I posted about this on fastlane a fair while ago and I am to lazy to totally re write it so here is what I posted.
On the speedo side of things, from what I have seen if they are VDO speedo,s they will have a stamped in month and year date code and if you are really lucky there could be a printed on day, month and year date code.
This can be seen in these pictures.
http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/a...ent=Speedo.jpg
http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/a...ent=Speedo.jpg
As you can see these are 72 and a 74 ones, So it should still be right for mid 73 as well.
Also from what I have seen the Flexidrive speedos only have a sticker on them,no stamped date code.
So less chance of getting a date from them but they could still be there.
Also the VDO date code can be seen while the speedo is still fitted to the car.
Anyway I am curious to know something about these speedos from after the bulletin date.
This is the bulletin
http://gallery.oldholden.com/Markssh...m/aaa.jpg.html
Has anyone looked at the date code on these ones and compared them to the build date of the car at all.
The way I see it, if you have a 140MPH speedo with a production date after July 1973.
It would indicate that they were still fitted after that date.
Late edit
I have checked a few things and I see that it was not a forced change
as such that made Holden change the speedos at this time.
What they were actually doing was part of a gradual change of the whole country to the metric system.
Even the road signs look to not have been changed until July 1974.
The point of all this is that Holden did not have to have them changed over on that date they just did it.
Which means if MPH speedos were fitted they were not breaking the law at all, so not a legal problem.
In my Sep 71,March 72 and Dec 72 HQ owners manuals they say
0 to 120 mph for std
0 to 140 mph for GTS and they mention a 0-200kph speedo
So even as far back as 71 it was on the books.
The illustration of the dash,s show MPH ones.
The first mention of the dual speedos is in the June 73 Owners manual.
It says std is 0 to 125 mph and 0 to 200 kmh
GTS is 0 to 140 mph and 0 to 220 kmh
The illustration of the dash,s show the dual gauges as well.
The November 1973 one is the same as the June 73 one.
I do not have a April 1974 HQ book so if anyone has one I would be really interested to see what it says.
If you have a look for these details they are at pages 21-24.
On checking a few of my speedos I found a 5/5/73 MPH one.
From the few I have with car build dates as well the speedos
seem to have around the 2 months turn over time for the units.
So if this is the case with this one it would have been fitted just after the change over date.
Anyway as I said before the answer could be on your speedo.s themselves.
Just check the date code.
I would be curious to see what the earliest kph speedo was that anyone has.
Cheers Paul.
Later edit.
I have just checked my parts books and the may 71 M37072 book lists MPH and kmh speedo's.
as does the M37058 parts book which I would assume by the part number would be a earlier than may 71 parts book.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks