The unit is a Japanese POS that is hermetically sealed by the bezel at the factory. It is not made for disassembly. I've never met a thin sheet of stainless steel that I couldn't bend with a pry bar, so, I grabbed a flathead screw driver and went to work.
After about twenty minutes, I had the bezel off and the gauge mechanism came right out. It's main problem was that it was filthy. In addition, the drive assembly had broken loose from its crimp to the backplate and was not allowing the weird little magnetic doohickey actuate the needle correctly.
After cleaning it up I started thinking about how I could stabilize the drive unit and came up with an external strap that is held in place by the original screws that hold the guts to the main housing.
While I was in there I also added the mileage from the other two odometers to it so it should be pretty darned close to actual.
I then set about re crimping the bezel with a pair of needle nose pliers and finally after about two hours of fiddling with it, I think it looks pretty passable.
Took it out for a test ride and while the odometer was pretty much right on, the speedo was reading high. When I got it home after a little drama. (The choke plate popped out of the mechanism and closed on me. Luckily I was just getting to a gas station about 2 miles from the house so Mona was able to bring me the tool bag and I got it back going in a few minutes.)
After getting home, I was screwing around with the drive cable and all of a sudden it seated much farther into the speedo drive than it had before. Now the whole thing seems to fit properly. I took it for a quick spin up the driveway and back and I think it is working correctly now.
I'm re-hydrating as it's 80 degrees and kicking that thing before I realized what happened to the choke wore me a bit out.
Once I rehydrate, I'm going to take it out for another quick spin to see if it is OK or is still reading high.
1 comment:
Looks nice to me.
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