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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Odometer quit

Alright, so the midget is back on the road with an SW5-07 cam etc and it's gonna take some getting used to the extra oomph at high RPM. Anyway I noticed that even though the speedometer is still working and telling me more or less how fast I am going, the odometer isnt working. Now I can guestimate how long it will take before I get to my 500 mile oil change but I'd like to know with a bit more accuracy. What does it take to set this right?
S.A. Jones

figure around 60 miles an hour devided into 500 miles thats around 8 hours and 20 minutes...Im guessing if you drive it 10 hours at normal speed you should be at around 500 miles give or take.

is the speedo cable okay, you would be surprised at how easy they are to break...is the cable properly seated, sometimes they can read speed but not milage if they are not fully seated.

So tell use what THE CAM is like, does the cam live up to the expectiations and hype...is your opinion good or bad?, are you still glad you like it?

prop
Prop

only high rpm oomph?!

torque should increase as wel
Onno Könemann

Well its not only high rpm oomph. Its just that it feels like it develops its real power a bit higher up the rev band than stock (which is what I had before) by maybe 500 RPM. Its livable. The other thing that I really have to get used to is that it is A LOT freer revving. Its VERY EASY to take it up near 6000 RPM and not notice whatr one is doing. Previously the engine started to feel like it ran out of steam at around 4500, now it still pulls at 5000 and maybe beyond. I'm not used to this much power. I don't know much about torque or power, I just know it feels faster and smoother. Yeah you do have to rev it above 1500 rpm to get any torque for around town but that aint bad. I'll have to try some dynolicious testing sometime. The engine has higher compression pistons, was bored out 0.020 and has larger intake valves. We did a compression test and got 180 psi on all cylinders. No pinging or anything yet.

In short part of me mises the tamer midget that once was, but all of me likes the reinvigorated attitude sprit and spunk of the way it is now (I guess after 40 years the engine was very tired). Still drivable around town too. I'd reccomend this cam. Just be sure that you set the cam timinng abteween 106 and 108 as reccomended and save yourself some cash by using an offset cam key.

Anyhow, I'll try to reseat the distributor cable.
S.A. Jones

Distributor cable???
That is a VERY strange 71 you have there, Seth!
Your problem cannot be the speedometer cable if the speed indication is working. Most likely a problem with a pawl. Probably easier to get a better speedometer in February at the swap meet, but it might be worth pulling it out and cleaning it...
David "that should keep you busy for a while" Lieb
David Lieb

"Distributor cable???
That is a VERY strange 71 you have there, Seth!"

yes, and it's even stranger after you pull an all nighter to finish getting it on the road and you start misslabling everything.

Seth "distributer cable? what distributor cable?" Jones
S.A. Jones

Ok so I opened up the speedometer and discovered that a circlip had worn out oversize. I replaced it with one from a spare and got it back together. The circlip helped locate the shaft that goes through the odometer wheels. Anyhow upon reinstallation I noticed that while the speedometer itself works fine (including the odometer), I cant seem to get both ends of the cble fully engaged. Do the cable housings have a tendency to strech sometimes? BTW I have a datsun box and the speedo cable connects to a small angle drive gearbox on the side of the transmission and is visible through the gear shift hole.
S.A. Jones

This thread was discussed between 29/05/2009 and 07/06/2009

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