mcnannay

so me and my friend head to seattle for this new years concert called apocalypse, after i had just got done putting in my new lsd with disc brakes in the back...

the speed limit is 65, i have the cruise set at 68....pass a trooper and he flips around and pulls me over. I ask him why he pulled me over, im pretty upset at this point because i hadn't done anything wrong...well it ends up that he clocked me at 77. What the ****!

he wrote me a 122 dollar ticket and was a complete ***** about the whole situation,

i had no idea the rearend i put in was a different ratio...i have an 83 and i put in a limited slip from an 82, well what the hell do i do now...can i just swap out the speedometer cables or what?

mortenf

Doesn`t the speedo cable run from the gearbox?

christaylor

Yup.

I don't know what the inside of it looks like, but you should be able to swap the "gear" inside the box to correct it... hopefully there's an easier way someone here can enlighten us on.

mortenf

Could you not just change to the gearbox that was made for that ratio rear end?

You could bend your speedo needle down a little bit, but that would be a rather special solution!

Kentetsu

Just put smaller tires on the back!

You may be able to swap the gear in the tranny to correct the ratio. Wait for someone who actually knows to respond, shouldn't take long. Good luck.....

Blake

Your car came with a 3.9 R&P and so did the '82. If you had gotten the numerically higher 4.1 gear from the GSL-SE, that would cause the speedo to read high, not low. There is no RX-7 R&P that would be taller than 3.9. If you have a speedo error problem, it's from a tranny swap or wrong sized tire/wheel combo; not the rear end swap. Even more likely, the speedo is accurate an you got "taxed" by a trooper with a ticket quota problem.

1984special

http://www.ticketassassin.com/docs/forms050264.html

sorry to hear about your ticket, HTH!

Kentetsu

Wow, I wish there was a site like that for Michigan!

Brianhsval

I agree with Blake, either he was behind on his quota, or clocked someone else and got you. Normally I ask to see my speed on his radar if I am in doubt. It is odd for a Washington state cop to be an ***. When I was on the road those were some of the most helpful cops in the country.

Moonchopper

I don't know about you guys, but NC doesn't have any kind of ticket quota. People just use that excuse because they don't want to make themselves look like they're in the wrong. [Not that mcnannay was using this excuse.]

As far as I know, it's the same for everywhere else. Cops have no quotas, as everyone seems to believe.

And I hope you were respectable to the officer. Even if he is a dick, he still saves lives, as hard as it is to believe. But, I hope you get your problem solved.

numan2

the speedo gears are located in the tail housing of the transmission the drive gear is mounted on the output shaft and the driven gear is in an adapter that is bolted to the tail housing but this may not be your problem.
what may be wrong is the speedometer head may be going bad if the magnents or springs in the speedo head start having problems and it's common in older cars it will change the calibration. Your best bet is to have the speedo checked by a speedometer shop and if it is found to be incorrect get it in writing and send that into court to fight the ticket.

Moonchopper

Yea, I was thinking that you could go for some kind of improper equipment, which wouldn't be as bad as a speeding ticket.

Feds

What were your revs at that speed?

Blake

Bullshit. Traffic cops do have quotas, even if they are not admitted to. Why do you think they focus on technical violations rather than serious safety hazzards (tailgating, unsafe passing) and impediments to traffic flow (rolling roadblocks in the left lane)? If a Traffic Metermaid (as I call them) does not produce enough speeding tickets, he will get in trouble -- probably lose all that juicy overtime or get reassigned...or even busted for dereliction of duty, or whatever. Even if they didn't use heavy handed methods to enforce speeding ticket production, don't you think that (1) certain types of officers would gravitate toward that kind of work and (2) that those who excel at writing lots of tickets will find themselves assigned to the better shifts and be assigned more lucrative overtime?

