Installed my Jon Frampton GPS converted speedometer. Or how to make a simple job complicated!
My car is a 69 and I have a 68 parts car both 2000’s. Now, I like to keep all I can original or period correct. I try not to make any changes that can’t be undone. I have 4:62 gears which I swap out with the 3:70’s every so often. Since I don’t have the speedometer gear for the 4:62’s and my cable long ago bit the dust a GPS speedometer seemed to be just the ticket. So, not wanting to alter my 69 speedo I sent the 68 to Jon for the conversion.
I get the stock unit out pretty easily after removing the seat and steering wheel. First thing I notice is that the light for the high beams is on the top of the 69 and the bottom of the 68. No biggie, looks like the wires will reach since the conversion comes with a built in high beam light that has about a 6†pigtail that you splice into the original bulb wires (after you cut the old socket off). Next issue, I have LED’s in all my gauges and one of the receptacles isn’t quite deep enough due to the conversion. What to do? Doesn’t look like I am going to find a shorter bulb, so I can put in normal bulbs, or one norma and one LED. I don’t want the backlighting to look different between gauges and I don’t want to go back to all incandescent’s. Hmmm, maybe I can shorten a LED. Yep, I can take the end light panel off a LED and the four side panels still work! So now it fits, but just barely.
Now where to run the 1/4 “ grey antenna cable? I could run it up between the dash and the A pillar, but that’s a very tight fit on my car. Now I’m thinking maybe drill a hole in one of the defroster ducts and come up that way, but I’m worried about breaking one of the fragile “fingersâ€. While I looking at that possibility I spy a small hole next to the serial number plate. Bingo! Oh, did I mention the cable is GREY!! Roadster dashes are black! I’m a bit of a pack rat, so let’s see what we can find. How about a perfectly sized piece of black vinyl tubing.
after fifteen minutes of wrestling the vinyl over the antenna wire problem solved. Now there are 3 wires from the speedometer and 3 wires from the antenna along with the 2 wires for the bright light indicator. I want to be able to remove the speedometer without cutting wires so a lot of quick disconnects are in order. Ok so now we need power to the unit so that it can operate, preferably only while the key is on. I find the proper wire in the ignition switch plug and remove that spade and put in a new spade with a short wire along with the original wire. All good let’s put the speedometer in.
What the heck?? It doesn’t fit up right at all! Now, early on I noticed that while the mounting tabs were in the same place, the forked Mount was on the top for the 69 and the bottom for the 68. No big deal their in the same place and it doesn’t matter wether the fork is on top or the bottom. WRONG!! closer inspection revealed that the distance they extend from the case is different between the forked Mount and the captive Mount. Crap! Now what? Send it and the 69 speedo back to Jon and have him swap the GPS to the 69? That defeats my original intent.
Time to get serious. Let’s drill out the spot welds holding the mounts to the case and reweld them in their proper location. After eight or ten drill bits of increasing size they finally let loose. Now to weld them back where they need to be. Well, not quite, now one of the light housings interferes with the mount. Fortunately a little grinding on the mount solves that problem. The welding goes smoothly
Ok let’s see how it fits now. Close, but not perfect of course. Out comes the Dremmal and with elongated mount holes we’re there. Wrestle the speedo back in its place, tighten it down, and time to hook everything back up. Remember that LED that I just barely got short enough to fit? You guessed it, in the tight quarters it’s too hard to push it in far enough and make the twist to lock it in. It was difficult to get the speedo into just the right position and tighten everything down. I DON’T wank to do it again. Several attempts latter to further shorten a bulb a hard decision is made to go with one LED and on incandescent. Guess what? You can’t tell the difference. Could’ve saved myself a half hour of killing LED bulbs!
Every thing else goes fairly smoothly. So now it’s time to see if it works or if I fried it by welding on it! Jump in the car and put my seat belt. Ahh, why won’t my seat belt move? Yep, a bit of the belt was under the seat rail when I bolted it back down. Good grief, will this project ever end?
Redo the seat and off for a drive. IT WORKS!!
Now I can get rid of the windshield mounted GPS that has a habit of loosing my mileage.
I like it!
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after fifteen minutes of wrestling the vinyl over the antenna wire problem solved. Now there are 3 wires from the speedometer and 3 wires from the antenna along with the 2 wires for the bright light indicator. I want to be able to remove the speedometer without cutting wires so a lot of quick disconnects are in order. Ok so now we need power to the unit so that it can operate, preferably only while the key is on. I find the proper wire in the ignition switch plug and remove that spade and put in a new spade with a short wire along with the original wire. All good let’s put the speedometer in.
