Ugh, apparently my speedo reads off.. by a lot

[Patrick Sullivan]

I always suspected, since the new transmission was put in, that my speedo was reading incorrectly.. it would bounce around at times, seem to drag and then speed up, generally do wierd things.. but I guess it's reading off by quite a bit. It read 58, officer cited me at 72(!!). I've never been pulled over before, so I about **** myself, though I wasn't sure what I had done.. and now I have a nice citation in my hand. I'm not exactly sure how to go about handling this.. (the speedo error OR the citation..).. ?

Oh yea, and my left tail light is out, too. The one I just replaced a week ago.

[Hooter]

do you still have the old tranny?
take the gear out of that tranny and put it in the new tranny. That is part of your problem the other problem could be that your speedo cable needs lubrication. Just lube it up with some lithium grease. The taillight thing just go and ***** at the 17 year old at the parts counter who sold you a crappy bulb

[Hooter]

Btw Love the picture!!!

[Patrick Sullivan]

Do not have the old tranny, but I am going to have a look at the gear and speedo cable when I can. I suspect to find a problem very expensive to fix, which seems to be what I find whenever I look at anything.

Now, how does this citation thing work? Do they care that my speedo was off? Am I better just paying the thing and not trying to argue that my truck is a POS?

[Hooter]

You could try and dispute the ticket. If you find that the speedo gear has a couple of broken teeth take it to court with you. It couldnt hurt to dispute it

[Project1970]

Originally posted by Hooter
You could try and dispute the ticket. If you find that the speedo gear has a couple of broken teeth take it to court with you. It couldnt hurt to dispute it

*cough*SMASHTHEGEAR*cough*

I heard of a guy once who got out of quite a few speeding tickets in his Chevy by using a broken speedo cable in court...IIRC, the cable was from a junkyard Honda.

[Lippyp]

His avatar is an old Pink Floyd album cover, if my memory serves me correctly it's from "Wish You Were Here" although my copy (vinyl) still has the black plastic bag it came in around it.

[68 Stepside]

You are 100% correct Lippy, and what a great album it is. As well as the rest of their stuff.

One more thing....VINYL ROCKS!!!

TJ

[tom hand]

If you are worried about the ticket, carry the truck to a shop and have the speedo corrected, then carry the bill for having the speedo repaired to court to fight the ticket. Unless the judge is a real a**hole he will drop the ticket which will keep it off your record.

[bigjimzlll]

I would take it to a certified speedo place...its a lot cheaper in the long run to get them to verify the speedo's off, and have them calibrate and fix it...ticket price...insurance cost....points agaist your licence

[MikeB]

If the cop said you were doing 72 and your speedo said 58, that means your speedo cable needs to be spinning 24% faster. That's a lot! Usually larger tires will make a 10-15% error max. I had a similar poblem (10% slow), so pulled out my old set of speedo gears. I then determined the current gear ratio as well as the ratio I needed. I found a trans supply shop with a variety of nylon ring and pinion gears and ended up buying a ring gear with one more tooth than the one I had. I also replaced the pinion gear since it looked worn. The ring gear is secured to the tailshaft with a metal clip. Don't forget to replace the clip, or it will come back to haunt you.

[XXL]

I've got wrong transmission, wrong rearend, and wrong tire size... that makes for wrong speedo numbers--

52 is 70

That's all I've been doing because my brain hurts too much to sit down and figure out what kind of swap I need in the speedo gears. I'm thinking I'll wait until I get a ticket one day (apparently not very likely since I've never seen a MA cops doing anything except guarding repair crews (apparently people steal repair crews ) and guarding the shoe shine stand at Boston's South Station (yesterday there were 7 <-- yes SEVEN cops standing at the shoe shine stand... apparently all covering the 8th cop who was getting his shoes done. That stand must be a dangerous place!).

Not intentionally trying to hijack this thread. Just being a smarta$$.

Kenneth

[mikep]

In most states you have 3 options for fighting a ticket

1. Pay the ticket. Take the hit.

2. Go to court and plead Nolo Contendre or no contest. Different states have different terms for this legal right but what it means is you can admit guilt and explain your circumstances . This will give you an opportunity to take a day off work and sit in court for 4 hours waiting for your turn and explain your case to the judge who at his discretion, may drop a portion of the fine . The infraction will still go on your driving and insurance record. Probably not worth it in this case as the fine is relatively small. Iv'e had a few speeding tickets in Oregon and the fines in Oregon are relatively small compared to some states. Lots of traffic cops in Oregon especially in smaller towns without much tax base. Anything is possible. Iv'e had $300 tickets dropped to $15 which was the lowest administrative fee possible but the infraction still went on my record ( I was guilty but I made up a good story ) .

