7 replies to this topic

[Jimbo Limbo (Trials Chimp)]

Hi, Ive used the search but couldnt find the peice of info I need:

I have a three clock dash and i need to know how to remove the speedo cable, its got a white plastic end on it. There are two screws near where it goes in, do i need to undo these?

Also on the back of the rev counter there is a round connector that i cant get off, it dosnt seem to be held on by anything but i dont want to force it off incase i break something, is there a knack to getting this off aswell?

cheers
Jimbo

[Dan]

You might find this answer a little embarrasing but.....

Grab the 'white plastic thing' and pull it.

Then, grab the bullet connector and pull that too.

Technical I know but you should be able to cope!

If you undo the two screws your speedo will fall apart internally and you probably won't be able to put it back together.

[MinipixMatthew]

Having probs detaching my speedo cable, this post came up in the search! And yes, it is all rather embarrassing...

I've got an SPi Mini and I'm just trying to get the speedo cable off the back of the speedo. A side problem is that I've got a dashboard fitted which is getting in the way, but no matter how hard I pull I just can't get the plastic doofer to come off. It kinda twists though - I'm sure it can't unscrew, but does it have to be aligned for it to come off or something? I can't see behind the dash so no pics I'm afraid, just gonna have to use your imagination! Oh and without getting the speedo out I can't get to the bolts that hold the dashboard on, so that's not gonna come out easily either at the moment.

Do I just need to pull harder, or is there a knack to it?

[ed4ran]

the plastic part clips to the dials, it will rotate but not unscrew,
you have to squeeze the white outer plastic it for it to unclip.

[MinipixMatthew]

Aaahhh!! Ed4ran you're a genius! Cable's off now, just got to figure out a way of providing an earth for my rev counter now - I don't have a circuit board for the back (I'm adding a tacho to a 2-dial jobby), and although the two wires for the tacho bit (i.e. spade and bullet connectors) are already plumbed in, I'll need to manually wire in the earth and light bulb stuff.

Does anyone happen to know if any of the screws on the back of the speedo are an earth? If so I can just attach a wire to that, which just leave the lighting to sort out. Ta.

Edited by MinipixMatthew, 06 December 2006 - 03:27 PM.

[MinipixMatthew]

Eeeeexcellent. My rev counter is finally fitted and working.

For those who are mystified (like I was) about the finer points of installing a tacho, here are a few tips I learnt during the install.

As has been said many times on many forums, as of the 1275GT all Minis had the wiring for the tacho already in the loom, even if it was unused by default. The two wires slot right onto the back of the tacho, one is a spade connector and the other is a bullet type. Just connecting those two won't make it work though, you need to earth it as well (my mistake). Actually this is dead simple if you have an odd bit of wire lying around, because you'll find there are two screws you can use to put a wire between the tacho and the standard speedo (at least there were on my SPi one anyway). Just look for the tracks on the circuit board that feed the indicator lights - there should be one track that feeds all of them and goes to all sorts of places. That's an earth track, I've discovered, and on my speedo unit there was a screw on that track (presumably providing an earth for the speedo or temp/fuel dials). I just unscrewed the screw a little, put a bit of wire underneath it and screwed it back in again, same on the tacho end. Bingo! Just thought I'd share this as I've spent ages today searching around trying to find out where to earth the tacho to...

That just leaves the lighting for the tacho to sort out, but that can wait for another day.

[Pooky]

out of interest

If your mini originally had a speedo cable with a white plastic end does it need one the same to be replaced or can the grey ended one be used?

[MinipixMatthew]

I'm no expert on this (despite spending most of this afternoon reading about speedos and tachos ), but I would imagine that the only constraint is that you have the right end for the speedo. Unless you've changed your speedo it shouldn't matter what colour the bit of plastic is, as long as it fits. And it's pretty simply to check too, just try to fit the cable onto the back of the speedo. Basically, if it fits, all's well and good. If not, you got a problem! Not sure if you can change the plugs, have a look on the MiniSpares web site and see what they've got, it may be that you'd need to replace the whole speedo cable.

Feel free to correct me on this though. Anyone...