Date: Sat, 12 May 2007 21:59:07 -0700
Reply-To: David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: odometer question
In-Reply-To: <4387de760705121856l237c97a9r84a63ab2846bd687@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Maggie, I see no reponse yet from anyone on your quest. Since I got a similar
oddometer problem on my 84 I will share what I found out from my oddometer.
If you remove the oddometer from the cluster and hold it on your hands you will
see that most of the turning shafts and gears are enclosed inside and it does
not look like you can take it apart without damaging it. I believe it can be
taken apart, or those odometer repair shops would not have been able to make
a living on it. I think you have to unplug the needle (or the arm of the oddometer).
This is a hard part. Don't do it to damage it. I have done it on one in a junkyard.
So I know it can be unplugged.
What happened to mine can be fixed. If you look at the oddometer you will see two
shafts, one drives main counter and the other drives the trip counter.
What happened to mine is in the shaft for the trip counter. It became a little
loose and moved a little bit from its original location. On one end of the shaft
is a gear driven by another gear. These gears are the only gears not enclosed inside
the odometer so you can see them and touch them. When the shaft moves a little bit
it disengages the gears. As a result the driving gear still turns but the shaft of
the trip counter does not. The main counter is driven by the trip counter inside
the chassis. So the main counter stops advancing as well.
As a result the needle (the arm) still swings to show the speed of the van but none
of the counters advances. This is just like what you see on your odometer. I drilled
a small hole on the odometer chassis near the trip counter shaft and use a small screw
to attach a small piece of metal stopper to push the trip counter shaft back to its
original location.
I am talking about maybe 1 mm of distance. But it makes the gears re-engage with
each other. Now both counters are showing changes. I guess the odometer is working
again.
Basically the speedometer cable drives a drum inside the odometer which causes
the speedometer needle to swing. In the menwhile it drives the trip counter
shaft. Then the trip counter drives the main counter. Your odometer has a
broken driving chain for the trip counter. This broken link happens to
be not enclosed inside the odometer chassis so it is likely it can be fixed.
I am not shure if this helps. Just thought I should try. Good luck.
David
--- Maggie Dew <wildebus@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> I stopped to fill the tank today ($3.39 a gallon!) and punched the trip
> meter to take it back to zero. I wrote down the mpg from the previous tank
> and noted it seemed a little low. After driving across town, I looked down
> to see that the odometer hadn't changed and the trip meter was still on
> zero. The speedo is working though. I tried the reset button a couple more
> times - once at a stop and once while moving. No change.
>
> Question one - what is the problem? Question two - how do I check it and/or
> fix it? Thanks.
>
> Maggie
> '85 Subaru-Westy "Anne Bonney"
>
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