My son bought a 1987 Camaro that started it's life as a V6 manual but has since been changed to a 350 automatic with the 4L60E transmission (this was before he bought it). The speedometer is original so cable driven but the transmission has a plug for the electronic sensor. We've read a bunch of threads on how to fix this and some people say to swap the tail end but we don't have the parts. We've seen the cable box to convert to cable but it's $300 US which is $400-450 up here in Canada.

Is there a speedometer that we could buy from a 1990+ car that would work and fit as a replacement? (we can run the wires) Does it have to run through a computer to work?

He's looked at the Intellitronix LED dash for but we're not even sure if that would work.

Basically just looking for any help on the least expensive way to make the speedometer work again

Thanks for any help,
Dave

 

So its a SBC 350 with a newer 4l60E trans ? Injected ? What computer is controlling the trans ?

 

Are you sure it's a 4L60-E? People seem to get confused easily because the 700R4 turned into the 4L60 when GM changed the way they named transmissions. The 4L60-E added electronic controls. Beyond that the 700R4 was configured with mechanical speedometer drives, electronic, and in other applications the later pulse arrangement. If the trans is a 700R4 or 4L60 (not -E) you can most likely remove the electronic sensor and slip in the cable driven gear and housing. Worst case scenario, the tailshaft has to come off so the drive gear on the output shaft can be changed.

Ultimately since the car has been modded, you'll want to verify exactly what you have since any number of things could have been swapped.

 

Hold on with swap clusters. I`m working on electronic speedometer that you should do it by yourself.

 

The most cost effective option is to change out the tail shaft and add the driven gear.

 

Honestly we're not exactly sure what is in this thing. We got under there on the weekend and pulled this off the tranny '8MZM301B' which in the minor amount I could find lead me to believe it's a 4L60 (and I thought E because of the electronic plug on the tailshaft)

We'd have to pull the tailshaft off a car from a local scrap yard assuming we can find one (they're not extremely abundant around here)

I was hoping we could just pull a speedometer from some other year car (or model) and it would magically work but it's also warm and sunny in my dream world as my wife tells me.

 

How many bolts hold the tailhousing on ?

 

And does it have a plug like this :

 

Are you sure that's not an 8YZM?

8 = 1988, MZM is the transmission ID code. 8YZM is a 1988 700R4.

The plug in the tail shaft doesn't really matter. It's the plug above the pan you're looking for. 700R4/4L60s have 4 pins, 93 4L60s have 5 pins, 4L60-E's have several more pins (12?). Look for the TV cable, and MD8 in large letters on the passenger's side of the bellhousing. If you have 4 pins, a TV cable, and the MD8 code, it's a 700R4.

Really, thirdgens are pretty limited when it comes to transmissions that will bolt in. Because the torque arm bolts to the transmission's tail shaft, only third and fourth gen transmissions will bolt up without aftermarket parts. It's a lot more likely you've got a 700R4 from a Firebird that had electronic speedometers starting as early as 1986, than a 4L60-E.

If it is a 700R4, you just need the mechanical speedometer parts. The tailshaft housings are the same, you just remove the clip holding in the sensor, pull out the sensor, and slide in the driven gear and sleeve, replace the clip, and screw in the speedometer cable. The only tricky part is getting the right drive gear, driven gear, and sleeve to match your rear gear ratio.

 

Skip the first minute of crap, and this video shows how easy it is to change the sender on the 700R4. Around the 8 minute mark he talks about the various senders. Somewhere in between he shows changing the drive gear... Super easy really.

 

This is all great - thanks a lot!!!

We'll jack it up tomorrow and see if we can figure out exactly what it is (bolts, plug and recheck numbers) and let you all know. Maybe it's not going to be as bad as I was thinking to make it all work.

 

Well we slid under it today (I have got to get a hoist) and this is what we found :

- it has 4 bolts holding the tailhousing on
- it doesn't have a wire running to the torque converter (irrelevant but noticed it so ..)
- it has the pulse/magnetic speed sensor with a metal drive gear (which is 92+ according to above video)

I couldn't find any other wires running to it other then the TV cable line). So I'm thinking we have 2 options

a) replace metal drive gear with plastic screw type assuming this will work? then install mechanical speed sensor with plastic driven gear
b) find a speedometer that will hook up to the current sensor if one exists

Any thoughts on these?

 

The easy fix would be to change over to the correct drive & driven gear setup.

The parts are all available from transmission shops like this one...
https://www.transmissioncenter.com/p...-transmission/

You'll need the drive gear, and drive gear clip, the driven gear, and driven gear housing, and probably the housing retainer. The gears and housing need to be matched to the rear end gears for the speedometer to be accurate.

This page lists which driven and driven gears to use based on gear ratio and tire size... https://www.transmissioncenter.com/s...4-driven-gear/

 

Yeah I've been doing more research and found a few people that pulled the reluctor and swapped to the plastic drive gear so that's the way we're going to go. Going to head to the local pick-a-part tomorrow and see if the one Camaro they have the parts we need.

Thanks again for all the help everyone!