Home speedometer drive rebuild?

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Sirs and Ladies-
It seems that if you've tinkered with British motorcycles for any length of time you will wind up with a box of defunct Smith's speedo drives. It seems that the ring gear usually has a trough in it where the drive cable freezes up and grinds the middle out of it. Being one who has always needed to take things apart to see how it works (my Mom's alarm clock springs to mind), I have seen how comparatively easy it is to take the drive apart and put it back together, the four tiny rivets in the center ring gear retainer being the only marginally tricky part. My question at long last is-- Can't a person get the ring gear only and reassemble the rest of the good parts of the drive? This seems pretty basic to me, but asking around for years I've has no luck. It seems like most of the poorly-maintained bikes one will buy has an inoperative speedometer, and this usually is the cause. Surely I'm not the only one who has clenched his teeth and bought new drives knowing how simple it would be to repair the old one? Any feedback or leads would be appreciated, or if you just have handy suggestions for the bad units one gathers over the years that would be good too. (String them together, tie the ends of the rope in a circle- paint it green for a Christmas wreath?)

Thank you,
Mike
Kansas, America
Owner of a Huge Box of defunct Speedo Drives, and some Old Machines to which they Once Bolted.
 
kanlimey said:
Any feedback or leads would be appreciated, or if you just have handy suggestions for the bad units one gathers over the years that would be good too. (String them together, tie the ends of the rope in a circle- paint it green for a Christmas wreath?)

Thank you,
Mike
Kansas, America
Owner of a Huge Box of defunct Speedo Drives, and some Old Machines to which they Once Bolted.


Sell them on ebay as VERY RARE origanal (sic) Smiths, probably just needs oiling.

Seriously, good question, I have never seen parts. The current pattern ones are even worse.

By the way, did you get the clock's main spring back in the drum ? I didn't ! :oops:
 
Just cleaned up a coffee can full. Knocking off the big hunks to see whats there. We have a local machinist do a Amco retainer that is screwed in with 2-56 flat hex head . This makes it easyer to take apart later for cleaning and re- lube. The ring gears and the worm gears go off in pairs I have found, so it takes a lot to make a few.
 
Oh............... Oops :oops:

hey, I standby the fact - I'm an OLD, BLONDE, MALE.... :roll:

..............never mind........... :wink:
 
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