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PostPosted: January 31, 2021, 10:51 pm 
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Good to hear Tommy. IIRC you purchased a generic kit from eBay, right? I've pretty much decided that GPS could be an acceptable option for me. It won't require any changes when I eventually change out the rear end. How quickly dies the speedo respond to speed changes?

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PostPosted: January 31, 2021, 11:18 pm 
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I made some more progress today. After blowing 6-7 inches of heavy white stuff off the drive, clearing ~300 ft of sidewalk across the street, then lunch and a nap :mrgreen:, I spent a few hours in the garage. I welded the upper rad support to the body. I decided to make a small change in the condenser mounts. I Cut a clearance hole for the center bolts. This way those 2 bolts only clamp the radiator to the body. I can now remove the condenser & mount assy without having to remove the radiator concurrently. Then I would remove the final 2 bolts to remove the radiator. I could not have removed the condenser sans mounts due to the bottom A/C hose bung not clearing the mount. This was due to me not cutting a deeper notch in the flat horizontal panel up front. I also welded some 10-32 nuts for the Condenser mounting screws. I hate loose hardware. Got a coat of paint on them too.

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PostPosted: February 1, 2021, 10:54 am 
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rx7locost wrote:
Good to hear Tommy. IIRC you purchased a generic kit from eBay, right? I've pretty much decided that GPS could be an acceptable option for me. It won't require any changes when I eventually change out the rear end. How quickly dies the speedo respond to speed changes?


I did. A reasonable looking set of faces on a full Chinese kit. Installation was pretty straightforward once I was able to decode what was what inside the Miata column and switches.

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PostPosted: February 1, 2021, 1:46 pm 
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rx7locost wrote:
Good to hear Tommy. IIRC you purchased a generic kit from eBay, right? I've pretty much decided that GPS could be an acceptable option for me. It won't require any changes when I eventually change out the rear end. How quickly dies the speedo respond to speed changes?


Hey Chuck.. a bit of feedback on the GPS.. I'm running a Speedhut GPS-speedo in my Volvo 1800, and I love it.. it's surprisingly accurate, but there are a few quirks.. It takes about 30 seconds to 'find itself' upon startup, and sometimes (pretty rarely) the needle will bounce when you drive under an obsruction/overpass.. (again, that's not common).

I was aprehensive about using GPS at first, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat..

--ccrunner

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PostPosted: February 1, 2021, 10:41 pm 
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Thanks guys. I just can't seem to find one to my liking yet. I would like a matching...... Speedo, tach, oil press, temp and fuel gauges. Black with stainless trim. For some reason, all the Chinese tachs come with a digital hour meter....(yech! :ack: ) Many of the 120 MPH speedos have divisions that are not right. 5 divisions between 0 and 20 MPH. so 10 MPH is between 2 minor ticks. Yeah, I'm being picky. I'd hate to spend up for Speed Hut for such minor issues. However, I will be looking at the gauges and I'd hate seeing them every time I drive. I'll keep looking.

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PostPosted: February 2, 2021, 9:58 am 
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Makes me wish someone made a kit with just the gauge stepper motor and driver/signal conditioner, that you could adapt to any old gauge they fit in.


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PostPosted: February 3, 2021, 12:50 am 
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That would be a nice kit. The GM instrument steppers are inexpensive and could work I think.. Add a Raspberry Pi or Arduino and.....

Today was trying to modify the MK1 dash to fit a MK2 body with a homebrew Prius EPS. Trim a couple of bits off the homebrew steering column, and trim some of the MK1 dash that used to support the steering wheel in that implementation and Voila. The paper is the modified layout needed to fit the smaller gauges and a temp gauge where 2 gauges fit before. the MK1 had a dual safety gauge. Temp and poi pressure in one housing. Mine will have separate gauges. Then I went on to figuring out where the switches go. I need to figure out exactly which switches I will need. For instance, the MK1 had a single speed wiper, my '69 MK2has a 2 speed. /Then figure out how/if the '73 dash vents would fit in the radio space for the a/c. Another Yes! Then I picked the glove box door lock. Cleaned up the dash vents.


