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Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 3:39 am
by Guest
Ok, so I buy this Getrag/Muncie off a guy parting out a Z24.  Same year as mine (89), same 2.8, different types of spedometers.  The Z24 has a cable driven unit, while ours only ever came with an electronic sensor.  Apparently, there are 3 styles of Vehicle Speed Sensors(VSS): a cable style, an electronic type, and a hybrid of the two that came on 91+ Cavs.  This hybrid type is identical in every way, except I'm told it has a sensor to take a reading off the cable or something else inside the assembly (best I could do was an on the phone description of the part).  Now if you have a muncie with a cable gear in it, an electric sensor won't work in it.  I'm guessing this third style of sensor is to adress the problem with incapatability between the computer, the speedo, and the transmission.  If I'm right, it makes my little mishap much easier to deal with.  This is a cable driven type of tranny that I bought, I need to tell my computer something though.... is this sounding familiar to anyone?  Is that in fact why they made that sensor?  To make the two styles compatable?
I'm kinda up the creek as it were: I love this transmission so far, but I do kinda like having a speedo.... at least I know how to do away with my governor temporarily for track conditions.... does anyone know if that affects anything else other than the speed governor?

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Tue May 13, 2003 6:56 pm
by Guest
Ha Haa!!
there ARE three styles of sensors that fit our trannies
One is pure cable, one is cable with a sensor inside, and one is pure sensor (no visable moving parts).  
I have all 3 now, and tomorrow I plan on solving this riddle.. of course if anyone has 2 cents to throw in before tomorrow, I'd love to hear it

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Tue May 13, 2003 7:04 pm
by Guest
Yeah, take the electronic Vss drive hub out, and swap it with the gear(cable) driven one.

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Tue May 13, 2003 8:11 pm
by Guest
I dunno if I follow
do you mean INSIDE the tranny, or unbolting the VSS from the side of it and putting my electronic one in?
Have you ever seen the three styles of VSS that fit in a Muncie 5sp?  I mean, it sounded simple at first... but unless I'm doing something wrong, this tranny won't give my electronic sensor a signal to go on, I'm hoping this 88 cable/electronic sensor works how I think it does, but as far as I know, I'm lucky to have found it.  Did I need to go to all this hassle, or did I miss a step when installing the VSS?

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Wed May 14, 2003 8:22 am
by Guest
Inside, have you seen any gears on the outside lately?Quote take the electronic Vss drive hub out, and swap it with the gear(cable) driven one

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Wed May 14, 2003 11:53 am
by heavywoody
You have to take the trans apart in order to do this. You must swap out the differentials that have the different style VSS gears. Here is what you should have in place of what is in the trans right now:





Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Wed May 14, 2003 12:57 pm
by Guest
why can't I just use the VSS on the left in that pic... I realize THAT one is missing the input gear, but shouldn't I be able to drop in the gear driven electric like that one in place of the cable driving style this tranny was originally designed for?

PS: thanks a bundle for the replys.  Extra thanks if you took that pic on my account.

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Wed May 14, 2003 6:30 pm
by Guest
the exciter ring in Geoff's picture that has the pink dot on it, is what you need to have on the diff, if you want to go electric. Otherwise, where the exciter ring is now sitting in the picture, would be a gear, plastic if I remember correctly. Swap them out if you can, and you can go electric. Thanks Geoff, that pic helped explain alot!  




Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Thu May 15, 2003 1:29 am
by heavywoody
You can thank Cliffy, I got that from his webspace when he was showing me what the VSS looked like

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Thu May 15, 2003 8:23 am
by Guest
What about the sensor on the left though... wouldn't that ordinarily have a gear on it to drive a cable and an internal sensor that sends the same signal as the one on the right to the computer?
Or is that a complete sensor on the left, which is incompatable physically with my trannie.  I don't think I've seen one that didn't break on the way out.  Have I got THIS straight though: the one on the right is what came in 89+ Beretta 5sp's, the one on the left came in 88 Beretta 5sp's and in 90+ Cavaleirs I think (or 91)
... I wish I'd known ahead of time when they switched to that kind of sensor, to be honest, the whole issue hadn't really crossed my mind.  I mean, it came out of an 89 Z24 with the same engine tranny combo as my 89 Beretta :rock:  
Mental note:  Cavaleirs DO suck as bad as people say.:rock:

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Fri May 16, 2003 12:19 pm
by Guest
c'mon guys, don't give up on me yet
This VSS issue has been a real learning experience, tell me more about the VSS on the left in that picture.  The one I found broke on it's way out of it's original tranny so I'll never be able to test THAT one, but if it's worth ordering from GM, that would still be way easier than trying to find the right tranny for my original sensor, and a lot cheaper than paying someone to open up my tranny to swap differentials, and cheaper/easier than me fouling it up on my own and then being in a far worse position to try and find another Beretta V-6 tranny.
Oh, and I forgot to thank cliffy for taking the perfect picture to explain VSS's to newbies like me

Vehicle speed sensors

Posted: Fri May 16, 2003 2:26 pm
by ErichZ26
I have done this before.   Visit www.rodneydickman.com for Getrag disassembly instructions to do this swap.   ALSO West Coast Fier Fiero.nl did a Getrag breakdown a few weeks ago. It was really sweet.     If your anwhere near Chicago you can pay me to rip down your tranny.   You can swap the parts rather easily, in one case you may need a heatgun or hair dryer to remove the VSS gear.  I am pretty sure you don't need to swap out the complete differential.