Connecticut Classic Car Parts - heads up

[Rusty_S85]

This place deals with NOS and NORS parts and I recently purchased a speedometer assembly from them for my '56.  Long story short I was informed via email it is a NOS part and the part I received was in a old stock box but the speedometer inside was anything but new.

The face being metal was bent back heavily, the needle was bent as well resulting in flaking paint.  The whole speedometer was loose in the mounting housing the flat head screws are backed out and the odometer is reading some 15,000 miles on it.

I didnt message the vendor to raise hell over this cause my speedometer works I just needed the odometer but I need to verify the odometer actually does work on this unit and isnt broken as well.  Just a shame that this company sells a product as new only to receive something used.  So just a heads up since they do deal with NOS and NORS parts you may come across them for some ford part numbers you look up.  I strongly suggest requesting a photo of said part in question.  It was offered to me but I took their word on it.

Update

Guess I will be emailing the vendor.  the odometer I took out and its very stiff and doesnt want to work right this is obviously a used unit that was replaced due to this problem and some how never thrown away so I got a $90 paperweight that I cant use even the odometer out of to fix my odometer which works but only on the 1/10ths and nothing else.

[1986F150Six]

Sorry! Do email the vendor and perhaps they will make this right. Perhaps do as Gary did and provide a link of this thread to them.

[Gary Lewis]

Bummer!  Yes, email them.  And maybe include a link to this thread.  And there's also the several Bullnose Facebook pages where you might want to give the folks a heads-up.  

People that do things like that need to be called out because of it.

Maybe we need a folder where we store threads like this?  Maybe called "Vendors To Avoid"?

[ArdWrknTrk]

Connecticut Classic Car Parts wrote

We welcome the opportunity to earn your trust and deliver you the best service in the industry.

Hmmm? 🤔
Anyone notice something fishy about their acronym?

It's a Red plot, I tell you!

[Rusty_S85]

I emailed them.  No reply.  I put it all back together to see and the speedometer works but using a drill its very grabby and the needle pulses.  odometer doesnt work as I believe the plastic gears stripped out due to the odometer locking up like it was on me.

So this odometer has many wheels that function just fine question is can this odometer be taken apart and have one of these wheels used to replace the broken wheel on mine that allows just the tenth to move but not the miles.

I need to email this speedometer shop and see what they can do for me.  Ideally I just would like to send them the odometer from this speedometer so I dont have to disassemble mine just yet.

not hard to take the odometer out and reset the numbers.

[Rusty_S85]

I emailed them but didnt give them all the information I just notified them that this is not a new unit as was advertised it looks like a used unit and I may be able to use it or parts of it.  once they reply if they do I will inform them this speedometer is in a whole a broken junk piece that someone put in the box and put it on a shelf and didnt throw it away.

The plastic drive gears for the odometer without cutting this one up looks like it may be stripped out, the speedometer part itself is very stiff and jerky indicating a damaged/broken assembly.

In theory I could send it out and get the odometer fixed which is all I really need but I could probably take mine out and have my old one fixed.  But I dont want to be months with my dash apart waiting for a overhaul.  I have to wait and see what the part store will do if they just shrug and do nothing then I will write it off and pay to have the odometer fixed on this one then when it comes back take the odometer out and transfer it to my current speedometer which I know the odometer works it just doesnt work outside of the tenth mile wheel.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Rusty,
Post it up publicly.
Tag it in their Facebook page.
Tweet a link to this thread.

Meriden is up in the middle of the state, or I'd say send it to me and I will personally offer to give it back to them... rectally

Let's see what their response is.
But what I quoted above is a FAR cry from how they seem to be treating you.

[85lebaront2]

Damn, I have got to get back to Newport News and Pete's to get into the trunk on my 1995 Lincoln Continental, there should still be a good 1986 Bullnose cluster with a tach. I also need to get my spare alternator (just a regular Taurus 3.8L 130 amp) as I think the diodes in the 160 amp are FUBAR. Battery drained deader than a doornail after sitting for a week.

[Rusty_S85]

Yep I actually have a NOS speedometer for my truck its the 1,000,000 mile odometer.  I wanted to pull the odometer out and install it in my trip odometer speedometer as it looks like the wheels are narrower.  But when I started looking found out they arent and wont be a direct swap.

So now I have a NOS 1,000,000 mi odometer that I dont know if I want to use or not cause I love using my trip every time I fill up to see if my economy is normal or not.



I lucked out on that one on ebay as it was actually a NOS unit.  This one I bought for my '56 had no photo and i took the businesses word that it was NOS.  I know I wont do that again.

[ArdWrknTrk]

A million miles?
Maybe from a larger L style truck?

Li'l Red is within 40k of half lifing that odo!
But we all know nothing lasts forever.

Obviously, the speedo you purchased in not NO-anything.

I really can't get people who misresprent their 💩
Why??

[Rusty_S85]

Yep correct, it is for like a F450 and larger truck.  It will be a straight swap into our 80 - 86 trucks as its the same cluster.  Just the odometer itself is not the same dimensions as the non million mile odometer so you cant swap it into one with trip.  Looking at the parts and illustration guide the F450 and larger trucks with this million mile odometer never had a option for a trip odometer.

Also you are correct nothing lasts forever.  I dont know how many miles are on my truck I would just make a educated guess I figure the miliage would be around 180,000 - 200,000.

[1986F150Six]

I installed the same Medium Duty speedometer in my F150. Note the red 1/10s digit, which signifies being a replacement unit.

[Rusty_S85]

Interesting, I didnt know the red tenths was a replacement unit.

I do plan on trying to find out if there is a way to repurpose the odometer from that speedometer to my non million mile unit.  Surely they didnt change the bracketry.  If all it is, is the window is a little larger I might just take and file my window open a little more.

But since Dakota digital has their retro line up and I am trying to pressure them into releasing the 80 - 86 trucks in that line up as well I wont need to do that.

As far as the topic goes, I got a email today and a refund via paypal.  The graciously without arguing or commenting said that they were extremely sorry and that they are issuing a 50% refund.  Ill take it cause I can take and send this odometer out to Bobs Speedometer shop and they informed me they could rebuild it for $120.  At least I can have this one rebuilt then when I pull my odometer out of my cluster in the car I can send that one off and have that one rebuilt as well and keep it as a spare.

[Rembrant]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

A million miles?
Maybe from a larger L style truck?

We got the extra digit in the regular trucks in the early 80's...since ours are in Kilometers. I think 1980-81 have the 5-digit, and then 82-86 had the Million KM odometers. In the US, I think the regular trucks had the 5-digit odometers for all the Bullnose years.

[Rusty_S85]

From what I have seen you are right, the US market we only had the 100k mile odometer for the light duty trucks.