Just found this on my shelf...was old when I got it out of the parts dept. at Dodge City when I worked there in '68.

[Krooser]

Used this to lube Speedo cables.

For about 3 years I worked at spinning back speedos for the dealers I worked for or at the auto auction.

It was a side job that I got from a guy named Ralph who taught me and got me in the door.

My used car manager at Russ Darrow Chrysler Plymouth wanted me to do these on company time while I was making $2.80 as a used car mechanic...'71-'72.

Nope...I got $25 a car back then...I could do three an hour on the ez ones... didn't always get those but it never took more than one hour.

He expected me to work for him for 1/10 my usual wage.

Not this kid...

 

[1 Wild R/T]

For about 3 years I worked at spinning back speedos for the dealers I worked for or at the auction auction.

Sez about all we need to know....

 

[Runcharger]

My brother was a mech at our local Chrysler dealer. I remember a few times they would take in a trade in and promptly sell it to the JY to avoid having a bad rep from selling a clunker. You had to weed out the good from the bad back then.

 

[khryslerkid]

I remember some speedometer heads that used a permanent ink that marked the numbered wheels when turned backwards. Don't know what year they started that.

 

[Krooser]

Sez about all we need to know....

I thought that was a great recomendation!

It was legal...here in WI until around '73-'74. I quit when I started trucking in 1972.

I only worked for the dealers and auctions...not anybody off the street

Those different times...

I recall my boss from Dallas Pat Cockey. I worked for him at an auto center in '67.

He had a used car lot and told me he sold a lot of low buck older rides.

He said those old Chevy 216's and Flathead Fords always had weak oil pressure...the Fords were worn out. The Chevies were splash oiling systems.

He would pull the glass off of the dash panel and use a needle nose pliers to bend the needle on the oil pressure gauge so it showed 20#'s with the engine off.

No one cared how much oil pressure the engine had when off!!! But they would now have 35-40#'s when running instead of 15-20!

When he bought a car with a bad cylinder...broken piston, tossed rod, etc they would pull the offending rod/piston out and drive a fence post into the empty hole.

The engine would have a miss but most customers didn't care or figured it just had a bad spark plug.

Just remember these were $30-$150 cars back then. Wholesale prices at the auction were as low as $10! When I junked my '47 Chrysler New Yorker I got $3.75!

 

[Krooser]

I remember some speedometer heads that used a permanent ink that marked the numbered wheels when turned backwards. Don't know what year they started that.

1972 as I recall.

Dealers stocked new speedo odometers to replacer those with colored dyed.

I used tetrachlorene to clean off the dye.

 

[GrabberOrange69]

I always learn something new when I log in here.

 

[Auggie56]

We had one at the Mopar dealer in the seventies. It was plastic and had a ball-ber at one end. You sucked up a tiny amount of trans fluid to lubricate the speedo itself.

 

[kiwigtx]

It was legal...here in WI until around '73-'74.

Maybe so....but morally oh so wrong.

 

[F4R/T]

That would be severe butt whooping behind the shed in my neck of the woods!

 

[moparedtn]

Sez about all we need to know....

Agreed. The act itself is reprehensible enough. Telling tale of doing it, only worse...

 

[Bee1971]

Doesn’t Russ Darrow still exist today around Milwaukee - Pretty sure I used to go to car shows in Appleton in the 90s at Russ Darrow Chrysler - Don’t know about Green Bay , WI

 

[maxwedgechar]

The dealer where I worked in '69 told me to disconnect the speedo in his company car. Later in the day one of the mechanics came to me and said that he thought that I had done but HE had to do it. I disconnected it at the trans and he disconnected it at the speedo!

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Woody Allen had a good story about driving rental cars around in reverse so they wouldn't rack up any miles.

 

[kiwigtx]

Woody Allen had a good story about driving rental cars around in reverse so they wouldn't rack up any miles.

Did he bugs squished on the tail lights?

 

[Hey-O]

Maybe so....but morally oh so wrong.

Well said and if they did it to me, can you imagine what I'm thinking right now..................

 

[WileERobby]

Scenarios like this are far more common than one would think. There's a trick to spin the dial without taking it apart. Many cars back then had alot more miles on them than people thought. Eighty and change ? Nope, let's set that baby out there with a little over 30.