right angle speedo gizmo

snowshoe90aolcom

As I slowly continue to hook up all the hanging cables and linkages on my '50 C6 I found a right angle housing for the speedo cable on the tranny. On the end of the cable from the dash is the exact round housing that fits perfectly (with the gear attached) into the tranny where the right angle gizmo used to be. I'm not sure if it belongs on the tranny or not (the angled piece) or if just the cable with the regular end is OK. What situation would the angled drive be used as it seems to be not needed on this car. BTW, it's a 3 speed OD transmission- single lever and everything was replaced at some point (engine and tranny) from a different car....but not by me. Just curious   Terry

Park_W

Terry, that OD tranny likely came out of a '51 car.  Numbers on the tranny case may confirm that.  The gizmo/gadget is a 2:1 reduction gear arrangement that was used on the '51s.  They changed the speedometer gearing for '51, but weren't able to change the speedo drive gear in all the OD trannys in stock, so they put this little reduction gadget on them.  I've got one on my '51.  If you've got a '50 model Hudson, don't use the reduction gadget.  Sell it to someone who needs one.

The speedo gearing change was to match up with what all the other makes were doing.  Up through '50, Hudson calibrated their speedo's at 2,000 cable rpm at 60 mph; everyone else was using 1,000 rpm cable speed at 60 mph.  So for '51, Hudson got with the crowd.  Because of the way Hudson calibrated prior to '51, if you ever send a '50 or earlier speedo to a shop for repair, be sure to tell them to calibrate at 2.000 rpm for 60 mph.  Some of the younger guys won't believe it until they check with an old-timer.

snowshoe90aolcom

Thanks Park    I cleaned it up and it works   says Stewart Warner in small script on the side. I'll have to check the tranny numbers tomorrow out of curiosity. That's what I like most about these Hudson forums, you don't just get an answer, you get a darn good answer.  

Geoff

My '53 Hornet has one of those right angle gizmos attached to the transmission output for the speedo.   It was built in South Africa, and has a single lever transmission, but  has the  Dana  rear end, so goodness know what configuration  the  gears are.  It has the 4.55 rear end, and reads 10% fast.  I plans on fitting a 4.1 set of gears one day, and that should improve things all round.    

snowshoe90aolcom

I have this for sale on the club site.........I'm not sure what to ask soooooooo.....$50 ????    Terry