Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Morgan Plus +8 speedo connection to gearb

Chaps. I am going to install a speedometer connection between the Cosworth gear box to a speedometer.
Any suggestions how to do this,where is the gerbox connection
Where to buy a suitable cable?

Any wisdom would be appreciated

Thanks

Francis

Francis

I am afraid we need a bit more information before we can really help you.

What year +8 do you have? I am unaware of a "Cosworth" gearbox fitted to any of the Rover engined cars.

Those fitted were :
Early cars : Moss 4 speed
Intermediate : Rover 4 speed
Post 77 : Rover LT77 then finally Rover R380

I am no expert on the Aero 8 based Plus 8 but I thought that had a Getrag/BMW manual box.

Andy, this is the ex class A car being rebuilt into a road car

Francis
Nothing is standard on this car, you will need to have a custom cable made

I've had a custom tacho cable made by Speedograph Richfield. If they can work with a vintage Smith's tacho driven via 1:3 gearbox from 1936 vintage diesel, I'm sure they can come up with something for your car.

Thanks thats most useful.

Yes Simon is quite right
I believe the set up is as follows.

Rover 3.9
Gearbox is a Ford Cosworth 2wd T5 CR gear set with AP clutch bearing and cover.

I guess the output for the Speedo is under the back rhs of the box where there is a removable cover.

I am also wanting to find out how to get a proper Rev counter with 100mm width and where best to get a suitable output.The coil i guess.

Thanks Simon and Francis

There have been a couple of instances recently of race +8s being reconverted into road cars. On the face of it an appealing idea , but i suspect there is an awful lot of work to back-engineer before they become suitable for the road.

I am kind of surprised that the engine is a 3.9, as a Class A (not sure what class it is now with the new system) +8 is more likely to be a fire-breathing 4.6 V8 than a 3.9

You are quite correct

Its a brand new Rover 3.9 with Hurricane cam and Edelbrock 4 way downdraught carbs.


Any advice on Rev counters and Speedos apprciated

It was a fire breathing 4.6,along with a Getrag 265
All that’s left of the race bits now is the brakes and wheels really...

Francis, I mentioned at the time what your best options were regarding the speedo but we talked about a lot of things, so maybe that bit just got lost in a heap of other info. Anyway, you have 2 options with the current situation.

First option is to acquire a Cosworth T5 speedo drive and also the cable. The speedo drive fits into the tail of the gearbox on the RHS and currently it's blanked off by a nice circular alloy blanking plate. The downside is that the speedo drives are not available new and second hand ones are rare and very expensive (circa £120) and you'll need to get the speedo recalibrated for the final drive ratio. Not a big problem but a bit of a faff.

Your second option, and the one I recommended was to simply buy a Smiths Classic digital speedo. These really do look very much like the original speedo you have but run off an electronic "pick up" usually on the front rotor. Really easy to do, endlessly configurable and not expensive. This is what most Morgan T5 gearbox users have.

You're nearly there!

That sounds a great idea and much better than the faf with the gearbox.