Niki - minor resto

[Aaron]

Well the speedo cable turned out to be snapped off, the last inch (25mm) in the gearbox output.  I only worked this out when I tried inserting the new one and it wouldn't go in. 
As usual with most people have now found messing with the speedo output, if the cable snaps off inside, you can't easily clear it as the output points upwards.  And you can't fully withdraw the drive unit as the petrol tank gets in the way.  However, considering that all I wanted to do was get the broken bit of the cable out, I found if you remove the left gearbox mounting bolt and loosen the right, you can lower the box sufficiently to allow the speedo gear to be pulled over it's locating bolt and rotated enough to point down.  Then it's just a matter of scooping the cable bits out using a jeweller's screw driver.

[Aaron]

Well it's been ages since I've posted on this.  Not much has really changed on the Niki, I'm still procrastinating whether to stick the stripe down the side and probably won't end up doing it.

I've added a pair of fog lamps to the front, not that we get much fog in Perth (about 2 days per year), but I do prefer the look of the yellow lamps over the white/blue on a white car.

I've also mounted my voltmeter and tacho on top of the binacle.  I wasn't impressed with what I found on offer from retailers, all seemed just too large to fit in that position so ended up making my own out of PVC pipe, some blanking caps and aluminium flat bar.  The pipe had to reamed out to accept the gauges which was a bit fiddly, and the whole lot is mounted to the top of the binacle by industrial double sided tape.

Unfortunately the tacho has turned out to be a random numbers generator, so I'm looking to replace it with something else, preferably a tacho but 52mm tachos which can handle 2 cylinder engines and a wasted spark ignition seem as rare as rocking horse do-do.  Anyone got any other suggestions for a suitable gauge?

[Darrell]

Looking good  [-/

I bought a digital oil pressure gauge that also turned-out to be a random numbers generator

[smallcox]

Hi Aaron,
  
 I used a rev counter out of an a old 4 cyclinder car (Triumph) and changed the resistor that suits for 4,6,8cyclinder engines and made it suite 2 cyclinder. I think it's about 4 inch in diameter though. I can give more details if you require as i forget what ohms resistor i used but i can take mine apart and photo it and measure the resistor if required. [-/

Unfortunately the tacho has turned out to be a random numbers generator, so I'm looking to replace it with something else, preferably a tacho but 52mm tachos which can handle 2 cylinder engines and a wasted spark ignition seem as rare as rocking horse do-do.  Anyone got any other suggestions for a suitable gauge?

Steve

[Aaron]

Thanks for the offer Steve, would be handy to know the step down then I suppose I could apply to any tachometer I prise from the local wrecking yard.  Most of the guages I'd probaly be able to get my hands on would come from Jap cars down here, though I do have a nice early Niva tacho sitting on my garage wall.....

Would be a shame on your part to pull apart you nice dash though, but if you're willing and it doesn't put you out much, I'd appreciate it.

[Aaron]

I was thinking of using a diesel tacho, with one that picks up from the alternator.  Has anyone tried one of these?

[Aaron]

Well its a bit of 3 steps forward 2 back.....

I finished installing the Buell Tacho today and changed the 2 52mm gauges for better quality VDO items.  The VDO gauges were volts and oil temperature, with the oil temperature being sensed using a VW beetle dipstick sensor.  And that's where the 2 steps back came in, the sensor doesn't seal the crankcase and the engine decided to dump a fair amount of oil out before I realised what was going on.  But the gauge got to 70°C from cold before I noticed this.  I'm going to try to fit a 126p dipstick rubber bushing to the sensor to solve the problem.  They're only 0.4 euro each from 126fan so it'll be a cheap fix.

The tacho itself has been mounted to a suction camera mount on to the windshield as I detest drilling things like dashboards.  The tacho is really an interesting thing to watch when driving the Niki, it's amazing how much you rev the engine without trying..