Elan S4 speedmeter face

[fjbm]

Hi All

Can anyone help me finding a new speedmeter face, in km/h, for my Lotus Elan S4?

Thank you

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

There used to be a Guy who did the Car restoration exhibitions who could do Silk Screen Faces (dials) to almost any Spec. He also calibrates Speedo's
His details in April 2000 were:-
Adrian Sidwell
Auto Instrument Services
e-mail:- [email protected]
Tel. +44 (0) 1428714349

I believe that Speedy Cables in Swansea can also offer the same service.
This Service however usually involves a complete Speedo overhaul.
I was in a similar position to yourself & my Car's Speedo was/is in very good condition so I decided to help myself.
I found some "Letraset" type Lettering & Numbers in an almost identical typeface & slightly smaller than the MPH numbers on the Speedo.
Using these I fitted only the critical KPH e.g. Local Speed limits 30; 50; 100 etc. in the appropriate positions directly on to the (Face) Dial after removing the Bezel & Glass.
Very fiddly work but it looks quite good & does the job.

Cheers
John

[Mark B]

I know Smiths will refurbish old instruments that you may have, might be worth a call to see if they could change the face/ recalibrate perhaps?

Cheers,
Mark.

[Mark B]

Is this any use, new speedo in km/h on ebay......

Item no 260542532250

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 3D1&_rdc=1

[RedS4]

Gee - 80 pounds ($143 AU) so far with six days to go... I'm just putting thin but bright adhesive lines at the critical speeds (50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110kmh) on the glass.
As my car currently has a 4.11 diff (in an S4!! ) I doubt if I will ever speed - I'll probably be about 7kmh slower than indicated...

[msd1107]

Evan,

If you have a S4, the speedometer is probably 980 tpm, and if you are using 155-13 tires, the best speedometer drive gear is 27 teeth, which is not one of the ones available for the transmission. The closest is 25 teeth, which would be a massive 8% off.

Getting an earlier speedometer with 1000 tpm and upgrading to 165-13 tires would bring the error down to around 4%, still not good. (You can usually get the odometer error under 1%, which is different from the speedometer error. This depends on the calibration of the spring tension of the speedometer needle. You can have an accurate odometer with inaccurate speedometer and vice versa.)

You can send the speedometer off to a shop that fixes Smiths instruments. They can usually (what they call recalibrate) install different odometer drive gears. If you have 155-13 tires and a 25 tooth speedometer drive gear, the tpm figure you want is 1050 which would be a 30-35 odometer gear pair, not commonly available. They will probably give you a 20-53 pair which is 1060 tpm (you currently have 20-49).

For a 24 tooth speedometer drive gear, you want 1094 tpm. The closest gear pair is 20-55 for 1100 tpm. For a 23 tooth speedometer drive gear, you want 1142 tpm, or 20-57 for 1140 tpm.

There is a downloadable spreadsheet at elan-f15/updated-spreadsheets-t18445.html at the bottom that in sheet DiffSpeedo allows all these things to be determined. So no matter what speedometer drive gear, tire size, or differential ratio you have, you can tell the speedo shop what tpm you want. Sheet Instructions has help text that hopefully explains all this.

Good luck.

David
1968 36/7988

[msd1107]

For those of you who collect trivia, the Smiths part number for the KPH S3 speedometer is SN 6136/01A with a TPK of 620. The MPH speedometer was SN 6136/00A with a TPM of 1000.

Thanks to David on eBay.

David
1968 36/7988

[quaybook]

I sent my combined oil pressure water temp gauge to http://www.speedograph-richfield.com/ for repair. The gauge was a Tudor item not the original Smiths, although it seems to be identical appart from the lettering on the face. Speedograph offered to make a replacement 'original' face for the gauge - apparently they can recreate original instrument faces. So I'm sure they could do the same for your speedo. Might be worth contacting them anyway.

Vernon