Teen's- 20's Stewart Speedometer , drive chain or cable?

[Dandy Dave]

I've installed the correct Stewart speedometer in my 1915 Buick, and also the drive unit for the front wheel. I purchased a new casing and ends from Restoration Supply which fits correctly. I have a pair of drive ends and drive chain out of an old cable that is too short. The easy way would be to add to the chain but some of my fellow collectors say I should put in a modern drive cable in place of the chain? The problem is to get everything hooked up as the cable ends are different and will take some enginuity to make them work. What have some of you done to get around this problem and which way should I go? The cable is about 6 and 1/2 foot long. Dave!

[oldford]

Dave, check with the Model T suppliers like Langs or Macs. They have modern cables with the correct ends for the original style speedos. They may have the correct length.

Frank

[nickelroadster]

Dave,

During the teens and twenties Stewart offered both chain and flexible shaft type drive cables. The drive ends for the two are rather different in the way they attach to the drive cable. I would not try to modify ones from the chain shaft to work on a cable shaft. The right ones should be plentiful as they used them for a long time. The flexible shaft should have ends crimped on the ends that have a little raised key sticking out about 1/16". The drive ends have slot about an inch long that this key slides into (almost as long as the drive end itself). This allows some movement of the cable to occur without losing the connection from the speedometer to the swivel. I have even reused the little crimped on key ends by drilling out the cable very carefully and recrimping to a properly sized cable. If you have any trouble visualising this let me know and I'll send a page out of a Stewart Warner catalog.

[Mark Shaw]

The old chain drives tend to be noisy and unreliable. Most of my touring buddies have converted the chain to a modern cable and modified the ends to work (that is, when they actually use their original speedometers). Several have been using GPS units to gauge actual speed & distance and some have been using digital bicycle speedometers that read tire revolutions via a magnet on the wheel.

My 13 Buick speedo is noisy at the front wheel & I have no speedo cable at all. So, I just don't have the drive gear riding on the wheel gear.

I plan to get a digital bicycle speedo and run the wire up the speedo tube and hide the digital unit where I can see it while driving. I might even put it into the speedo head so I can see it through the odometer hole in the face.

[Dandy Dave]

Thanks fellows for the advice. I called Langs T Ford parts and the modern cable and stewart ends to fit are on their way. The cables are availible up to 7 foot. Dandy Dave!