How easy is it to change the odometer?

[Ssg Ken]

I see at Kirbans they are selling :

P-938 Recalibrated speedometer with our new 145 decal installed. Shows 96,100 miles. $145 and $10 shipping.

If someone buys this and drives 20,000 miles, will it show 16,100 miles on the odometer? Why are some people so insistent on "low mileage" cars rather than look at the car themselves?

 

[Dennis Kirban]

Concerning your note on speedos all our units are recalibrated and we leave the miles on them that are on them when they come out of the cars. They come with easy to understand directions. It takes patience and clean hands to remove and reinstall a speedo unit. The toughest part is backing out the very very small screw on the back that secures the VSS pick up. I may have the name wrong of the part, but when you see it you will know what I mean. The speedo cable just snaps into place. Obviousily, in 99% of the cases any speedo that clocks over from 99,999 is highly unlikely to appear as a low mileage example. These cars have tremendous wear issues in the interior if owner is not careful. The weakest link being the drivers seat and frame.

kirban performance


denniskirban@yahoo.com

past owner of many Turbo Regals

 

[pacecarta]

odmeters arent that hard to swap or set , would hope the new owner would set it to his old mileage but buyer has to do his homework,

most states record the mileage at sale and at inspection so unless its a one original owner who never took car to yearly inspection (or bi yearly for some states) a quick carfax should come up with records of the car you were looking at had seen 96k and was being sold at odometer showing 16,000 , carfax would show there was a mileage discrepancy

btw for me to log another 20k on my gn at present rate would take till 2050

dennis speedos are usually internally modded to read to 145,
there were 145 speedo setups that used an underdrive adapter in the speedo cable without recalibrating the stock unit , these types of speedo setups would record mileage at about 40-45% less than actual (vss would also read same error and screw up (delay) the lockup Torque converter till around 70mph) ,
so if odometer was never touched and speedo cable always connected and said car car ran one of these 145 speedos with the adapter its odometer would only reads 60K but would actually be 100K
if the car had been running 28" tires instead of stock 26.1" theres another 7.5% error so actual mileage is 107.5K ,
now if for some reason owner had installed 3.73 rear from an olds and didnt recalibrate speedo gears in the trans theres another 10%
actual mileage could be 118,000mi but the car only shows 60K on odometer

 

[Dennis Kirban]

At this point in time concerning 23-24 years when they change hands in many cases they simply state mileage exempt or exceeds in PA you can check a box that says reflects mileage that is in excess of mechanical limits. I currently have about 8 recalibrated speedos ready to go so chances are we have one that would be close to what the buyer would want. Car fax is not the end authority on actual miles since they can only report what is reported to them from another source. State titles carry more weight over car fax or other sources. We have had this issue come up over the years. Especially on these cars that lack that additional digit and the tenths is misread.

The bigger issue is if you buy a car and their is an major error in the VIN number. That can turn into a real problem. Usually this problem does surface until the seller has a buyer and never looked at the title from years ago to check that.

kirbanperformance.com


denniskirban@yahoo.com

I got not chance of living until 2050....

 

[Ssg Ken]

My new to me GN has 27,310 miles

When I took it out I was over steering. I soon figured out the steering was tighter than my 2003 S-10 with 41,000 miles on it and I was simply turning it too far.

Dennis is correct about both issues. My seats were well worn and the springs crushed at 80,000 miles. My speedometer did something I had never seen before. Somewhere at maybe, 40,000 it started to slip after about four hours of continuous driving. It was most annoying because the cruise control would hunt for the speed. That must have not added a few thousand miles on the car too. I "fixed" it by stopping for something to eat after it started and let it cool off. I had the cable greased often. I never did figure it out.

Just behind the rear tires there is a round frame access hole for a very large bolt. The hole in the frame is so large that this place was where my frame cracked on both sides. I towed a large boat with it that would have put a big strain on that frame. Had GM used a bolt with one of those hex slots in the middle rather than a typical hex bolt that was installed with an external socket, the frame could have a smaller hole and the frame would have been stronger.

 

[Dennis Kirban]

Going by memory I don't think in the original Buick literature it recommended towing anything with a turbo Regal because of the turbo. Although I have had cars in the past that had a small hitch on them. I know from experience with all the trailering I have done with several trucks my receiver I had worn the hole oblong! One thing I have come to check when buying a used truck with a hitch on the back.

The turbo cars received a unique steering box that had more road feel than a standard Regal had. The steering box on the top plate if its still visible would be stamped YA.

The neat trick is dropping a Turbo Regal steering box into any of the earlier A body cars makes a world of difference. You do have to make a few changes to make it work, which I forget now, but the actual steering box is a direct bolt in and looks the same which satisfies even the purist car owner. It not only gives a quicker turning radius, but better road feel. Original a body steering was called forever steering.

kirbanperformance.com


denniskirban@yahoo.com

Owned a few of the 1986-1987 Turbo Regals mostly nice ones