66 new yorker, gear ratios

Old 66 Yorker

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So it's 6am and I wake up thinking about what else...my car.

Just had a thought someone else has probably had. My speedometer is in mph, I'm in Canada so kph is the standard. I've got that extra rear end from the 68..is there a gear set that I can swap in that will in a nutshell make my speedo read in kph or am I needing more coffee?
 
I have an original Kilo speedo in my 66 T&C. Bought it out of Finland. Same with my Canadian 66 Monaco (Fury dash as per Canadian specs).

Those cars were sold new in Europe with Kilo speedos, so if you search over there, you can find one.
 
KPH clusters are like hens teeth.
It would be nice to have one but in the meantime I use a GPS and set it ti KPH.
 
IF you could find a speedometer gear set for the transmission to increase the indicated speed to be close to kph, that might be a deal. Except it would peg the meter waay too quickly! BUT this way, the speedo and odometer would be correct for kilos rather than miles. Just a theory.

OR, rather than the internal trans speedo gear pair, you might get an external "ratio adapter" to do that magic instead. Screw it onto the plug where the speedo cable attaches to the trans, then attach the speedo cable to it. It would still peg the meter sooner, but this would be less invasive than the internal speedo gear pair change (i.e., easier to do, but more expensive).

Enjoy!
CBODY67
 
Ok, my next days off I'll be contacting those folks and see what can be done...if they are bonafide for this then they should be stickied somewhere ))
 
I know for a fact Mr.Heaterbox does rebuild and calibrate clusters to KM/H.
Whether he can do a 66 Chrysler you have to contact them.
The family is good to deal with and their work is too shelf.
Plus they are Canadian.
Tell em Leaburn sent ya!!
Welcome - Premium Dash Decals by Mr.Heaterbox
I had two 1966 Chrysler clusters rebuilt by Mr.Heaterbox. I've only installed one in a car so far, but they seem to have done a good job.

However, they took a very long time, so either send them a spare one to overhaul or remove it when you're parking the car for the winter and ship it to them ASAP so you'll hopefully have it back for spring. If they're like other services for car restoration, they're probably swamped with work because people have been at home working on their cars more because of Covid.

More importantly, the odometer mechanism is apparently unique vs other Mopars, and they don't have replacement parts to overhaul that. I had to send them all of my spare clusters (I have 4 or 5 extras) which they tore apart and took the best parts. So unless you have some spares to send along, or they've stocked-up on parts for 66 Chryslers since my dealings with them, you may have a problem getting your cluster rebuilt. Ask about that when you talk to them.

As for the MPH->KPH thing, you guys can't convert in your head on the fly? 30->50, 40->65, 50->80, 60->100 70->110, 80->120. Those are slight approximations, but close enough as long as the speedo itself is accurate.

Just FYI, most speedometers are designed so that typical highway speed occurs when the needle is pointing straight up. That way you only need to glance down at the speedo to know if you're speeding. You don't need to know the exact number and you take your eyes off the road for a shorter time. In a '66 Chrysler speedo the middle number is 60 MPH, which I would contend is just right.

Remember that brief period 1979-82 when speedometers were restricted to 85 MPH? The speed when the needle was straight-up was about 45 MPH. When people looked down at their gauges and saw the needle way over to the right, they were supposed to think they were speeding and slow down. The effect probably only worked briefly until the owner got used to it, but that's basically what you're talking about doing with your cluster. In Ontario, most people drive 110-120kph on the major highways, so your needle would be pegged a lot of the time here.

If you want to try your idea, I like the suggestion to change the speedometer gear and/or get an adapter to speed up the speedometer drive. That would be the fastest to implement and lowest cost, and would be easily reversible if you change your mind. You're talking about increasing it by about 60%, so you may need both a different gear and an adapter to get there.
 
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Adding to Mike's post above, having that company convert the speedo to work accurately as a Kilo speedo by installing gears to make it respond in that scale without changing the actual graphics will be something that likely would need custom gears, so read that as expensive. As well, that would have you nearly pegging it when at highway speed, and if you pass someone, you definitely will. I don't know how good that is for it.

That company makes graphics overlays for renewing speedos for DIYrs. This is a much more realistic approach and give you a speedometer that looks the part, has the proper range of 0 - 220 or 240 KM, and allows the needle to operate in a Range that people would expect to see, IE 100 km an hour (highway speed) has the needle pointing straight up. However, the last time I spoke to those guys, they didn't have the graphics in KM to overlay for either a 65/66 Fury or a Chrysler to overlay, as they need an example to work with.

That would be my examples, as I have the only examples over this side of the oond tgat I know of ( and I kind of want to keep it that way), so I am unlikely to rip apart my dashboard to provide those two pieces for them to make them from! As well I believe that there still some internal gearing differences for which again they would need to custom-make those gears to permit the speedo to scale accurately. So you can see that this is not as easy an adventure as one might think!

Start looking for an original in Sweden Switzerland Finland Iceland and places like that. They're out there, and the Mopar community in those countries is strong and can help you find it. Good luck!
 
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