BILL - Re: [DMCForum] Re: Angle Drive Cable (Andrei)

["content22207" <brobertson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For Doodlebugs I have to rely on info from my fire department buddy
who works on them.

For Porsches, there was a lot of discussion about a year ago on the
DML about how to use the speedo gear on the transmission in lieu of an
angle drive. Can't remember exactly who was doing the conversion. I
think it was a 912 transmission.

Moot point anyway -- after screwing around with a broken seat belt
retractor all afternoon I've decided they are even worse engineered
than the angle drive. DMC retractors do NOT have a centrifugal lever
to lock them in an accident. Instead, there are two springs working
against one another, one that locks the retractor and one that lets it
spin free. The latter is usually predominant because of a plastic
gizmo that slightly skews the cog that these springs attach to. The
gizmo has a big ball bearing that I assume is supposed to shift and
disable it in an accident, thus allowing the locking spring to
predominate. But since the gizmo is made of plastic, it eventually
breaks, thus rendering the seat belt unmovable. In fact, except for
the cog and lock, everything else in the retractor is made of plastic,
which of course means everything else will snap as you try to
disassemble it. I managed to get the stupid thing functional again
with miniaturized machine bolts, metal strapping, and a fender washer,
but there's no guarantee it will lock in an accident. It doesn't lock
when you tug on it. At least it's on the passenger side. I looked at a
retractor on one of my trucks (vertical orientation just like the
DeLo). Appears to be boltable. Next time I'm in the junkyard I'm going
to pick up a pair and see if I can't jetison yet another piece of
quality DMC engineering...

Bill Robertson
#5939

>--- In DMCForum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Andrei Cular <acular@xxxx> wrote:
> Bill have you ever worked on or seen a speedo cable on a Porsche or 
> beetle trannsaxel?  I have been around AirCooled VW's for about 16
years 
> and dont remember seeing them... Now the early cars did use a
mechanical 
> cable the the Tach, but that was quickly replaced with an electrical 
> pickup it the mid to late 50's for both Porsche and VW.  As far as I 
> know the AirCooled Beetle speedo was driven by the front wheel till
they 
> ended production just a few years ago.  The early Porsche also used the 
> front wheel to drive the speedo.  Now Porsche did switch to a trans 
> driven speedo on the 911 and 912 from about 1965 till  I believe the 
> early to mid 70's when they switched to electronic.  They had lots of 
> problems with the speedo jumping and not benign accurate.  Several 
> people have developed mechanical to digital converters so they can run 
> newer electronic gages.  But as far as I know all the 356's and 914s
had 
> front wheel driven speedos with no issues for their entire
production run.
> 
> And for what its worth the VW's dont have an angle drive cause they had 
> enough room behind the wheel to get a nice large smooth curve into the 
> cable.  And on my lowered Karmann Ghia I did have a problem with a 
> jumping speedo due to too tight of a bend and not enough lube.
> 
> 
> Andrei
> 
> content22207 wrote:
> 
> >I most emphatically do *NOT* agree with you. Where do rear engine
> >Porsches take off? From the transmission. Where do Doodlebugs take
> >off? From the transmission. There's a very good possibility the
> >speedometer cables in my front engine Lincolns are even long enough a
> >DeLo transmission.
> >
> >It's just another piece of questionable DMC engineering. The car is
> >full of ideas that looked better on paper than they turned out in
> >reality. 
> >
> >It's hard to change an engineer's mind once he or she has gotten a
> >preconceived notion into it.
> >
> >That is unless the angle drive was thrown on the car in those last
> >minutes rush to production. 
> >
> >Bill Robertson
> >#5939
> >
> >  
> >
> >>--- In DMCForum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Martin Gutkowski <martin@xxxx> wrote:
> >>content22207 wrote:
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >>>I can't figure out why DMC didn't take off from the transmission like
> >>>99.9% of the world does. It's a tried & true method, used for
decades,
> >>>that rarely fails.
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>You can't think of the reason, but you agree with me about the
problems 
> >>of longer cables when just moving the drive/cluster from left to
right?
> >>
> >>Where is the DeLorean transmission vs the instrument cluster? FWIW I 
> >>have two Renault 30 trannys both with speedo drives on the side
> >>
> >>Martin
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> > 
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  
> >

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