Messing with instrument cluster

rammstein · 07-11-2004, 09:19 PM

SO- seeing as how I can't drive my car (no ins. yet still) I decided to pull out the instrument cluster and deal with how it doesn't light up. To keep this short, when I first got my car, before I came across this forum and grew a brain, I did something stupid. I was thinking "Hey, these dash lights suck". So, being the enterprising young lad that I am, I found a set of 8 watt bulbs (yes, EIGHT watts) that made them brighter. Too bad they quickly burned out. Now I realize that the reason was the reflective coating on the lighting channels. So I took it out and began removing the material and I've done the aluminum foil trick on one (ala clark's garage style) and I tested it and it made a huge difference. Luckily, the 8 watt bulbs only melted/burned the holders slightly. I got really lucky. I promise I am leading to a question now

This led me to think, why don't I repair my odometer as long as this is out? So I pulled the speedo to check the gear before ordering it, and sure enough all the teeth are stripped. But, I also decided to turn the other gear just to see the odometer work. The main gauge (total mileage) appears to be working fine. For some reason though, the trip mileage doesn't turn with it. Is this on some other gear? Also, how does the reset mechanism work? It appears to reset it electronically, and I would have expected a mechanical thingy. Finally, what is the thing on the bottom of the speedo for (the spring loaded rod with the wheel thingy on it? I am just concerned about how the one mileage meter works when I turn the gears but not the other, and want to order all the parts I need all at once to make everything work on the car (this is my new insane mission, to fix everything).

rammstein · 07-11-2004, 09:31 PM

I have an update. For whatever reason, now when I turn the gear both mileage meters are working fine. I have also discovered that when you pull on the spring loaded thingy, it resets the trip computer. Cool. Maybe I just needed to pull on that once to get things unstuck or something. Before, it was making loud clicking sounds and now it turns smooth. So I guess my only question is how does the car pull the spring thingy out to reset it when you push the button way over on the dash that pushes on the button on the little black box?

scheistermeiste · 07-11-2004, 09:49 PM

i dont have the answers to your questions but i was wondering, you ganna set your odometer back to 0? i know in NY and FL after 10 or 15 years (cant remember) a car becomes exempt... and itd look cool!

rammstein · 07-11-2004, 09:56 PM

Haha- no, if anything, I'd set it forward like 10,000 miles so I am close to reality, but I don't want to sit there spinning it all night. What is scary is how EASY it would be for a person to mess with an odometer. When I purchased my car in Ohio, we listed the odometer as broken (the seller was very careful not to do anything wrong). So if I ever tried anything, a carfax would show the truth anyhow (records will show odometer failure). I think it'd be more fun to turn it to like 400,000 and tell people its on the original engine

OH- I ordered the gear from KLA. $33 with shipping. Pelican doesn't sell it, so I had to branch out. Hopefully these guys are good.

scheistermeiste · 07-11-2004, 10:28 PM

doesnt frwilk sell um for cheaper than that?

rammstein · 07-11-2004, 10:32 PM

I hope not, I'd rather have gone to him. I think if he sells any at all, that he has them for early 944s. Maybe I'm wrong. I am wrong a lot (see above note on 8 watt bulbs).

Brando · Brando's Garage

I'm wanting to do superbright LEDs here instead of those super-dim bulbs...

rammstein · 07-12-2004, 08:31 AM

They have a few LED options for 194 sized bulbs. One is non-directional, but only has one LED and I can't quite decide if it would necessarily be any brighter. There's another with an array of 4 that is definitely brighter, and one with an array of 6 which is brighter still, but may be a bit too wide. The problem with the 4 and 6 arrays are that these are directional, and would shine at the end of the bulb-hole instead of down at the window into the reflection chamber thingy. However, I am considering putting foil into the bulb hole to make a little reflection room out of it. One final option would be going to radio shack and getting my own little individual leds, making my own array, and positioning them aiming at the window. I like the first idea better. Less work

Here's the site that sells the bulbs in question:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

There are also all kinds of crazy things I can think of, but they would require lots of time and I have SO many other things to be working on, it seems superfluous.