Took the Sport Coupe for a Sunday run, and about 5 minutes in there was a loud noise consistent with a transmission issue.
Got the car back to base, jacked it up and put it on stands. Once safely in the air I drove the car in first and second gears, and the noise seemed to be coming from the speedo area. Another symptom was the jerky operation of the rolling Stewart Warner speedo display.
The power to the car was switched off , speedo cable was disconnected and the dash assembly removed and taken to the bench. You can the reproduction chrome dash in this slideshow
The speedo and other items were removed from the current dash assembly as the opportunity was taken to replace the repop dash with an original heavily patina’d item obtained from an auction in Holland.
The speedo was extremely notchy in operation so some 3 in 1 oil was applied to the gears and the speed spun over a number of times. This seemed to do the trick, but until the car is driven again it will be hard to tell.
All the items were moved into the new (old) dash assembly including a new repop script ammeter, which was a terrible fit requiring two cardboard shims to be made for a tight fit. The dash was then refitted and the lamp, ammeter and ignition switch all tested after switching the power back on.
The car was once again run up on the jack stands and the noise had disappeared. Once the testing was finished the car was lowered and road tested, again the noise was no longer apparent and the speedo operation was smooth. Happy all round with the easy fix and the original dash in place