1955 Standard Eight - 660cc Turbo

[LowStandards]

More on the led tacho

Take your 57 year old brass speedo face and notice it goes upto 85mph. Handily the new engine redlines at 8500rpm.

Can you see where this is going?

Drill some 4.5mm holes



Take these really fiddly led holders and cut off the little clip thingies as the brass is to thick for them



Glue them into the holes



Fit the 3mm leds and marvel at the amount of soldering you have to do



Start building the circuitry, this is just the chip and relevant components to convert the coil frequency to a voltage. There is a voltage regulator and 2 sets of led bar drivers to fit as tightly as possible together to have any hope of fitting behind the dial face.



Inbetween the mental meh of soldering tiny parts together hold the face upto the light, just to see how cool it will look.



Trial fit face back into holder, there is no room at all as I fitted the boost gauge in the middle so all the electrtics will have to go in a box behind. Not to worry, I love the boost gauge being there. Walk away for the night leaving this mess



Cant wait to het this done and fitted

[Siert]

That'll look really nice!

[chamba]

This project just keeps getting better! Wishing I knew a thing or two about LED bar drivers now...

[The Doctor]

nice work with the tacho! But isn't 8500 a bit on the low side? I remember my Cappuccino going up higher then that, close to 10k.

[LowStandards]

The original tacho goes upto 12k, but the redline starts at 8.5k

You can see I've added a 9k LED, I figure I shouldn't really be going over that so it should be all good.

Though if anyones got a Cappo and they can easily push 10k do tell me before I seal the unit up and i'll throw a few more LEDs at it, the chip will drive enough LEDs for 10k, I just thought I was being all cocky having it match the speedo face

[The Doctor]

well, mine is in pieces and spread across europe, so i can't test it anymore, but i didn't spot the 9k led, that would be good i'd say indeed.
And matching the speedo is a good thing as well. The short drive i had in my cappuccino was very good, and this will be even better with a better looking shell, not that Cappuccino's are ugly, but older cars appeal more to me

[Colonelk]

I love this, and I love the speed/boost/rev cluster keep up the good work sir

[LowStandards]

Uninteresting update is uninteresting.

But hey, its documenting the build so tough, have 2 pics of the back of the Tacheedo

All wires soldered and neatened up



Boards done bar the led wiring which needs to be done after the face is glued back in. This will be held onto the dial with some upstands i'm yet to make, i've also got to trim the rear board into a circular shape



Lots and lots of work going into 18 little LEDs, but it'll be worth it i'm sure

[Zagato]

Hi 2002gimp,
Great work you are doing. Like it a lot.
I have a Cappuccino that I bought new in 1995, it is still going strong.
It's probably the most reliable car I have ever had. You won't be needing the rev counter over 9000!
Up there you will think the engine is trying to jump out through the bonnet!
I have the Suzuki Sport ecu fitted which gives an honest 80 bhp with nothing else changed except spark plugs.
With the ecu car feels like it has a 1400cc and pulls like a train. No cold morning stubbornness as before.
I take it to 8000 every now and again but above that is just for bragging rights not for practical acceleration.
Oh and the best thing about the ecu is that the car is more economical after it is fitted! It's paid for itself in 5 years. Also the 140kmh limiter is removed.
The car will do 190kmh, the speedo needle goes right round back to 0!
Very inspired engine choice.
Nick

[anden]

118mph in a standard...... now that id have to see!

best ive managed is about 85 in mine. My balls werent big enough to cope with the steering box play going any faster! Rack conversion in progress now though!

Rev counter looks ace, what are you going to do about a speedo then? ive been running with only a satnav indication for over a year now,

[LowStandards]

I've got a gps speedo Anden, its pretty compact and displays the speedo on an LED panel. I'm going to pull the panel off, rewire it and have the display in old gauge somewhere so at least when its off it doesn't look amiss

Its a Talex Lite, seem to be £20-£30 on eBay when they come up.

My box is pretty tight!!! 70 seemed alright, not sure about going faster, but its nice to know you can. My limiters removed already so she'll keep going

[LowStandards]

Next step, its getting fancy now this here Tacheedo.

I pulled the fuel gauge out, it flicked around randomly anyways. In its place I glued some dark smoked plastic



Bit random you may think, what could possibly fit in this tiny orifice obscured by dark plastic you ask?

Well, pull apart a gps speedo and do some of this





Yup, fits a charm!

I'm awaiting on a hot glue gun and a few more led holders before I can wrap this part of the project up.

For the inquisitive who ask 'what can you fit inside a 6 inch speeco cowl?' we have:

Tachometer - utilising leds and the old speedo digits
Boost gauge - eBay buy, old and tatty
Speedo - Talex gps cut about and display hidden
Oil light
Ign light
CEL light
Indicator tell tales

All in there and when powered down appears pretty standard (if you ignore the boost gauge, which I imagine most would)

[Deleted]

Genius!

[Siert]

Yep genius it is.

However, I remember from a discussion about KFW's truck's speedo problems that for MOT the speedo has to be driven mechanically? Although I guess it's not likely that your MOT man would guess its operated by GPS...

[anden]

its mot exempt anyway, no fuel gauge? the original one in mine is actually quite accurate!

[LowStandards]

Yup, no mot!

There will be a gauge, i'm on the hunt for a combined fuel/coolant gauge, but all the old clusters seem to be 4 inch dials and I need no more than 60mm if anyone knows of a car that had one...

[bmwv8capri]

Some triumph Herald 13/60 had a dual fuel/temp on (i think) 52mm gauge. Or Porsche 924/944 for a more modern look.
Nice mix of old & new technology

[vitesseefi]

MGB is the most common home of combined oil pressure/water temp. Can still be bought new but rather dear.

Nick

[Rich]

Nov 26, 2013 19:33:35 GMT vitesseefi said:

MGB is the most common home of combined oil pressure/water temp. Can still be bought new but rather dear.

Nick

Wants fuel/coolant not oil pressure/coolant

[LowStandards]

GPS speedo display is in place

as far as I can tell it displays the time until you start moving, that or it currently thinks I'm doing 151mph sat on my drive




Next this happened, got her down low, front still needs to settle a bit, but I'm well happy with that








Wheels all need painting and that's pretty much the look, bar some lower profile tyres when funds allow