Miscellaneous Technical Modifications - Contents

Replace the mechanical speedometer for a GPS speedo

I continuously had to convert between miles and kilometers (because I live in a metric country). And after a while I had enough of it, so I decided to buy a metric speedo. But there is no metric speedo in the Autometer Z-series line of gauges (which I have installed). So while searching for a matching speedo, I came across GPS speedo's. While looking for a GPS speedo I came across an article about Speedhut gauges. These gauges look very nice and you can modify the gauge attributes to your own taste. In my case I modified the speedo in such a way that it almost looked like a Autometer Z gauge.

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My modified speedo

The only modifications needed to resemble the Autometer Z series were the font style to Muscle and the bezel to Stealth black (semi gloss black).

Gauge by Day


Gauge by Night

Wiring

Top view of the backside with all the wiring. A few wires. For power and lighting. And the connector for the GPS module


Zoomed in. One unused wire, which is for continuous power to the GPS module. So it remembers the last GPS coordinate and it is operational in about 2 seconds. No need in my case, the GPS module acquires GPS coordinates in about 20 seconds. Fast enough for me.

Reinstalled dash

Everything installed again. All gauges from left to right: fuel, voltage, water temp, speedo, oil perssure, oil temp & air/fuel ratio. And in the lower right corner, under the dash, a Tach.

Removing the speedo cable

Because the speedo is now getting it's information from GPS, the old mechanical cable can be removed. This is where the cable is attached to the transmission.


The cable is removed.


I did not want the connection to be open, so I reconnected an old cable connector. And closed the end with some pliers. No foreign objects going in, or oil comes out this way