Dan Sarandrea (Phila)
Waitin' On Parts...
I have dimensions for speedo and tach needles if anyone wants to give it a try!
One thing's for sure, LOTS of potential customers!!!
One thing's for sure, LOTS of potential customers!!!
Are you thinking to make just the straight (white) needle portion and secure it to the original (black) base portion? Otherwise, how would you make it mount to the speedo? I am not a modeler and have never removed the Fiat needles so I really don't know and am asking for a education.Have you thought about just scratching one out of plastic rod?
Ha, it can't get any worse. May actually improve it.so it doesn't throw off the speedo calibration
Sometimes a speedometer cable that needs lubrication can do that by not letting it turn smoothly.Does anyone elses speedo jiggle around a lot while driving? What causes this?
I believe you are not referring to the rhythmic speed dependant oscillations of a dry frayed cable, but more like a loose needle that randomly jiggles about? If so, I suspect that is the nature of how the mechanism is designed. Of the countless vintage cars I've played with over the decades, many of them had this behavior (British cars with Smiths speedo were particularly bad). I guess it was a function of the type of mechanism used in speedos back then. I'm not very knowledgeable about how these gauges work, but I have taken a couple of old speedos apart to try and repair them. Typically there is no direct connection between the needle portion and the drive cable portion. So the needle sort of "floats" allowing them to bounce, especially in vehicles that have a rougher ride with lots of vibrations and jostling about. In fact I've noticed in some cases the jiggling needle is much worse on very rough roads compared to really smooth ones. No idea if this is actually the case with the X's speedo, as I said I'm just speculating. But there is a very obvious difference between this action and a bad cable. When the drive cable is the cause you will see a distinct pattern of the needle sweeping back and forth, often with wider sweeps as the speed increases (although sometimes it is the opposite, it actually decreases with speed). And the oscillations are fairly steady, not random like the "loose needle" action.Does anyone elses speedo jiggle around a lot while driving? What causes this?
I have dimensions for speedo and tach needles if anyone wants to give it a try!
One thing's for sure, LOTS of potential customers!!!
Well done!I had to print a few things at work today, so I added a speedometer needle to the mix.
Freaking OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Just a preview of the progress I'm making with these needles:
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Perfect fit. Perfect dimensions. Hollow needle the same as original. As noted earlier, FDM is the wrong technology for printing these, but with some final sanding and all white ABS (this stuff had the metallic filler) I think I can make FDM work. I'll get some made with SLA to see how they come out, but I think I'm close to a solution here.
SolidWorks and STL file here for anyone wanting to print one.