poncho woes....stupid people and more.

[SwitchBlade327]

semester at school ended thursday, so I brought the poncho home. Took it over to my cuz's house to show him and his family the car, and what happens? His stupid ass mom back right into it AFTER i move it out of her way so she can get out. Didn't do too much damage though, just some screwed up paint and a banged up headlight bezel. Just really pissed me off since it was the first time the car had been out since it's paint job 3 days earlier. Anyways, that's not the real problem I'm just venting. The real problem is my speedometer is screwed up. I thought it was the cable so i got a new one, no dice. the speedo makes a horrible fucking whining noise and the needles eitehr jumps all over the place are doesn't move at all, so does that mean the part where the cable goes into the speedo at is rounded out or somethin'? I really really don't wanna have to track down an instrument cluster for one of these cars. the only other real problem I'm having is the damn heater fan magically not wanting to work with 12 volts anymore and the voltage reducers I put on it want to burn the hell up. Am I gonna have to order one of those fancy ones from speedway, or is there something other than the shitty porcelain things i can just go get at napa?

[BARNETT]

Damn, that sucks...it was really starting to look nice! At least you have the know-how to fix it. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif If you can't find an instrument cluster in your area, let me know...there's a junkyard here with a complete 60. The guy wasn't willing to part out the car last year, after seeing mine, but I think he might be getting more flexable (since he hasn't done a thing to it in over 2 years, now). Anyways...if you can't find one out there, I'll try to work on this guy for you, if you want...no promises though.

[SwitchBlade327]

well hpoefully i won't have to come to that, I'm gonne try riggin' up some shit, try to alter the end of the cable some so it'll work in the rounded out hole, wrap it duct tape or some shit, i dunno. I'm still drvin' the shit out of it, just takin' all the back roads. Nobody has really even noticed where it got hit unless I pointed it out to them, if the bumper hadn't moved over a couple of inches it would really be hard to notice. I am gonna need a driver's side headlight bezel if you can check back with that guy again, mine got squished pretty good on one side.

[BARNETT]

I'll call tomorrow...I know the headlight bezels are hard to find. I know this one has them, but I'm not sure about their condition, other than they weren't shiney and I'm sure they had some dings.

[SwitchBlade327]

well, I think they're stainless or aluminum, so they should be alright, the ones I have weren't all that shiney either. I kept putting off polishing them, and now I'm glad I did. I'll be really glad when i get this thing done so I can get it gone....I'm ready to build something ugly and fast...

[fatassbuick]

Voltage reducer? Why would you need one in a car that came 12v anyways?

[SwitchBlade327]

i was guessing the heater was 6 volts since 12 seemed to be too much for it, the littl ecoils that control the fan speed were gettin' mighty red and hot.

[Farmer]

switchblade....don't throw that cluster out yet! I have the same problem...here's what I did.....when you get a new cable, snip the end of the cable off, the squared end and j.b. weld that sucker into the cluster back.(snip the cable off with about an inch sticking out the back after it's in place in the back of the cluster) you'll have to remove the gauge to do this right so you don't get j.b. weld all over shit and freeze the whole thing up. then...once that piece is cured, then take the remainder of the cable and cut to length...(hopefully you saved your old cable so you know how long it needs to be, bearing in mind the piece in the cluster too.) then go to home depot and buy some real small
steel pipe. like a dinky little water line...just so the cable ends can slip in there. cut the pipe so it's only about 3/4" long. then drill a hole at each end, put the cable pieces in each end, and either crip that sucker down
with some gnarly pliers or screw some little sheet metal screws into them holes, right into the cable. that will hold the cable in place fine and it'll work. The only other modification you have to make is your speedo cable sleeve, has to be trimmed also a few inches. otherwise, your new
jointed cable won't work. you'll have to rig the sleeve up
somehow behind the cluster so it don't just hang there as you won't be able to screw it onto the back of the cluster
like before. confused now? hope this works. OR...you could
just find another cluster? Or.....just j.b. weld a new cable into the housing and bypass the crazy rig-job above...
haha
good luck
the whining sound is horrid. I know what you mean...it almost made my ears bleed it's so damn loud. I just ran with no speedo or odo. for a couple hundred miles I got so sick of it.
John

[SwitchBlade327]

I actually thought about just sloppin' the end of the cable with some jb weld and sticking back on, just didn't know what I'd have to do if I even needed to get the cable back off again....Not sure if i follow those directions completely or not. I thought about just wrappin' some duct tape around the shit and crammin' it in the hole and see what happens. I drove all day not knowing my speed, and I passed a caravan of state troopers and they all just waved, so i guess I was doin' alright. and I figured out what was wrong with my heater fan, the little coil things for the speed control fucked up and one of them burned up, that's why they were putting off a red glow behind the dash, I"m just glad it still throws off enough heat to get by with even with the fan off.

[BARNETT]

Which side do you need the bezel for...driver's or passenger's? Not sure if I can get it, but they're checking for me...I'm gonna call back in the next 20 minutes.

[SwitchBlade327]

it's on the drivers side, but I"m pretty sure they can fit either side, so if they only have the one on the passenger side it should still work, I know takign them off and on i never made sure to put the same one on the same side it came off of.