Angle drive shaft appears to be too long

[iflights]

I replaced my angle drive, dust cover, and lower cable in hopes of my speedo failure would be solved. Apparently I fall into the 10% of speedo problems not resolved by replacing those. I suspect it is the speedo itself since running a drill on the shaft in the upper cable doesn't move the needle.

Regardless, I hope the speedo can be repaired by some local shop specializing in such things.

The question I have is that the angle drive shaft appears to be about 2mm or3mm too long, and the dust cover is hard to get into a well sealed position. I've ensured its seated into the AD, but still just a bit too long.

Is this a common problem, and if so, any advice?

Thanks
Steve

[Gregadeth]

I haven't done it myself but if the AD shaft is too long I believe you should be able to just grind it down. As for the upper cable not moving the speedo needle, if the needle isn't moving at all, it's possible the cable has gotten disconnected at the speedo end.

[iflights]

I haven't done it myself but if the AD shaft is too long I believe you should be able to just grind it down. As for the upper cable not moving the speedo needle, if the needle isn't moving at all, it's possible the cable has gotten disconnected at the speedo end.

Thought about grinding it down or shearing it off. Didn't know if this was a common problem. Could not find any solution in the forum other than 1 other comment.

Thanks good thought on the possible disconnect. I'll get under the dash this weekend.

[Chris 16409]

This is what I have seen done before. Not an orthodox repair but it seemed to work

image.jpg

[opethmike]

I hate it when my shaft is too long.

[iflights]

I hate it when my shaft is too long.

Honestly, I did give consideration to calling it a rod, but chose shaft instead.

[Shep]

Speedo's busted. Car has momentum, drills do not. Ask me how I know (I did exactly the same thing and demolished my speedo).

Best to replace. Upgrade to higher MPH version while you're at it if you want, but do NOT let a local shop touch it without seeing what they can do first. I've honestly never heard of such a shop as it's an unusual request and also most modern cars are electronic speedos vs. the DeLorean's direct-drive.

If you're okay in taking a "I don't know the real mileage" hit on your title though, GPS speedos do exist. But again, they are not fully accurate (steep inclines especially)

I'm not sure what problems you had before but most speedo issues where the needle bounces are attributed to gear play between the four connection points (angle drive, lambda entrance, lambda exit, speedo). Eliminating the dual cable / lambda counter setup and instead going with a straight-through cable can certainly help. But it also is a sign that the speedo needs some attention.

Once the needle stops moving, stick a fork in it, it's done.

[iflights]

Thanks for the guidance, I suspected as much. If repair is 1/2 the cost of what a 140MPH replica is from DMCH, I'll get it.

This place is one of the best gauge repair shops in the country and not too far away from me. https://www.bobsspeedometer.com

[Shep]

Thanks for the guidance, I suspected as much. If repair is 1/2 the cost of what a 140MPH replica is from DMCH, I'll get it.

This place is one of the best gauge repair shops in the country and not too far away from me. https://www.bobsspeedometer.com

Nice! Always good to have places like that nearby.

There's not many places like his at all around, he's in a dying breed for sure. My point in the last post was more of a "make sure you trust him before throwing caution to the wind and having blind faith". This guy has the track record for fixing the technologies used as well as the orphan cars. The Federal he has on his speedo page is one they haven't made in decades. (that's NOT a rollback on that page by the way, it's a reset for the restoration. I see it a lot on the older cars, pre-80's era. Essentially, 42,076.1 + 1.4 = actual mileage, it's all well documented in accordance with federal and state laws)

I've seen the DeLorean speedos myself and have given one as a birthday present. It's not mechanically complicated, but more or less just don't let neighbor Joe trade a beer for the speedo is what I'm getting at. There's a few small parts involved even in the speedos alone that can be easily broken as the plastic ages and gets more brittle. This guy clearly knows his stuff, I will see if I can use him for other projects also.

[nkemp]

I've had the bouncing needle problem for years. The heads-up GPS takes my mind off the irritation and keeps me out of trouble. I really like the GPS since it is easy to see compared to the D's speedo.

Iflights ... rather than shorten the cable (which is not easily re-lengthened) you may want to drill a hole in the yellow hub to let the cable through. Drill just enough to open a hole, not so much as to round out the square hole that catches the cable.

[QUOTE=Shep;226438]... but most speedo issues where the needle bounces are attributed to gear play between the four connection points (angle drive, lambda entrance, lambda exit, speedo). /QUOTE]

I experience bouncing when installed on the wheel but not when on a drill. That makes me think it is related to the AD interface to the wheel. If it was elsewhere in the chain, it should bounce when on the drill. Some may have problems at the other connections/devices in the chain but if it works well on the drill and not the wheel then those connections seem OK. BTW ... DO NOT run the drill faster than 88MPH!

Attempts to fix:

• Multiple ADs - None fixed it
• Multiple yellow hubs - None fixed it
• The shaft is too short or spinning in hub - No indication of wear and has done so on new yellow hubs and different ADs.
• Yellow hub spinning/slipping - Marked it and it had not moved (unless it moved back to the exact spot (unlikely)).
• AD cable too long - drilled the yellow hub to let it through if needed. Didn't fix
• Cussed, swore and invoked various demons ...no fix

At some point the fun of buying parts trying to fix it lost its luster.

So I'm open to ideas. Maybe there is slippage somewhere in the chain that the drill overcomes but not the wheel ... but that doesn't really make sense.