I'm retrofitting Australian-made 72-onwards instruments to my 71 fasty, which has snapped a speedo cable (prior to that the odo was cactus anyway, and I had a 72 speedo hanging around regardless). I know the plastic threaded cable attachment nut is a slightly smaller diameter, but is there any additional length in the later cables to compensate for the fact that the cable attachment point is square to the rear of the speedo, rather than angled as in the earlier instruments? And are these later cables available, and if so, who would you recommend?
I'd be guessing, but I think you may have a left hand drive speedo? The early and late cables are the same. Dave
Well, the securing nut diameters are definitely different. And the late-model instruments were made in Australia by VDO Melbourne, so I'm pretty sure they're RHD only.
Sorted it out. Just for the record, an OEM Gemo cable marked Type 1, 71-onwards, is a good 300mm longer than the original Type 3 one and gives plenty of extra loop for the right-angled speedo drive on the Australian 72-on speedo. Since nothing's easy, I had to cut out extra metal from the steel webbing support behind the instrument panel on my '71 to give the cable extra clearance to go in square so the '72 speedo would go all the way into its hole without bending the cable at a stupid angle. Solved the problem of the too-big speedo nut with quite a few turns of plumbers' PTFE tape. Real snug - there's nothing that stuff can't do.
Now all I have to do is adapt the wiring harness to the new(er) instruments. Came up short trying to find a '72-on clock, but I kind of expected that. Anybody got any recommendations for a VDO tacho of 85mm dia that looks good with '72 black-faced instruments?
I may still have a set of 73 TLE instruments, I also have a porsche tacho which is almost as big as a beetle speedo.We used to use the nut off the old speedo cable rather than plumbers tape. PM if interested.
Hit you up with a PM.
