DarrylCutter wrote:
I'm not sure if this will help or not. I bought a 100 mph JM Stewart speedometer for my 1927 Indian from Janu the "Speedo Rat". The ring gear for the Indian is on the left side of the rear wheel. The speedometer worked fine but the odometer went backwards, subtracting milage. Janu said it must have originally been on a Harley with the ring gear on the right side of the rear wheel. He fixed it internally in the head of the speedometer. Maybe there is a way to do that with the North East Electric. Just a suggestion.
Darryl.
Thanks for your response Darryl. While working on my 1923 dodge roaster, I learned a lesson regarding another idiosyncrasy that Dodge brothers included in their cars. Roger dodger Hartley gave me some good tips in regards to why the floorboards I had cut from the old boards furnished with the car wouldn’t fit. It’s called the 2 inch rule, and Dodge brothers applied it fairly across the board with all their cars. Since that is not the topic of this post, I’ll let you investigate that on your own. Apparently, there was a change over from the needle type to the drum type speedometer sometime in the 1923 model year. It appears, that the needle type speedometer has a drive gear on the main shaft of the transmission which has a right twist to it. My car has a drum type speedometer, and the transmission drive gear has a left twist. As it has been noted by other comments on this thread the direction of rotation of the drive cable isn’t the only concern considering that the spacing of the teeth on the gears are different too. I have two other parts transmissions for the car, and until close inspection, I thought they were the same. The shape of the foot pedals and spacing on the floorboard of the shift lever/emergency brake handle matches the photo of the 1923 DB Roadster as shown in the operator’s manual. And, the pedals and shift lever on the rebuilt transmission provided with the car matches the photo. But, the speedometer gear on this transmission will not work with the speedometer in my 1923 DB Roadster. The rebuilt transmission also had a lock cylinder behind the shift lever, and Roger says that is not correct for that year (1923) transmission. Each of the other two parts transmissions have the shift lever/emergency brake handle situated about 7” closer to the firewall, and, instead of the tiny, round pedals, have wide, narrow pedals. One also has a different, more extreme bend in the shift lever which places it nearer the drivers hand. This makes shifting easier and the shorter emergency brake handle allows it to fit under the dash, when released, and provides more floor space to enter and leave the car. I was fearful of trying to change the speedometer drive gear from the shaft of the parts transmission to the transmission I had presently installed in the car. And it was a certainty that I wasn’t about to buy a needle type speedometer to replace the drum type presently in the car. So, even though Roger said the parts transmission, which also has a lock, and different pedals, and shift lever forward of the one in the car, was not a 1923 transmission, I rebuilt it, and that’s what is in the car now. Placement of the shift lever does open up the floor in front of the seat, the more extreme bend of the shift lever does make shifting easier, and having the emergency brake someplace other than resting against the passenger seat is great. However, having the levers on the transmission top moved 7” forward means that the starter button can only be reached when the transmission is in neutral, and the elongated pedals could interfere with the gas pedal unless attention is paid when stopping. When the weather warms I may remove the clutch and transmission again and see if the speedometer drive gear, or even the whole main shaft can be exchanged between the two transmissions.