Troubleshooting a nonfunctional speedo

[harringtondav]

I rigged up this thing years ago to help unplug trash from my drive's speedo pickup. If a drill didn't fix it I'd hook up this and without fail it would blow out the clog.

I'm showing my boat for sale. I claim everything works great....almost. Speedp stopped working, The drill came out clean, so I hooked up my flusher. Clean stream. The locking tabs on the 22-815956A-1 tube end fitting are compromised....as in broken off. Result of yearly drive pulls and a wimpy design. I shoved it in place and showed the boat. Speedo worked fine...for a while.

So off to a local marina to buy a replacement, if I can find one.

 

[achris]

Don't think I have ever had a working pitot tube speedo. Always used either tacho or later, GPS. Pitot speedos are notoriously inaccurate, especially at lower speeds.

Chris......

 

[harringtondav]

I normally just my pitot speedo to fine tune trim performance, checking speed vs tach. I'll pick up the new connector in and hr. Having everything working seems critical when showing a boat for sale. When the speedo dropped out last night I pointed it out to the customer saying I'd make it right. He didn't notice or care. Seemed he reverse aged 20 yrs driving the boat. He was having fun. A good sign.

 

[gm280]

Pitot tube speedometers are nothing more then water pressure gauges... So consistency is never guaranteed since the water you're boating in can change in both temperature and viscosity.

 

[JASinIL2006]

When I first bought my boat as a novice, a non-functional speedometer would have concerned me. Now, not having a working pitot speedometer would not matter a bit. I hope your buyer understands how unimportant that piece of kit is.

 

[Furbird]

Mine was plugged so bad (and apparently for so long) that whatever the grey stuff was in the lower unit was almost like concrete. I had to use the drill to clear it then several rounds of compressed air to get whatever was in there out. I pulled the dash and removed the tube from the back of the speedo also and turns out I had a blockage in there too that came out looking like a piece of a leaf. Easily over an inch long. How that got in the tube from the lower unit to the dash I have no clue. Took nearly 40 psi of shop air to blow it out along with everything else in that line. I used my old Garmin vehicle GPS on my maiden trip so I'll use that to see just how far off mine is. It's not supported any longer so I can't update it; if it dies, it dies!