.9 = 8.2% faster, but the speedo will still show the same speed.

or

You will be going 4.22/3.7 = 14% faster, but the speedo will still show the same speed.

If your speedo is a 1328tpm (from memory standard for a 1098 with 4.22 diff) and the pinion in the gearbox is setup for the same gear ratio) your speedo should read 1328/1000 = 32% slow...

What I did was find an escort (mk1/2)/marina/ital/triumph speedo (mk1/2) with a similar face (i.e. mph markings at the same angle)which operates at 1000tpm and built it in to the minor casing. I had to rotate the mileage "window" 180 degrees though.