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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Lube Rivergate Speedo Cable?

How the heck .... the cable seems to be secured in
it's housing from the bottom so I cannot pull
it out the top to grease it. What do y'all
RiverGaters do about this??

I am getting a bouncy speedo needle at really
low, cruising the parking lot speeds.

chuck
chuckc

Check, You dont want to pull it from the upper end because thats a realy pain to refit:-)

But if you have the original Rivergate cable it probably is maintenance free but if you use the old midget one you may have to pull the cable at the side of the gearshifter to pour in some drops of oil.

You could try to clean and oil with light oil the speedo indicator before because that could be a source too.

Bas
Bas Timmermans

Thanks, Bas. It is the Rivergate speedo cable that
came with the special speedo drive.

As for cleaning and lubing the speedo head, any
advice/tips would be welcome.

chuck
chuckc

I had two problems when I fitted mine.
Firstly it was very slow to return to zero when I came to a stop. This was because I'd tightened it too much at the end which attaches to the rear of the speedo and was sorted as soon as I released it a bit.
The second problem that I had was that the plastic cog in the gearbox that the Rivergate angle drive fits into had stripped (it's quite soft plastic). This was quite easy to replace with a spare part from Datsun. Perhaps you have a problem with the plastic drive too.
It could be that your cable is catching but my understanding is that they are pre-lubricated.
Gary Lazarus

Call Margaret at Mo Ma for advice

Margaret Lucas
Mo Ma Manufacturing - instrument repair
13211 Second Street. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Ph (505) 766-6661 - Fax (505) 766-5419
momanm@aol.com

She was making the cables up for Rivergate at one point. I worked with Mo Ma one afternoon to regear the odometer so that it, along with the speedometer, is absolutely spot on. We needed to change the gear in the speedo to the green one if I remember correctly.

The car, even when new, never had accurate speedometer or odometer readings. Even when the 145 tires were no longer available from Michelin, the readings were still slightly high.
Glenn Mallory

Mine pulls out and re-inserts from the top end just fine. In fact, when I got the car, this was one of the problems. The insert had no shoulder on the end, so it would work its way up into the speedo until it no longer engaged the gear in the angle drive and the speedo stopped indicating. Drove the PO crazy. I finally tried adding an end to the cable with a shoulder to it and it has worked fine ever since. Of course, the fact that the PO used a mile and a half of cable to go three feet does not help at all. The cable is at least six feet long.
David "it died 42 miles into a 3000 mile trip" Lieb
David Lieb

This thread was discussed between 04/09/2009 and 11/09/2009

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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