View single post by discogodfather
 Posted: 06-30-2020 03:43 am
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discogodfather



Joined: 09-17-2007
Location: San Francisco, California USA
Posts: 221
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I took everything apart and took the gauge out of it's metal housing. Used the manual provided to check everything out, it is a great guide.

I used a drill with a drillbit with a bit of tape on the back of it to simulate the gauge turning. BTW, it turns counter clockwise for those wondering.

I have the later plastic gears. Everything rotated smoothly and the needle picked up with speed, odo working well too. I turned my attention to the cable.

The guide states that pulling the actual cable out of the sheething, even when it's still installed on the transmission side. Basically you just pull it out, then you can rotate it freely making sure it dosen't bind. As you push the cable back in, it will rotate freely until about the last inch of travel. It's important to rotate it slightly as you push it back in, you can feel it stop slightly as it enters the square socket drive in the transmission. As long as it pushes all the way in, dosen't bind, and seats firmly you are good. If it rotates when its fully in then the transmission socket is not engaging the cable or the cable might be broken. Mine seated well and after you seat it, the cable will no longer rotate.

So I was a bit confused. Put everything back in and it still didn't work, but the odo did, just like before. I wondered if somehow the needle mechanism, which is a simply spring, magnet, and shaft setup was binding in some way. I took it out and everything seemed to turn smoothly. I installed the metal housing and also did the drill test, it worked fine.

Again I was at a loss, so I tried thinking about what was different from the bench to the dashboard in terms of the conditions of the gauge. Then it hit me- I was staring at the light bulb I had recently installed. The original is of course a little glass bulb, but I had replaced it with an LED unit. The LED was very long. So when I had pushed it all the way in, it was dragging on the back of the magnet wheel inside, arresting it.

So I simply didn't push it all the way in, and let it have plenty of clearance. Now everything work great.