where do i buy a quality speedo for my VS

in 3000 miles i have gone thru 2 chinese pieces of crap,never again.

Send it to North Hollywood Speedometers and have them make it into a real VDO. they trash the guts from yours and put in good stuff.

Another place is (I think) Palo Alto Speedometers. Equally good.

The SAMBA?

Ring up Carey Hines at Special Edition, if they are in stock I am sure he'll help you out.

FWIW - in my book, Carey is one of the coolest dudes around!!

I doubt even Cary can fight world economics - seems all repros are Brazil and now China (be sure not to digest the paint). If you buy old VDO they seem to be $300 per gauge - plus the tachs are often cable driven not electronic. I'd suspect even VW speedo guts could be swapped to a repro case.

Cary's Brazilian gauges work it's the Chinese ones that quit after a short time. ~Alan

Thanks guys, however, right now the best thing to do is send it to Valdig at North Hollywood. As mentioned, he'll take the case and put German VDO internals in it. Keep the look that matches your other 2 gauges, but now it'll work!! wOOt!
I am so backordered on gauges, plus... the fate of VDO and their "off the assembly line gauges" is no looking good.

That said, we are working on several alternatives sources, all of which will be better than the current China-crap.

If you're just the tiniest bit clever with your hands, open up your POS repro, grab a 914 speedo off of The Samba, and swap out the internals. The screws ought to line up perfectly, the needles attach in the same snap-on way, re-crimp the chromed ring (I use a spoon) and pretty much done.

Probably cost around $35.

Dare I say it . . . Easy Peasy!

My Brazilian 200 KPH Speedo is dying. I want to replace it with a 160 mph. I checked with N. Hollywood and Valdig said he couldn't do the dial, or at least didn't give me a warm feeling about it. I called Hartmut at Palo Alto, he said no problem, send it up here. It will cost about $225. The interesting point he said to me was that the Brazilian guages are bigger and a regular 356 guage would go right through the hole, hence the need to rebuild it. I wonder why the Brazilians didn't make them the original size?

All current repros (Brazilian and Chinese) are 105mm. I'll ask why, 'cause I don't know why the Brazilians did that. As for the Chinese ones, Kirk just sent a Brazilian repro to be copied.

The gauge size is actually something we are dealing with now, in our trials to make a new (read BETTER) repro. Do we go 105mm so we can have replacements, or 100mm to be more authentic? I am leaning toward 100mm, and I'll just stockpile all the 105s I can for future replacement...

Regarding N. Hollywood, I'll call Valdig this afternoon. He just did 6 for me last week (all spoken for). I'll see what's going on.

I was told that when VDO was commissioned to make these gauges for the ENVEMO, they were already making a 105mm gauge for some other application, and they wanted to use the same can and trim ring.

Carey - Valdig had no problem with the 130 mph. It was the 160 mph that he had to go talk to his boss about, then came back with a less than comfortable answer for me. Maybe he could have done it if I pressed him, but the other guy said, Hey, no problem, just send it. We'll see what it looks like when I get it back.

Warren,

Gotcha. I skimmed over the 160 part... guess I should learn to read better.
Hartmut's guys will do a fine job. I have had them hand paint gauge faces for me in the past and they turned out fantastic!

if you already have the broken 356 one, get a VW beetle one and swap it yourself. It's not rocket science inside these things.

Paul ..Are you sure they match.

I know how to work on the bug ones quite well. And the needle spring is adjustle if you can lift out the brass holding pin and slide the spring end down you might have enough to up grade one to 13O mpg.

I could see how 160 would be a problem .You would need a bigger needle spring that flexes more.

If thats backwards Then it is doable just shorten up the spring more, to get a 160 unit. BUT SENCE NORTH HOLLYWOOD GRUMMBLED . the bigger spring thing is probaley the right one.

The other question i would have is . Is where would be the easyist place. to get new inners for the tack, gas, and temp??? My first guess is Westhash! Would that be a good place. if so Heck I.ll do my own.. if they give trouble. Ive worked on pocket watches also this should be a litle easyer.

A old distributor can be converted in to a rpm counter with a tack on it to calbrate a speedo the only missing toy is a varible speed motor to control it while a speedo is conected White face gauges can make me clear face kit or i could ust mark the housing before pulling the dial at 60,,120,,and 160 It's very doable

In Vince's absence in this thread, here's some speedos I found.

AWW MAN are you tryin to blind us or WHAT?

...flour, anyone?!

back to the speedo,. the vendor i purchased it from contacted me on his own and agreed to have it fixed. im feeling better now.

"where would be the easiest place to get new inners for the tack, gas, and temp???"



914 gauges ! !

The insides of the 356 gauges are pretty much the same as the 914 (and early 911/912) and the 914 gauges are extremely cheap right now. Just swap out the insides and you're done. If you find a set or single 914 gauges for sale it's worth grabbing them up for future projects or just in case something fails later on.

Genuine VDO.
Fit as-is if you want an Outlaw look.
Easy to swap out internals.
140 speedos standard.
All 12 volt electrics.
Cheap-o-rino to buy.

Why not? I have two sets of genuine 356 converted over to 914 internals and probably have another two or three sets of 914 gauges just waiting for other cars or conversions.

TC

I did think of that,, Thanks TC. but their has to be a place you buy the stuff new. that would be the idea way of doing it.