I got a Speedo unit from a board member, the mileage on his was 56k, mine is at 61k, how do I turn the odometer over to match mine without turning the tenth/mile section about a million times to add 5 thousand miles...
Hook it up to a drill motor and let it run.....slow speed and you can calculate when you need to check on it.
Take a the tip end piece of an old radio antennae and sharpen it in a sq. tapering manner at the end opposite the ball.... then gently insert the sharpened tip between the number rolls and rotate the tool .... it will wedge the rolls apart just enough to clear each other and you can reset any speedo of that era in about 2 minutes....
The odometer drum can be removed with a little bit of skill. Once removed, you can set the mileage to anything you like. Shouldnt take you more than 10 minutes once the speedo is removed from the car
You could do like they did on Ferris Bueller's Day off... put it up on blocks.... roflmao.. oh but that was rolling it back.. lol... couldn't help it.. it just came to mind while reading this thread.
I may end up just putting it in the car. It less than 5k difference and in the good way. The new gauges are in excellent shape and I dont want to screw it up.
Just for future reference- In order to roll the odometer 1- Remove the lens from the gauge assy 2- Remove the shift indicator. its held in by one screw. 3- Remove the two bolts in the back of the gauge assy. This will remove the gauge itself from the metal cup. 4- Remove the little clip holding the drum assy- what the screwdriver is pointing to. 5- Loosen the two screws on the face of the gauge. Dont remove them, you just need to gain some space to remove the odometer drum. Be careful to not damage the needle. 6- Now take the odometer drum and slide it towards the side where the clip was. Once the axle slips out of the one side, you can remove it completely from the speedo. 7- carefully remove the white plastic that secures the individual drums. Once that is removed, you can roll the odometer to whatever you want. Its not as easy as just moving all the numbers to zero or what have you. The drums are ratcheted a certain way. It took me ten minutes to do this start to finish. 8 1/2 minutes were spent figuring out the sequence to get them to read what I wanted it to. Once you have the drum with the correct mileage, re install the little white plastic piece that holds the numbers steady and reverse the steps. When you reinstall the drum, make sure you insert it in the clip side first. Its not that difficult once you get the hang of it. In this case, the speedo i had read 98k miles. I set it to .3. I would of had it set to .1 but the damn tenths drum rolled a little when I reinstalled it. I didnt feel like redoing it! Hope the pictures help a little
Don't forget to swap the Hi-beam indicator lense while it's apart. Red or blue in 71 & 72, just forget which. Check the one from your car.
Can't ask for much more than that. Thanks Jason, I'll practice on my old gauge before I tear apart the good one. What do you mean to "Don't forget to swap the Hi-beam indicator lense while it's apart."
Different years had different colours for the hi-beam indicator. Reference will be your original, from your car. Make sure the replacement has the same colour lense, easy swap. It's one of those nit-picky details. I restored the entire dash cluster in mine a few years ago, over the Winter. I put the original odometer from my car into the restored speedo. The needles can easily be retouched using flourescent road paint. Usually sold in an upside down spray can. Little dab on a modeling brush does wonders.
Can we get a moderator to move this thread over to the interior section, turned out to be a pretty informative one...
Shouldn't you be out trying to convince some poor, sweet old lady that her old Riv is only worth the time and effort it takes you to get it out of her yard and onto your trailer :grin:
Great tutorial Jason I practiced on my old/bad one and it wasn't to bad. Like you said trying to figure out the right formula to get the numbers to come out correct was the hardest part.
Seeing as though you are trying to add miles to the odometer, you could just hook it up in the car, drive 5000 miles, and bang, your at 61,000 miles:laugh: Nick
