Odometer counts too fast

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Maintenance Restoration and Repair
1

My 1967 Cougar base model odometer over clocks miles by a factor of almost 3 to 1. I have to keep track of my miles in a log book for registration purposes and noticed that I seem to have been putting way more miles than would be expected.

When I first bought my cougar, I believe the speedometer was off by 10-15 mph over actual speed at 60. I replaced the cable drive gear with a 16 tooth and it brought the gap down to about 5 mph under the actual speed. The cable is a little suspect, but quiet, and the speedometer seems to work well enough.

I used a GPS speedometer and odometer app to compare speed and distance traveled and confirmed the mechanical odometer is counting up way too fast.

I am wondering if, perhaps, the magnet in the speedometer is weak, causing the gauge to read low and when I replaced the gear to speed it up, it now clocks miles too fast.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Would it be worth trying another used one, or could this be a common issue with these older units?

Thanks for any help in advance,
Andrew

2

That’s pretty strange. These old odometers are simply mechanical devices driven by the speedometer head. Reading high on the odometer is unusual; perhaps someone monkeyed with the odometer gears? You might want to consider buying a used speedometer/odometer gauge from West Coast Cougar Classics.

3

That’s probably what Ill have to do.

Now that I think about it, I do have a couple speedometers out of XR7s. I wonder if the guts are the same as the base models?