VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 1929 Speedo running backwards

The speedometer and odometer on my 1929 are running backwards, would anyone have any suggestions what might be causing this? (Other than the obvious fact that it is located in the Southern hemisphere!)

Is it possible to install the speedo drive output shaft incorrectly? Is it possible that we've used 1928 parts... would that have this affect?

I gotta hear the fix for this one !!

mike

Is your speedo cable on the left or right side of the universal joint housing?

When viewed from above, looking down onto the top of the transmission, the speedo cable exits from the LH side.

Hi Skidd,

It should be on the right hand side, looking down from above, in our case the drivers side.

Cheers

Ray

Ray, are you sure that this is the case of the 1929 & 1930? Is it possible that they are different to the 1928?

It seems odd that the cable should be routed out toward the battery box and then under the cowl on the same side as the pedals, steering column and starter. Talk about a crowded part of the chassis. Or are you saying it comes out of the right side of the universal joint box and then crosses the chassis and comes up into the cab on the left?

I have an untouched 1929 sports roadster and the cable definitely exits from the left of the universal joint box and is routed up the LH (passenger) side of the firewall.

I know nothing about your year, but had the same thing occur on my 36. Turns out that the previous owner had put In 35 gears that looked similar, but had reverse spiral gears. Someone should be able to tell you what direction the spirals run on your year. It did take me awhile to figure this out!!
Richard

Your speedo cable should be on the left hand side (passenger side with r.h.d.) I can't think why it would run backwards unless you have a speedo drive on the universal from an earlier model that has the gears cut the opposite way,

I must admit that this is what I am leaning towards. The guy who rebuilt the gearbox for me does a lot of work on the 4 cylinder Chevs and he may have used a 1928 part thinking they are interchangeable. To be honest I'm not sure if he replaced that part or not and he doesn't remember.

Maybe the speedo drive bits are interchangeable and that's not the cause of this, hence this question / thread.

In trying to diagnose this we first looked at whether or not some speedos ran one way and others ran the opposite way, but I've got a few speedos from USA and Oz and they all run backwards when installed so I'm leaning back towards something at the transmission end not being right.

I think you'll find if you drive the car in reverse all the time everything will work perfectly! LOL.

LOL... yes and apart from the crick that would develop in my neck that might just work.

LOL

Based on what Chevy 6 said they must be different to 28's

I have checked mine again, just to make sure, and the speedo cable comes out on the drivers side (RHD).

OZ 28's have the battery box on the passenger side.

Ray, now I'm confused because I didn't think that was what chevy6 said;


I took that chevy6 was saying;

• The speedo cable should exit on the left when looking from above
• This is the passenger side on a RHD vehicle

Here is a photo of the RH side of my 1930 transmission. This was a completely untouched car and you can see there is no speedo output on that side. I don't have a photo of the LH side.



This photo was taken in my workshop whilst standing at the RH frame rail. On all the 1929 & 30s that I have (5 of them) the battery box is on the RH frame rail.

Is there a difference between yours and mine and is it related to the 1928 Vs a 1929 / 30?

Hi Skidd,

Your battery box is in the RH side, 28's were on the left.
My speedo comes out on the drivers side RHD.

It is getting confusing, yes, no.

Well that's a difference I didn't know about.

So maybe, just maybe... if the gearbox was rebuilt with a replacement speedo drive out of a 1928 then it would most likely run backwards.

A gear cut to drive a cog exiting the right is now driving a cog exiting the left would run in reverse... yes?

The speedo cable fits to the opposite side to your photo, the left side and it must be different to a 1928. I have a 1930 Holden bodied Tourer and it will be the same as your car and the cable fits on the passenger side (left). I suspect you have an earlier model universal and speedo drive that is designed for the speedo cable to exit on the right hand side or the drivers side and if you fit a 29 universal and speedo drive your problem should be solved.

Here is an unmolested 28 Chev, Grants Monty.



So there you go, 29 onwards are different.

Cheers

Ray

Yep, in the last few minutes I was just checking Grant's blog and looking at his photos. Thanks Ray as I said another difference I've learned between our cars.


Yep, that's what I'm figuring as well. I guess I'll start with that and see where it leads me.

Stay tuned... more to follow.

Hi Skidd,Just to confirm On my RHD 28 speedo cable is on drivers side, on the 29 the cable is on the passenger side. cheers Peter

I think it's caused by sitting in the wrong side of the car when you're driving.

Well jsut to throw it out there here are a few shots of my 1930 3 Speed transmission in the hoist, waiting to be erinstalled. Got a left Side, Right Side, and top down view for you all. And from the Pictures you can see the Speedometer connection is on the LEFT Side of the Transmission, as with the 1929 My Battery Mounts on the Right Side of the Frame, which is the Passenger Side on my US Version :)

1930 Transmission: Left Side
1930 Transmission: Right Side
1930 Transmission: Top Down

Have Fun !!

I think that the guys are talking about the speedometer cable location on right-hand drive cars in Australia other than the cars in the USA.

Thanks for the confirmation Peter, so it's pretty much confirmed that this was a change between the '28 and '29.

Interestingly I've had some people locally tell me that the '28 gears and shafts can be used in a '29 gearbox if you change complete shafts with the gears still on them. Not that I want to try this.


ROFLMA... does that mean if I can drive the car fast enough in an anti-clockwise direction in might start to spin the right way?

Thanks BearsFan, yours is exactly the same as ours... which of course I would expect as our 1929 cars came from the Bloomfield, New York boxing plant in a knock down (CKD) form with final assembly and body building happening locally.

The 1928s and earlier came from the Tarrytown plant.

Actually, as far as I can tell, ours are the same as yours.

But one thing I've been able to confirm by getting out the respective parts for a 1928 and a 1929 and comparing them side by side is that the speedo drive cog in the '28 is physically interchangeable with that on a 1929 / 30.

I found that the speedo drive gear on the '28 is cut in the opposite direction to that of the '29 / 30 and if you also changed the worm drive on the universal it will work fine and will turn the speedo cable the wrong way.

I suspect that this is what has happened in my case. I am planning to pull the speedo drive gear out of the RH side of the housing to confirm. I'm pretty sure I can do this and avoid the need to drop the tail shaft.

Stay tuned... more to come, hopefully the answer to all this.