Is this really a 1925 A7 Speedometer?

[Tony Griffiths]

Is this really a 1925 A7 Speedometer?  https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=...r&_sacat=0

[Mike Costigan]

Simple answer to your question - No.

Not only that, it won't fit; a 1925 chummy will have a belt-driven cable which will require the speedo drive to be at a 45° angle.

It looks like it's from a commercial vehicle, the A/42 marking may possibly indicate of military origin.

[Tony Griffiths]

Simple answer to your question - No.

Not only that, it won't fit; a 1925 chummy will have a belt-driven cable which will require the speedo drive to be at a 45° angle.

It looks like it's from a commercial vehicle, the A/42 marking may possibly indicate of military origin.

I rather suspected as much!

[bystander]

Not only is it not Austin Seven, and I am open to being corrected, but I doubt if any genuine vintage car speedo has a maximum dial speed of 40 mph.

Quite apart from that, the threads for the cable connection are showing some damage, and the casing screws appear to have been a bit badly treated, suggesting the unit may have been tampered with, perhaps multiple times.

£299, really?

[Hedd_Jones]

the recently rebuilt PA in my saloon developed a death rattle not long after fitment, on the way back from Foxfield earlier this year. Turns out those screws had undone and 2 had fallen out. The guts were rattling in the case.

Thank heavens for spares, parricularly when I found that there are at least 2 different types of screws.

Thankfully the third speedo I picked up was the same as the one in the car. I robbed one screw from that and found another on the floor of the car

[Steve kay]

I was also most puzzled by what it recorded. Not merely a maximum of 40 mph, but an odometer only in double figures, plus tenths of a mile. Seems highly unlikely that any commercial vehicle would never expect to do more than a hundred miles on a day, let alone a week. A formal record of trip distance for a taxi or similar would require more visible figures. Maybe very slow local outings, on a railway mechanical horse perhaps, any forumists with access to a three wheeled Scammel? I know owners of a Crossley van in GWR livery and an Austin 10 van, so will make enquiries as to their instruments. Enough of the keyboard anorak, the workshop calls.

[Mike Costigan]

All commercial vehicles were restricted to 20mph, so unless it was used for long-distance haulage the total mileage for a full day's work is unlikely to exceed 100 miles.

[Hugh Barnes]

My immediate reaction when I saw this was 'Commercial' I have come across similar that are all limited to a maximum of 40mph. There were, as Mike suggests, plenty of military vehicles that would have had such instruments fitted...

[Dave Mann]

L T C Rolt recorded 69 miles in 3 Hours 40 minutes in the first diesel lorry made by Kerr Stuart on it's first test run to Lichfield and back on 18 March 1929 with a maximum speed of 29 mph. On it's eighth test run on 9 April to Manchester and back it covered 79 miles.

[Steve kay]

Did anyone tell Sentinel drivers that they were restricted to 20mph? Having come up behind one at a roundabout, as the Ruby got up to an indicated 45 mph, the Sentinel continued to accelerate and pulled away.