Speedo and speedo cable woes

[1970_Pete]

I've gotta tell you guys about my latest speedo woes, if only to raise a few laughs out of the situation and warn others.

I got my MPH speedo back from North Hollywood speedo yesterday. My wife, who knows how long I'm been looking forward to getting a replacement speedo rings me at work to say it has arrived so i'm like "open it, open it" and she does, describes how cool it looks over the phone (she indulges my p-car habit) and I spend the rest of the day looking forward to going home and fixing it in the car. I get home. Looking and sounding the most apologetic ever, she explains that after the call, she somehow managed to drop the beautifully refurb-ed speedo on the kitchen floor, denting the brand new rim...

After one of those "I'm really a little mad but don't wanna upset her and hey it's only a bit of metal and honestly its not a big deal" moments, she talks me into sending it back to North Hollywood to repair the rim only, once the car is thru its local registration here in Jersey, for which the MPH speedo is required. She'll even pay. Postage too! Everything's cool.

So, off i go to my garage this evening, slightly less pristine speedo in hand. In she goes, 10 minutes work tops. Out on a test, it's a beautiful spring evening driving along the back of the beach, brand new bright orange needle holding steady at 30mph as I head through the traffic....1.5 miles later, zip, nada, nothing. I pull over, and the recently installed, brand new speedo cable that worked fine with my KPH speedo has snapped at the guage end. I feel sick!!!

I rang North Hollywood to see if there was a possible guage/cable mismatch. Not possible - the mechanical mechanisms are all the same. The guy was really helpful and asked if there were any kinks in the cable at which point it dawns on me that it *could* have got kinked just slightly when I pressed it back into the dash - it's pretty crowded back there. Moral of the story - make sure your speedo cable is completely unhindered as it enters the back of the guage.

There - that feels better. Don't let your wife open expensive parts boxes and keep your speedo cable straight. I hope this helps someone.

Pete

:-)

ps North Hollywood's workmanship is amazing - trouble is, i'll have o get the others done to match :-(