I again apologize for the lack of posts on this blog of late. Work has been very busy and family is right behind that.
I did get the speedometer issue resolved! Turns out I was doing damage to the circuit board and didn't even know it. When I was removing the motor from the circuit board I was not realizing that the motor assembly is actually soldered to it and by removing it I was destroying the contacts that the motor used to operate.
I did have a spare good speedometer that just needed the odometer gear replaced. This time I took the assembly to my father in law and together we got the gear replaced and set the odometer to the correct mileage.
I will hopefully post more often, probably after christmas. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving and a great holiday season!
Darren
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Speedometer Woes
After the trials and tribulations of the cooling system I thought I would take on something a little easier, aka the vehicle speed sensor (VSS). After I had installed instrument cluster I hadn't taken it for a test drive. When I finally did last week the speedometer was not working. In my experience most of the time the speedometer isn't working is a result of a failed VSS. My solution was to swap out the known good VSS out of the parts car and take it for a drive. Did this on Wednesday and still no dice. I removed the cluster and swapped in a speedometer that I knew was working in the other car. Took another test drive and it worked fine.
I proceeded to take the cluster apart so I could look at the speedometer more closely. I didn't really see anything wrong with it, but the needle seemed a little sticky when I first moved it. After more inspection I decided to just install the speedometer unit and go for another test drive. This time the speedometer worked. I was hoping the problem was solved. Unfortunately the odometer wasn't working. Crap! The repair procedure for the odometer is fairly straight forward, replace the little nylon gear in the mechanism that 99% of the time has deteriorated.
You can see the missing tooth. This picture was from my first attempt at repair. The gear in the current cluster was missing some teeth and the bigger odometer gear crumbled in my hand.
In the one attempt I have made at repairing an odometer I was unsuccessfull in getting it to work after I replaced the gear.
Friday night I started work on the odometer. Everything started out good, I was very careful and took my time in dissassembling the odometer. The trouble began when I tried to re-install the small motor onto the circuit board. There are three small contacts that the motor pushes into. One of the contacts was bent. When I "gently" straightened it, the solder holding it to the circuit board broke. At this point I was in trouble. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to try to hold it in place while I re-soldered it to the board. I needed three hands, a bright light, and more skill. After a couple of failed attempts I decided that the best approach was to get the contact into the motor, and then mount the motor and solder it that way. This worked much better, but after re-installing and going for a test drive the odometer is still non-functional. I turned the motor by hand and the odometer will advance, so I believe that the fault is in the connection between the motor and the circuit board. My solution is to take this to my father in law who is an electrical instructer at a nearby power plant and a much better solderer than me. Wish me luck!
Have a great day!
I proceeded to take the cluster apart so I could look at the speedometer more closely. I didn't really see anything wrong with it, but the needle seemed a little sticky when I first moved it. After more inspection I decided to just install the speedometer unit and go for another test drive. This time the speedometer worked. I was hoping the problem was solved. Unfortunately the odometer wasn't working. Crap! The repair procedure for the odometer is fairly straight forward, replace the little nylon gear in the mechanism that 99% of the time has deteriorated.
You can see the missing tooth. This picture was from my first attempt at repair. The gear in the current cluster was missing some teeth and the bigger odometer gear crumbled in my hand.
In the one attempt I have made at repairing an odometer I was unsuccessfull in getting it to work after I replaced the gear.
Friday night I started work on the odometer. Everything started out good, I was very careful and took my time in dissassembling the odometer. The trouble began when I tried to re-install the small motor onto the circuit board. There are three small contacts that the motor pushes into. One of the contacts was bent. When I "gently" straightened it, the solder holding it to the circuit board broke. At this point I was in trouble. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to try to hold it in place while I re-soldered it to the board. I needed three hands, a bright light, and more skill. After a couple of failed attempts I decided that the best approach was to get the contact into the motor, and then mount the motor and solder it that way. This worked much better, but after re-installing and going for a test drive the odometer is still non-functional. I turned the motor by hand and the odometer will advance, so I believe that the fault is in the connection between the motor and the circuit board. My solution is to take this to my father in law who is an electrical instructer at a nearby power plant and a much better solderer than me. Wish me luck!
Have a great day!
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