Speedometer/Odometer rehab, etc.

[susan]

Mini Dave shamed me into posting...so although elementary and probably boring, at lease maybe you'll get a chuckle or two in reading it.  My speedometer hadn't worked properly, maybe ever, since I've driven the Mini.  I used a GPS to avoid speeding tickets and the black flag at the Lake Garnett Grand Prix Revival.  But on the trip to the Restoration Mini 10 year party last spring, my odometer stopped working as well.  And, in the fall, my heater core began leaking.  I knew this was something that I needed to tackle in the off-season and so I began.  During this, I told everyone that I now know how useful I was in the past just being there to fetch tools, as it's difficult to do so when you're upside down in the Mini, contorted into a pretzel around the stick and steering wheel.  Mini Dave gave me good clues for disconnecting the heater box and binnacle over the phone, mostly, and when I got to everything being disconnected except the wiring in back of the binnacle, everyone said "take pictures".  I'd have high hopes of going to the garage and getting it done, but those wires there....seemingly hundreds of them, would cause me to turn the lights back off and head inside.  I was so afraid I'd destroy something!  The last time this happened, I called John S. and told him I was having a meltdown.  He immediately dropped everything and drove the 35 miles to help this wanna be wrench monkey!  Of course it took John no time at all and we had the speedometer/odometer in our hands ready to be shipped to Nisonger Instruments in Mamaroneck, NY for refurbishing.  When I get it back, hopefully I'll get some more wonderful assistance in putting it all back together (hint, hint).

[MiniDave]

You go girl!    77.gif

[Willie_B]

Best way to learn, by doing.

[BruceK]

Congrats for diving in!  Confidence builds with each new thing you tackle on a Mini.

[susan]

I received the refurbished speedometer/odometer back in the mail yesterday and will TRY to put it all back together myself before I send out the "HELP" notice.  It looked so clean and new that I first thought that it wasn't mine, but when I saw the mileage, I knew that it was!

[jedduh01]

Awesome !

I also just had my speedo in my Pickup Lock up.

    Would you share what the refurbishment cost?
   Debating on a grabbing similar used one from ebay ( miles are 5K nore ) vs having the original refurbished

Thank you

[MiniDave]

I've had Nisonger fix a number of Smiths instruments for Minis and other cars, they are a bit spendy but they seem to do really good work. Instruments come back looking brandy new. I'll bet they'll charge $200 to completely redo a speedo like Susan's, plus shipping of course.

They've fixed tachs, fuel gauges, speedos and an ammeter for me so far....the cheapest was about $100. Oh, and Nisonger sell those little O-rings that go between the instrument and the dash, pretty cheap too, about $8 for a set including the big ones IIRC

[susan]

Of course I'll share!  The total cost for me was $265.00, of which $30.00 was a shipping and handling charge.

Susan

[BruceK]

I'm sure it's in much better shape now than when it left the factory.  They know where the weak spots are!