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Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 4:56 pm
by George inMinneapolis
Time for my instrument cluster to be gone through on my '78 R80/7.
It's starting to make noise, and the needles bounce around a bit, pluse the odometer numbers are getting hard to read.

I've contacted Palo Alto Speedometer, Inc.,North Hollywood Speedometer.

I had to replace the glass on the cluster by gluing in some glass circles.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
George

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:17 pm
by Kurt in S.A.
I've heard more negatives about Palo Alto than N.H. There's Overseas Speedometer in Austin...good comments. For a real independent, there's Terry Vrla (not sure if he might have passed away...I hope I got that wrong). Also recently heard of Joel Levine - http://www.joellevinecompany.com/.

Kurt in S.A.

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:23 pm
by Bamboo812
Terry is most definitely not dead, and a far better deal than those other guys. Give him a call, Terry 503-421-5782 or
wirespokes@hotmail.com tell him Timo in Hawaii sent ya.

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:55 pm
by Kurt in S.A.
I had heard the email address was terryvrla at hotmail dot com. Does the wirespokes address work, too?

Kurt in S.A.

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:15 am
by pkboxer
Terry Vrla (not sure if he might have passed away...I hope I got that wrong).
Kurt - you may be thinking of "wireworker" (name on advrider) who made wiring harnesses and has passed away recently....

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:53 am
by Kurt in S.A.
pkboxer wrote:
Terry Vrla (not sure if he might have passed away...I hope I got that wrong).
Kurt - you may be thinking of "wireworker" (name on advrider) who made wiring harnesses and has passed away recently....
Right...I guess I get "wireworker" and "wirespokes" confused. Thanks...

Kurt in S.A.

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:52 am
by She'llbe
I just ordered a double disc master cylinder from Terry, I hope he's still kickin'

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 7:46 am
by airway
I'm probably late to the party, but you might try ForeignSpeedoInc.com 619-298-5278 (San Diego) They advertise in "Airmail" .

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 9:32 am
by Ken in Oklahoma
airway wrote:I'm probably late to the party, but you might try ForeignSpeedoInc.com 619-298-5278 (San Diego) They advertise in "Airmail" .
I looked at the website. It makes "sparse" look overdone. But in a way I appreciate it. The message is (probably) Hey, give us a call. Let's talk about what you need.


Probably in about a year or so I'm going to start "resuscitation" (as opposed to restoration) of my old '57 Triumph Thunderbird. It has a Smith's Chronometric speedometer (with concentric tachometer scales for each of the four gears). After all these years that speedo is very unlikely to work. Though never left outside that motorcycle has seen some otherwise undesirable environments.

Incidentally, "resuscitation" means putting the bike back into the configuration It was when I rode it. Among other things that means rolled and pleated black naugahyde for the seat, which was all the rage back in the day. Also I'm going to try hard to find something akin to the old Bates megaphones with the removable tips.

Nostalgic moment: I'm looking forward to seeing that needle move in little jumps, which is what chronometric instruments do. Remember the old movie, "Grand Prix", starring James Garner? I remember the shot, from the drivers perspective, of the instruments and watching the chronometric tach move in jumps. Just like my bike I thought at the time.

Ken

Re: Insturment cluster repair

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 12:54 pm
by jagarra
Ken,

I believe I have a set of those, brand new, still in box, they are the upswept model, where they were set low along the bottom of the frame and swept up right before the rear pegs. They have been sitting in the trunk (boot) of my old 65 MKII Jaguar for the last 35 years.

gg