Hello all. Just joined up and but have owned my '68 442 for two years now. It's matador red 3 speed auto, with a 455 block and non matching 3.73 rear. It was restored sometime before I bought it. But it still has a few quirks which I'm working on. Two of them are the speedometer and tach. Tach doesn't work at all and the speedo only works up to 50 mph and then stops no matter how fast i go. I'm wondering if all it needs is a new speedo cable and gear tooth change inside the tranny to match the rearend gear, or if maybe the speedometer itself is stuck. Anybody have any suggestions on this one?

 

Welcome aboard

Nice to have you join us.

Some 68 gurus should be along shortly

 

Dang I thought this was about swim trunks.

 

Sounds like something is wrong in the speedo itself. Cable broken will show no reading and wrong gear will read incorrectly

 

This is for you 72cutlass 455

 

Now that is a well filled speedo...as for the speedometer, the head is defective- it's magnetic drive and it is failing above 50- weak magnet maybe??

 

Is that something that can be fixed? I would like to keep the original gauges even if I have to spend a couple of hundred to do it. Or possibly buy/install the new repop gauges but hold on to the originals for later.

 

Pull the unit out of the car and open it up -VERY CAREFULLY. Try moving the needle around the dial with your finger. If it stops at 50mph, try to see what is jambing it. They are fairly simple devices and can usually be fixed unless something like a gear is stripped. That doesn't sound like your problem.

 

The speedo should go to an instument repair shop that does speedos...the tach, which I forgot to mention before, has an inline fuse between the unit and the harness, two amp I think, (brown wire) and if that is OK then maybe use a known good tach and see if it works on that wire... if not then its off to the repair shop also...