Dave's 1969 Plymouth

[MattH]

You're getting lots done Dave, this retirement lark OK then??

[Dave-R]

You're getting lots done Dave, this retirement lark OK then??

Bloody great. :-)

[Dave-R]

The car has one of those dual ballast resistors on the bulkhead but on removal of the coil I found it is a 12v Pertronix "Flame Thrower" which does not require one.

In trying to figure out how the resistor was wired I had to unwrap the engine bay harness.

Miles of cable wrapped up in there. Some of it redundant. Most of it too long and had been coiled up under the wrapping.

So I have decided to remove the ballast resistor and organise this tangled mess a bit better.

[MattH]

I was hoping that wasn't your finished article!!

[Dave-R]

I am waiting for some bits to finish the wiring so turned my attention to the last major issue which is the broken speedometer in the dash cluster.

Now getting the dash apart has turned into the hardest thing I have done in years.
I found a youtube video which shows one taken to bits which was helpful. And the guy makes it sound fairly easy.



But even after getting the screws out of the switch panel and pulling the connectors off the back ( the very first step!) I cannot get the dam panel out. something is holding it at the far left corner. I am in a sweat so came in for a breather. What a pig of a job!

[Blue]

I tend to remove the drivers seat and take the steering column out if I have to do work like that, bit of a pain but easier than trying to work around it all I find.

[Dave-R]

Yeah I might take the seat out anyway. The steering column does not seem in my way at the moment.

I can see the back of the switch under the dash. I just cant figure out why it does not move like the rest of the panel. It's just that far end.

I am starting to damage the pad around it with prying at it so back to just pulling, twisting and swearing at it now.

[Blue]

Did the "restorers" glue it in?

[Dave-R]

And the answer was...four screws on the rear that mount the first two switches to the panel. At least one of them was gripping the frame behind. With my fat head pushed under the dash as physically possible it would go I could just see it with one eye and managed to get a long screwdriver onto it.

I have done slight damage to the panel (which is cast). A couple of cracks. but it is still in one piece and will go back on OK after I have done some invisible mending on it. Hopefully I can manage to get the rest of it apart now and work out what is wrong with the speedo. I have a couple of spare clusters I might be able to rob bits from.

[Dave-R]

Having real trouble accessing the nuts holding that lower dash padded bit in. Not helped that this was an AC car before someone put a six barrel induction on it and they left all the ducting in. I am going to have to remove the steering column as Blue suggested and might strip out all the AC ducts. I don't need it.

I can't even get a finger to the speedo cable at the back of the cluster as it is. It might just be that. Although the bit it plugs into looks a bit wonky to me so still need that cluster out.

[Dave-R]

At last I was able to get to the back of the speedo and extract the cable for inspection.

In fact it fell out when I grabbed it. The clip is broken and I suspect it was half out anyway and causing my dancing needle problem.

But now my problem is finding a replacement.

This one is 60" long and has the plastic clip at the speedo end and a big nut at the other.

Rockauto only list a 40" and an 80". Neither one has a nut on the end and they describe it as a 5/8" - 18 thread. This looks a lot bigger than 5/8" to me.

Any ideas?

[Blue]

Not sure if Speedy cables can supply a cable with the plastic speedo end, worth an ask. The transmission end would be the hand tighten style though, not that it's a problem.

[Derek]

Dave, is the cable broken or is it that it doesn't hold in place, the clip on mine was broken so it kept falling out of the back of the speedo, I ordered a new cable and while I was waiting for it to get here I cable tied the old one to the steering column to hold it in place, it's still like it now and the cable is in the garage just waiting for me to fit it, that was aroung 3 years ago.

[Dave-R]

Not sure if Speedy cables can supply a cable with the plastic speedo end, worth an ask. The transmission end would be the hand tighten style though, not that it's a problem.

The hand tighten ends tend to be a smaller diameter.

I found a correct one the right length and everything on ebay but with shipping and tax it would be £80.

[Dave-R]

Dave, is the cable broken or is it that it doesn't hold in place, the clip on mine was broken so it kept falling out of the back of the speedo, I ordered a new cable and while I was waiting for it to get here I cable tied the old one to the steering column to hold it in place, it's still like it now and the cable is in the garage just waiting for me to fit it, that was aroung 3 years ago.

The speedo drive end is looking a bit chewed up but might work. Last resort fix if I can't find another solution. I like to do a job right and only do it once if I can.