3. Plead not guilty. Dont do this!!!! First off I have to say that an claiming an inoperative speedometer will only get you lectured by the judge on top of having to pay the fine. You are "guilty" in as much as you were exceeding the speed limit . Having faulty equipment is besides the point and as its your fault that its faulty , the judge wont look very favorable at your case at all. Explaining the reason is for nolo contendre pleas. If you plead not guilty and the judge finds against you , you will still pay the fine and take the hit on your record the same as if you just sent the money in. Speeding is almost impossible to get dropped by pleading not guilty though. The judge WILL find against you if you plead not guilty and he accepts the ticketing officers written testimony that you were exceeding the speed limit. He will! Radar guns are calibrated often and with the calibration certificate in hand along with the ticketing officers testimony its a pretty lock tight case against you. There are exceptions to pleading not guilty in traffic citation cases. Not guilty is good for times where there was no observing officer such as right of way cases involving accidents. If you can talk a good game then you can sometimes get the charges dropped entirely.

[Hooter]

"Wish You Were Here" is my favourite Pink Floyd album hence the caption under my name "welcome to the machine"

[Gordo]

If your fortunate to have an experienced parts person at the counter of your local Chevy dealership you can tell him/her the type and year transmission, rear end gear ratio and tire size and they will supply you the nesesary parts such as the drive gear and retainer, the driven gear and the driven gear sleeve to bring you within 5%. Aprox $50 total cost if you do the labor.

[Hooter]

well thats good to know! Next time I have a speedo problem I will go to the chevy parts counter. I always like going there becuase they always know what i am talking about. And even know when I dont know what i am talking about

[Fred T]

As far as fixing the truck, don't lube the speedo cable with anything but speedo cable lube. It's a high graphite lube that doesn't gel when its cold, which can ruin your speedo cable.

I would call a local attorney about the ticket. Most will give you a few minutes of their time to tell you what to expect. Also, a call to the city or county attorney will let you find out what they will do.

[Longhorn Man]

Look into the local laws.
When I was in high school, a buddy of mine got nabbed for doing 85 in a 55, which is recles op here in Ohio. He swore up and down he was doing 60.
He had his speddo checked by a shop with ASE certified techs, and also got it repaired on the spot. When he went to court (manditory for recless op) he pleaded no contest, presented his story, along with reciepts and proof of correction, and the referee let him go with just court costs, no record of it.
Not quite sure how he pulled off the no record...but he did.

[mikep]

I'll always remember the name of the judge who suspended my license for reckless endangerment and exhibition of speed when I was 15 in the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati Ohio in 1980 . I dont remember how much the fine was but it was big.

Judge Roy Bacon .

They frown on people jumping their cars 7 feet in the air at 100 mph in Ohio. Hey, it was a SD 455 Trans Am. I beat that car damn near to death!

[Longhorn Man]

Originally posted by mikep
...it was a SD 455 Trans Am. I beat that car damn near to death!

I'd suspended your license too. You ever wish you had that thing back?

[Patrick Sullivan]

I looked into things a bit.. I am going to have a mechanic repair my speedo just so I have receipts to show the court.. I am hoping I can get it dropped with that. If not, there is an opportunity to take some stupid traffic court thing in exchange for dropping the ticket.. or they may just say "If you don't get another ticket in X months, we won't put it on your record".. that's what I'm hoping for, since I've never even been pulled over before, and I definately didn't MEAN to go that fast..

Thanks all.

[Longhorn Man]

It looks real good for you if you nip it in the ass as soon as you can.
Never been pulled over helps too.

[mikep]

Oh yeah . The Trans Am. My mom and dad got divorced in 1976 and my dad went out and bought himself a 74 super duty TA. Mid life crisis thing don't you know. A year later they realized their stupidity and remarried each other so when i got my drivers license at the tender age of 14 ( long story ) my dad went out and bought me a clapped out 69 camaro to use as a project base but in the mean time, while we rebuilt and rodded out the camaro, I got to drive the TA . I spun a rod bearing after a month or so so we rebuilt the 455 with a good hot cam, a torker intake and a 800 double pumper with headers and dual exhaust. That thing would top out at 165 miles per hour with its 2.73 gears on those nice straight Ohio interstates. I had done a few underbody mods to get the aerodynamics under control and lowered it and put Z rated tires on it . Even with the 2.73 gears it would boil the tires all day long.

While I'd love to have the TA back I wouldnt build another with a Pontiac Engine. I'd do it with a Big Block Chevy . Pontiac parts are available but theyre getting harder and harder to find the good stuff and the aftermarket stuff will saw a wallet in half. Dad was the engineer who designed the 4 engine pontiac drive system Mickey Thompson used at bonneville in the early 60's to set some land speed records and he swears by the pontiacs but theres just so much good BBC stuff its hard not to think about bastardizing one of the TA's.

I would have suspended my license too! I have no idea how I lived through my teenage years.