[Shotimes] Is the speedo servicable?

[George Fourchy]

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 12:03:12 -0500, Leigh Smith wrote:

>If the speedo is off, but not the odo, then the magnetic
>drive is "off", change the head unit, period. It's even hard for a speedo
>shop to fix. And costly. But it is not usually bad, although it can happen
>(right, George?) If the odo is off, fix the mechanical gearing / tire sizes
>first. I doubt if you can get get different Ford trans speedo gears to
>correct this....

Right!!  ;-)

In the old days, adjusting the magnet was easy to do.  Basically the technician used
a tool similar to a pair of pliers with a 120 volt cord hooked to it.  But now, with
the advent of electronic speedometers over the last ten or so years, that skill is
probably a lost art.  It isn't that hard, at least for me, to live with a speedo
that reads different than the speed I'm travelling....the GS is 5 mph fast (tested
numerous times by those roadside radar signs)....according to Lexus, that's by
design so that their owners don't get pulled over all the time.  For my standard
cruise of 72 mph on an interstate, I just set it for 77.  The cruise does the rest. 
Lowrider was (probably actually still is) that way, too....2 mph slow.  But with it,
I've been lucky lately (since the newest BS and M/PS tires have been on)....at my
set speed of 72 indicated, the CHPs just go past me without looking at me.  I verify
all of them with a radar sign whenever I can...there's a permanent one on the
downhill of I-80 from the Sierras, just prior to a pretty sharp curve.

Also...when our cars were new, you could get different driven gears.  But now, all
of those parts are obsolete.  So we have to make do with whatever we can adjust
ourselves....which is why I just live with the error.

George