Bill, Thank you for the trip-odometer rant, though I'm not sure I enjoyed it. >> "The first thing that happens when you push the button is that the gears disengage. So, it won't matter if it's moving or not." Sure, but the first thing that happens when you RELEASE the button is that the gears ENgage, and I suspect that's when they break.
>> "Why didn't it go the first time? Or first 50 times?" Cuz the first time it was used, the mechanism wasn't 20 years old. I don't think anyone suggested an inherent design flaw in the trip-odometer mechanism, but as you correctly point out ...
>> "Combine that with old brittle plastic and you've got breakage." If one simply engaged manual transmission gears without benefit of synchronizers or clutch (rather similar to the trip-odometer mechanism), one might experience similar results down in the gearbox. Even if they were NOT made of old, brittle plastic. 'Course, that would probably cut one's trip short, making a trip-odometer rather superfluous ...
Jeffrey Earl 1983 diesel Westfalia "Vanasazi"
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