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PostPosted: February 6, 2021, 5:01 pm 
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It has been too cold to work out in the garage. I've been selling a few things on eBay and figuring out the layout of the dash. I called on my buddy to put on paper, my idea of the new instrument layout. I am back to the combination speedo and tach along with three 2" gauges all in the space the original speedo and tach was. I like the way it looks. What about you?

I spent time finding the necessary switches I'll need. Moss is out of stock on one and I need to call to seeif they can cross reference their inventory to the Lucas switch for others. They are closed until Monday.


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Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

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PostPosted: February 6, 2021, 10:52 pm 
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It looks good, Chuck. Personally (I'm kinda pick about things), I'd move the three small ones left and down slightly, trying to keep the spacing between them all close to equal.

Cheers,
Attachment:
Chuck's Gauges.jpg


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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

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PostPosted: February 7, 2021, 12:09 am 
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Thanks Lonnie. Here is my thought. I treated the 3 smaller gauges as one big gauge and tried to balance the center of those with the center of the speedo. What you don't see in the picture is the steering column that does between the opening in the lower center. You idea has merit too. I'll have to look at how that works.

Right now I am in discussions with the seller and their factory in China to see if they can make a special backlight color for me on the speedo. I won't know for a few weeks as they are on Lunar New Year starting tonight (their tonight).

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PostPosted: February 7, 2021, 4:41 pm 
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OK. The gauge selection is complete, finally. It seems that in spite of all of their efforts, I wasn't satisfied with their offering. They even entertained making me special lighting but that would have to wait another couple of weeks to find out if they could since they started Lunar New Year this morning, our time. I found their actual website but it still had nothing that would match the speed/tach. I did find another seller that had what appears to be an exact match to the speed/tach style, if not the lettering style. After much research on the sender compatibility with my '95 Camaro engine and MGB , I decided that the MGB fuel sender will work, and the Camaro oil pressure sender will also. I did have to find a different temp sender though. The mfgr states the gauge matches their sender (not included) That took some more research as to where and what the Camaro engine had. It turns out that it has 2 virtually identical senders. I had to figure which one fed what function, what the threads were in the engine and how deep the sender could extend into the head. The mfgr website had several that would work but they weren't available from any of the eBay or Amazon sellers. That lead me finding out it was just a standard VDO (or European standard) temp vs resistance sender. All four gauges and sender are now on order. Linda agreed that it would be good to get a matching clock. It just so happens that I will have 2 free gauge openings in the dash so we ordered that too. All that for an amazing $225 USD taxed and delivered.

I am so glad that part is behind me. Now I get to wait before I weld and cut the dash for the new gauges.


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Chuck.

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PostPosted: February 7, 2021, 7:36 pm 
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It’s going to be real interesting to see how these gauges work for you. Your such a pioneer.

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PostPosted: February 7, 2021, 7:50 pm 
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Steve, I take it you like? You'll be done before I even fire up mine. You are either gonna have to follow me, or go the usual route and order SpeedHut or Autometer gauges. I think I saved around 5-700 dollars. Time will tell if it was saved or I just spent an extra 225.

I don't think the GPS is going to be an issue. GPS has been around for quite a while. Actually used quite a bit in marine speedometers. These are mostly marine gauges. IP67 rated. SpeedHut gauges aren't. Not sure about Autometer. Of course all it takes to get that rating is to print it on a spec sheet. :mrgreen: :cheers:

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Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

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PostPosted: February 7, 2021, 9:34 pm 
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They do look nice. I’am with you on saving money if you can. I don’t know about all that other business about me finishing before you. Very doubtful. Your HVAC turned out good. You have it all closed up, can’t even tell it’s there now.

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PostPosted: February 8, 2021, 10:15 pm 
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Awesome looking set up there Chuck on the gauges. Is the speedo/tach back light same colour as the KUS gauges? My GPS speedo back light wasn't but I was not concerned.

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