Clocks

Thomasa said:

The tacho on my Atlas quit altogether one day after being intermittent on a few previous rides. I did the basic troubleshooting by spinning a cable core in my finger so see if the needle jumped, etc. Eventually I figured out that the cable core was a hair too short and the end had just barely engaged the tacho head. It was no longer square, rounded a bit. A couple of other cores in the drawer were also too short. So I cut a nip of cotter pin the right size and dropped it down the drive-end fitting to shim the cable up about 3/16". Tach now works fine as it ever did.

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I had that problem on a Honda tacho. A new drive cable didn't resolve it. I think, over the years, there is wear in the tacho, right where the cable's male tip engages in the tacho female drive. I shortened the sheath, so more of the inner cable was available. Exposing the inner cable an extra couple of millimetres engages it into virgin territory inside the tacho drive, so to speak.

I would like to add my support for using Vintage British Cables for anything Smiths. They bought out the entire inventory of Smiths when they closed the doors in the UK. I switched from magnetic to chrono clocks and they made new cables for an easy swap to the magnetic drives and extended the length of the tach cable to clear the exhaust. Also, I was given a fair price on the clocks turned in for trade. Andy was quick on replies and offered good suggestions and advice. One thing though, the pricing is in Canada dollars. The exchange rate for US dollars lowers the actual cost. Website: https://vintagebritishcables.com/

I tried spinning the Tach seperate from the cable and it's still erratic. A few drops of oil in the cable hole didn't help. The speedo has a cracked glass so it needs repair. Both pointers and faces are in excellent shape. I sent an email to Vintage British Cables but have not recieved a reply yet. They don't publish a phone number that I could find on there website. Do you folks know if these original gauges from a 74 Norton 850 are considered magnetic? Thanks for all the help, Cheers, Jack

Yes. 74 Commando clocks are magnetic.

Thomasa said:

Yes. 74 Commando clocks are magnetic.

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Thank you