Here’s a setback I wasn’t expecting. I broke the needle on the speedometer of the Camaro. I’ve noticed that it’s been reading up to 10mph too high, sometimes as low as 3. I was trying to adjust it by using some advice that I sourced from the internet, and boom.
The gauge cluster on this car is a relic of the past, sharing the same kind and style of components that vehicles 30+ years older than it have. Vehicles of today use digital instrumentation (even if you have physical gauges). Odometers are readouts on a screen, this one is a dial that shows up to 5 digits of miles.
I spent all last night researching and trying to find answers to the problem I’m facing. You would think there are replacement parts and people who are well versed in instrumentation woes who have said something on the internet right? Wrong. I’m coming up pretty empty on this one.
Camaros of this generation came with three, count em, 3 different speedometers. They came in 85, 115 and 145 MPH varieties. With this one having the 145 one, which is hard to find. From what I have found so far, each one had a different “spring” in it, which I can only assume helped it be accurate. Thankfully I have all of my parts.
Further complicating things, is the fact that many moons ago, there was an issue with the transmission. This makes me question whether the gears that drive the speedometer cable are the correct ones. My stepmother told me that my father chose to have a re-manufactured one installed at a dealership. My father never told me.
I just procured a 85 MPH speedometer on eBay, and am bidding on an entire instrument cluster. My next steps are to determine all of the gear identities so I’m not assuming things that may not be true. I need to find out what speedometer gears are in the transmission, and the actual gear ratio on the rear end, as well as the tire diameter.
With that information, I can make informed decisions on where to go from here. I will also continue to prepare to replace the headliner and recover the sail panels, possibly doing a transmission service as well. I figure it’ll be better to accomplish these tasks since the car is down right now.
I sure didn’t expect to have such a detour, but I might as well make the best of it that I can.