Pre war panel tank speedo drive

There was never any facility for a speedo drive on the 'doll's head' gearbox. You'll need the coventional front brake plate drive unit (if no speedo was fitted, the opening was blanked over).

Original cable routing is difficult to be precise on as Norton's commercial artist painted all the cables out in the catalogue illustrations.

I see a couple of odd fixing screws. I bought new ones from Russell's about two years ago.

Incidentally.. Judging by the underside of mine I think the panel was dull chrome plated. Just like lots of Norton bolts. But I have not seen any evidence about whether they had black and red lines like those on the tanks without the panel. Some highly restored bikes on the web have lines, and some do not. Also some have (interesting?) non standard colours.

I wonder if someone has an unrestored one in good enough condition to show?

I don't have a photo but I recently restored mine for a 38 CS1. The original panel was in dull satin chrome and had no red line. I have just had mine re-plated as it was.

Paul Gibbons (Surrey Branch)

Ian, the photo that you've found looks a little odd as the original speedo would have had the Jaeger type cable fixing with the 'thick' cable which favoured more sweeping curves (the outer was actually a 'spring' inside a rubber tube). I found one on John de Kruif's site that has a more 'natural' looking route, to my eyes.

Thanks Paul.

This is my 16H - with a lower route. But might touch the exhaust on an OHV engine? I wonder if my cable is a little shorter?