[IndyAnne]

14. Examine closely the gear on the tenths of a mile end of the trip odometer spindle. In my case, this gear is brown, and plastic, and travels in tandem with the while “tenths” number dial. This is the problem. It took 14 steps to get here, so far, but now you know what’s wrong. That broken brown plastic gear is the reason for the slippage of the trip odometer, and is why when you got the truck you realized that no matter how many times you reset the trip odometer, it would go about a mile and then everything would go wild. All of the numbers would spin on their own with no logical connection. Yes, they were free-wheeling.
15. Notice all of the numbered wheels. The only one that is actually a typical-looking gear is the first one, the tenths. The rest depend upon a timing device molded into their construction. That is because behind the trip odometer is another spindle with one white gear and three little green gears with green square spacers between the gears, and they are all plastic, and they are all quite worn, one more than the others, which is odd, because that one that is most worn operates the “thousands” space on the meter. Anyway, this design is part of the timing and tracking of the trip odometer. The little square spacers work with the reset mechanism. The numbered wheels each have a space near the number 4, where the numbered wheels get their push to change either from the back gear spindle or from the reset mechanism. All of this is complicated, and not being an engineer and never having studied physics in a formal way, that’s all I have to say about that. Except this: because those little gears on the back spindle are so badly worn, I’m not sure my repair is going to work, but I am going to give it my best try. If it does not work, I think I’ll just take a piece of tape, set the trip odometer numbers all to 0s, disconnect the spindle from the master odometer, and use my vintage trip odometer: paper and pencil.

Now that I have been through all of that discovering of where everything goes, I found that it is only necessary to get the speedometer and the battery meter out. To get the battery meter out, you have to first take out the gas gauge. So, if you don’t want to replace all of the little bulbs, you can get the trip odometer out by following steps 11-15. ☺

If I can figure out how to get the photos lined up with the text, I’ll post the photos with the text. If I can’t figure it out, I’ll post the photos on my web site where I can do everything more easily.

That will end this part of the Trip Odometer story until I find some Loctite and give it all a try on the open road.

More soon …