"Officer Friendly, why did you only write 2 speeding tickets last night?" "Well sir, I spent most of my time cruising for drunk drivers and tailgaters, instead of hiding behind the overpass to catch people going one mile over the enforced speed limit on a downhill stretch of straight freeway on a clear, dry night."

Don't get me started on the kangaroo courts set up to expedite the prosecution!

Traffic cops DON'T save lives from behind a radar gun. Perhaps they postpone the hero work for their meal break or for responding to accidents after they occur. The people most deserving of tickets are the ones that don't require a measurment device to determine a technical offence to an arbitrary number on a sign! The only reason the speed enforcement scam perpetuates itself is the same reason parasites of all kinds exist in nature. If they busted all the speeders all the time, they would lose their revenue source because no one would ever speed...so they enforce selectively. Also, if they busted "normal" people, that would **** off a large chunk of the voting public that might actually force a change (and a loss of revenue), so they nab only the "worst" offenders (11+ over) and those who drive sports cars (the very cars designed to travel at higher speeds safely; not the 72 Dodge Dart with iffy tires and brakes!). The +10 "rule" is an unwritten agreement between the parasite and host, allowing some speeding. It has nothing to do with speedo error, which can be proved by looking at the speedo of every car on the freeway...everyone pegs +10 on their speedomeer and has no fear of a ticket. So, the speeding tickets are really enforced at +1 over the unwritten speed limit.

I only have 1 speeding ticket in 20 years of driving. That's because I speed "smartly". This means I always have a "rabbit" -- a driver going much faster ahead of me -- or only drive +10 if I am alone or appear to be the fastest car. I don't tailgate. I don't block the passing lane. I don't pass on the right unless forced to do so by some idiot cruising in the passing lane (after giving him ample time to move over and only after carefully evaluating the safety of the situation; not "threading" unsafely through traffic). I also don't speed on normal city streets. The one ticket I did get was complete bullshit...the cop was parked next to a speed limit sign posted higher than the speed limit he claims I violated (I was supposedly in the lower limit area, a hundred yards before, but it was around a corner and behind a Jersey barrier, so unless he had a "special" laser gun, it was impossible to do!). When contesting the events, showing photographs of the scene, the judge asked me "what kind of car do you drive?" (duh, it's on the ticket) and then asked retorically "RX-7...That's a fast car, right?" Great, I have a car capable of speeding, therefore I must have been speeding. The fact of the matter is that I *wasn't* speeding and I was definitely in the higher speed zone; not the lower one as claimed by the lying cop. Didn't matter.

I respect cops. I don't respect traffic metermaids or their kangaroo courts; a parasitic system designed to impliment a tax.

mcnannay

i definitly respect the police...my dad is a cop, and it pisses me off that this guy was a dick because it guys like him that give the good cops (my dad) a bad name. Well heres what im thinking happened...the rear end out of my car was actually a limited slip before, i know this for a fact, i was really confused when i dropped it out because i had just assumed that because i had drum brakes in the rear that i had an open diff. Well if the lsd that used to be in it was from a gsl-se, then when i swapped in the new lsd out of the 82 gsl, bang theres my problem.

does that make sense? And does anybody know specifically how i can get my speedo to read correctly. I know for a fact it is reading wrong, i had my dad clock me already and he clocked me going faster than my speedo said....this sucks.

Blake

The LSD is separate from the Ring and Pinion gears, so an LSD can be used with any ratio R&P. The way you tell the gear ratio is to count the teeth on the R&P. I believe the 3.909 gears have 11 teeth on the Pinion and 43 on the ring. I may be mistaken, but I think the two actual GSL-SE gearsets were 4.083 (12/49) and 4.077 (13/53). A straight-up 4.1 ratio (like on the 2nd gens) could only be done with 10/41, as far as I can tell. You can also just count revolutions of the companion flange to revolutions of the axles, if the gears are installed in the car.

