RE: Spider speedometer sender

[C2slayman@domain.elided]

Dave,
       It's probably not the sending unit (which is up by the clutch master 
cylinder), but a broken cable inside the sheath.  For a quick check, unscrew 
the cable assembly from the sending unit.  Grab the inner cable with your 
fingers and try to turn it.  If you can, then the cable assembly has broken.
       Nothing gets past the plastic gear assembly at the transmission side, 
so there's no danger of getting pieces into the gearbox.  The entire cable 
and sheath is sold as one unit.  If you drive the left front and rear wheels 
up on a curb, you should have enough ground clearance to crawl under and 
unscrew the other end of the cable assembly.  If not, your local shop should 
be able to replace it quickly.

Cheers,
Charlie 


Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 15:08:12 GMT
From: dwmartin@domain.elided
Subject: Spider speedometer sender

Fellow Alfisti -
Other day, the speedometer of my 1987 Alfa Spider never got off zero, and I 
started hearing strange noises (they were road-speed related and sorta 
metal-on-metal'ish) from the vicinity of gearbox.  Hmm, sez I, probably the 
speedometer sending unit ate itself for lunch and needs to be replaced.

Anybody got any other ideas for the problem?  Any trouble-isolation 
techniques?
Got any hints or tricks for replacing the sender or gotchas to watch out for?
When I unbolt it and pull it out, am I likely to have extracted all the 
broken 
parts, or might there be something inside the rear of the gearbox that can be 

reached only by at least partial disassembly of the gearbox (is that even 
possible while on the car)?
Could I fashion a temporary cover plate from scrap metal and have any 
problems 
driving the car (other than no speedo, of course), while waiting for 
replacement parts?
Seems fairly straight-forward, except that with the fact that I don't have 
jacks to get the car quite far enough off ground to comfortaby get to it and 
the cross-brace that supports the rear of gearbox being somewhat in the way, 
I'm thinking that it might be better to drive it to a shop than do it myself.
What do you suggest?

Dave Martin
Endwell, NY
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