Speedo cable connector to tranny

[kellzey]

Weird question.

Does any body know if the speedometer cable fitting (part that screws on to the tranny is the same size/type as that for a Volkswagen tranny?

The reason I'm asking, is that I'm looking into an electronic speedometer (vs. mechanical) and CB Performance has a speedometer sender that converts the signal from the VW tranny to electrical for an elecronic speedometer.

http://www.egauges.com/vdo_send.asp?Sender=VW_GM_Cable

http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=810

Might be an interesting proposition.

Would go nice with the VDO Vision series of gauges.

Regards,

Karl Ellzey

[Clay Perrine]

There is another alternative that you may not have considered. Later model 911s used an electronic speedometer. It used a sender ring that is installed between the bearing and the differental housing, and a sender that was mounted in the side of the 915 transmission housing. In a 914 that uses a 901 transmission, you can install the ring on to the differental (they use the same bearing as the 915) by removing the same thickness spacers that are in between the bearing and the diff. Then take the side cover to a machinist, and have him make an aluminum plug to fit in the side cover to hold the sender puck. The rest is just wiring,

As I progress on my 914/6 project, I will be installing an electronic speedo into my 914. I have all of the parts, and when I rebuild the transmission, I will be doing the procedure that I have described above. The best part is no more melted speedo cables!

[JWest]

The VW does not use the transmission for speedo input. The cable actually passes through the (hollow) front spindle and fits into a square punched in the grease cap for the front wheel bearing. Crude but simple and effective. Porsche used this on the 924 as well. It appears that the adapter you are looking at adapts the VW cable thread to the GM cable thread to fit the standard electronic speedo sender (GM style).

To answer your question, the transmission end on the 914 is not the same as anything else. However, the speedometer end on the 914 is the same as the speedometer end on a VW. That means that if you buy this adapter you can mount it under your dash to the end of the 914 cable. If you have a late car with the EGR counter you can connect this sender under the passenger footwell foam piece and do away with the counter and the second cable. This would be a clean way to hook it up and would give a shorter cable run.

Clay - I was recently reading a thread on the 911 board about putting an early 915 (lower R&P) into a later 911 with electronic speedo. The concensus over there was to not try to adapt the later 911 pick-up assembly because they are extremely touchy. They were saying that the tolerances are overly sensitive and even a slight misadjustment or rotation in the original setup causes it not to work. Of course you only have to do it once and can adjust until it works, but I figured I would mention that to you.

Here we go:
Eek !! Bought a new tranny - now what??

James

[red-beard]

If you have to "play" with something mounted to the differential, uggghhhh. I would not want to play with something where I needed to remove the differential cover. That's a CV joint, draining the tranny oil, removing the clutch cable and putting it all back together each time.

"playing" is screwing with the carbs. This would be like upgrading to a crank triggered ignition, but having to dissassemble the engine to make adjustments.

James