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thewump
Samba Member
Joined: June 15, 2008
Posts: 215
Location: Denver
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 Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:24 am Post subject: Odometer Fix - and question |
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Seems like a failing odo is not unusual, so for what it's worth, here is why mine failed and an easy temporary and more permanent fix.
In the picture below.. The spiral gear is turned by the speedo cable, and that motion is transferred by the round gear which turns the dials of the odo and trip counter.
This round gear is at the 100,000 digit end of the odo and attached to the end a stainless steel shaft which passes through all the dials and a mounting hole at the single digit mile end of the odo.. but it is not obvious to me at all how this shaft is held in place. In my van, it had crept leftward(as you would look at the dash) - or in other words towards you in this pic, to the point that it was no longer engaging with the spiral gear.
By pushing the round gear back in, and engaging it with the spiral, I am up and running - but what KEEPS it there? Anyone know? The odo has a little brass cylinder on it's end, but the odo shaft has no threading.
To save myself some grief, I drilled a hole in the cluster to allow me to either reseat this shaft if necessary, or mount a rod though the hole that effectively holds the shaft in place - either of which can be done without removing the dash again..
The photo below shows the exact location for a hole that lines up with the shaft.
K
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iceracer
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Joined: February 28, 2006
Posts: 949
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:44 am Post subject: |
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Good writeup and I concurr. Just found the same problem on mine a few weeks ago. I was able to lift it back into place and threw it back together and it has been fine since. 500+ miles.
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j_dirge
Samba Member
Joined: August 08, 2007
Posts: 4641
Location: Twain Harte, CA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:02 am Post subject: Re: Odometer Fix - and question |
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| thewump wrote: |
By pushing the round gear back in, and engaging it with the spiral, I am up and running - but what KEEPS it there? Anyone know? The odo has a little brass cylinder on it's end, but the odo shaft has no threading.
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Nothing keeps it in place, just some small nurls (sp?)..
It will walk back out.. and the little gear walks on the shaft, too. So there are two things going on..
1. The shaft moves a bit left to right (facing the speedo/odo).. I think that play is intended since you need some slop in these things to avoid binding.
2. But the little gear walking out on the shaft is the real problem.
You might find that you can push that gear back onto the shaft some.
Check it out.
Do a search.. 10cent has a fix that includes adding a small tab to hold it in place. I intend to do something very similar next time the gear walks out on the shaft.
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-89 GL Westy, SVX.. finally.
-57 pan f/g buggy with a 67 pancake Type 3 "S"
"Jimi Hendrix owned one. Richard Nixon did not"
-Grand Tour, Season 1, episodes 4 and 5
| danfromsyr wrote: |
those are straight line runs with light weight race cars for only 1/4mile at a time..
not pushing a loaded brick up a mountain pass with a family of 4+ inside expecting to have an event free vacation..
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thewump
Samba Member
Joined: June 15, 2008
Posts: 215
Location: Denver
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:11 am Post subject: |
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I think a dab of superglue where the gear protrudes through the shaft would be a good idea for me then, but I don't think that is currently a point of failure.
If this happens every few thousand miles I'm just going to poke a wire through my hole and reseat. If more often than that, I'll mount something through that hole - although it would have to be non permanent to allow for the removal of the odo from the cluster without fouling on the face.
The number of unintentional double meanings in that post is out of control.
K
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riceye
Samba Member
Joined: March 09, 2006
Posts: 1661
Location: Caledonia, WI
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:30 am Post subject: Re: Odometer Fix - and question |
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| thewump wrote: |
| This round gear is at the 100,000 digit end of the odo and attached to the end a stainless steel shaft which passes through all the dials and a mounting hole at the single digit mile end of the odo.. but it is not obvious to me at all how this shaft is held in place. |
The other end of the shaft is press-fit into a pot metal (or other cheap alloy) gear. The press fit seems to be overcome by the pulling action of the worm gear that you have pictured.
| thewump wrote: |
| In my van, it had crept leftward(as you would look at the dash) - or in other words towards you in this pic, to the point that it was no longer engaging with the spiral gear. |
And no longer engaging with the metal gear at the other end.
| thewump wrote: |
| By pushing the round gear back in, and engaging it with the spiral, I am up and running - but what KEEPS it there? Anyone know? |
Again, the press fit into the metal gear is supposed to hold it all together. I lost the odometer in mine this past summer, and made the repair recommended by tencentlife in this thread.
It worked for about a thousand miles or so, but eventually began to slip. I tore it back apart on the diningroom table of my daughter's house in Bozeman, MT (1300 miles away from my tool box) and pulled the shaft out enough to crimp some crude knurling onto the end of the shaft that mates with the metal gear. After several tries, and with the help of a friend with a 10" C-clamp, I was able to get it back together with the correct mileage on the display!
When I noticed that it had failed the second time, the odometer was still registering, but not accurately. The worm gear was still engaging the shaft, but the metal gear at the other end was occasionally slipping.
After I made the latest fix, my gas mileage went up considerably. Go figure!
I'm hoping that, between the installation of the tencentlife hard stop and the crude knurlings I made in Montana, it will be a very long time before I need tear into it again.
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There's gonna be some changes made.
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