As others have said, you can simply swap tail housing speedo gears to correct the error. Transmission shops can also sell you a device to correct the reading. Or, you could just figure out the error and drive accordingly. That's what I do with my 4.88 gears...I pass cops at an indicated 90-100mph on the freeway without fear!

EDIT: I should ad, however, that it is unlikely your gearset is from a GSL-SE. Most people lack the technical competance or tools to properly set up a gearset, so they just swap the whole pumpkin, including the contained LSD. That wouldn't work with your rear end because they changed the axle size in 84 (the first year of the GSL-SE). The gears would work with any LSD, but the LSD is axle specific. It would be a lot of extra work and expense to take a GSL-SE R&P and set it up with a small-axle LSD. Not saying that didn't happen (I've done it a few times), but it's not likely. If you have a speedo error now, you probably had it before and just didn't know it. What's the tranny from?

hornbm

Washington cops nice??? Good one!! I was pulled over a little while back, and the officer asked me what I was doing. I just told him i was cruising, and he told me that It was illegal to drive though the city of kent without a purpose. Excuse me but I LIVE HERE.

Ive been pulled over countless times for doing aboolutely NOTHING. usually it would be something like, license and regestration please. He goes back to his car, comes back like 10 minutes later and says have a good nite. I can count 3 times in the past two months that this has happened to me.

However every once in a while theres a nice cop, ive seen it twice in my life.

edwin-82/rx7

iTrader: (1)

i don't know what u guys do to get pulled over (j/k!!) but i have a beatup rustbucket nissan with an exhaust stack on the side and a smashed front end, and i haven't gotten pulled over with it. i did, however, get pulled over in my 7 because i "fishtailed" pulling onto the road in the rain. i didn't have my lights on when i went by him, so it was my fault, but he didn't mention that, only that i fishtailed.

Aviator 902S

Even otherwise "nice" cops tend to become ****** when pulling over a car with loud custom exhausts and/ or obvious ricer mods. They automatically assume that you street race when they're not around and that this is their chance to nail you for... something. Problem is, especially with the celebate-against-their-will Honda ricers, the cops are right. And they feel the same way about these losers as we do.

The mods described in your sig appear to be actual performance mods rather than ricer crap, but just how loud is that exhaust? It might be a good time to do everything you can to turn your car into the ultimate sleeper, even if it means losing a few hp to an additional muffler.

Slammed_GSL

iTrader: (14)

I have had 2 encounter's with the only nice county sheriff's in King county.
One I came around a corner doing about 70mph in a 35 zone and there he was parked right there, I slowed and sure enough he was right on me. Stopped and he asked me how fast I was going, I said I didn't know......he said he didn't either due to him not having his gun up when I came blazing around the corner. He checked me out, no tickets in WA ever really helps, and he said slow down and be careful.
Second, was at 12:10 am on my was home from work, got pulled over for doing 60 in a 45, he asked me what the speed limit was and I told him 45mph, he checked me out and said have a nice night. I'm running 225 50 r15's on the rear of my 82 GSL and they hang past the fender by at least 1 1/2inches, I have a harness bar with a 4 point harness on in a sparco racing seat.
No tickets ever!
Secret is to be very, very polite, have zero attitude and always admit you were wrong if your were, lying will nail you everytime.

Brianhsval

Your excused hornbm because I never said they were "NICE" I said they were some of the most helpfull in the country! Helpfull doesn't = nice all the time.

SSRx7

I don't know about Mazda transmissions, but I assume, since they have been used in many different vehicles, that there is an external gear reduction device that goes between the speedo cable and the tailshaft housing. I know that Ford and GM use these things all the time. But that would be the easiest way to correct your problem, if they were available for your trans.

Hope that helps,
later,
Bill

mckinneyml

Isn't there a possiblity to go infront of a judge to dispute the ticket? If there is tell him that if you were driving within the speed limit as displayed by your speedometer. I have heard that you can have your car verified and if it is out of calibration and can get a ticket waived.

Don't know if you must have this performed before or after the hearing though.