One speedo registering too fast

[thesweetlife]

Last weekend one of my speedometers started showing speeds that were almost double the speed of the other one. I cleaned the pitots on both of them, but didn't help the problem. Is there an adjustment to make to the malfunctioning one, or do I have bigger problems? I'm not real mech-savy, but if it's something fairly simple I'd like to try to fix it myself.

[LS-One]

This is gross but I used to pull the hose off and blow like heck backwards through the pickup. Most of the time its nothing serious those things are pretty reliable.

When they are clean, if you don't have one, borrow a handheld GPS and set the speed adjustments on the front of the speedo by your GPS speed.

Edited July 10, 2007 by LS-One

[thesweetlife]

This is gross but I used to pull the hose off and blow like heck backwards through the pickup. Most of the time its nothing serious those things are pretty reliable.

When they are clean, if you don't have one, borrow a handheld GPS and set the speed adjustments on the front of the speedo by your GPS speed.

I already did the blow thing (used an air compressor).... The malfunction speed was happening before the blow and doing the same thing after the blow, so don't think there is anything stuck in the hose.

Can you explain in a little more detail about setting the speed adjustments? Why do I need a GPS? Can't I just use the accuracy of the speedo that is working?

[Sethro]

There are little rocker switches near each speedo. It adjusts the speedo display, though I've never seen one go way out of wack without something clogging the tube. Maybe a young child messed with the rocker switch, or an adult that didn't know what it did? Once up to speed, pick the one you think is right and adjust the other to match (push switch up for faster reading, down for slower reading...you'll see the needle moving) for now to see if that's the problem. You'll likely want to calibrate eventually to have an accurate reading.

Seth

[John I.]

There are little rocker switches near each speedo. It adjusts the speedo display, though I've never seen one go way out of wack without something clogging the tube. Maybe a young child messed with the rocker switch, or an adult that didn't know what it did? Once up to speed, pick the one you think is right and adjust the other to match (push switch up for faster reading, down for slower reading...you'll see the needle moving) for now to see if that's the problem. You'll likely want to calibrate eventually to have an accurate reading.

Seth

And that's where the GPS unit will be helpful.