1980's Era Speedometer Repair Question

[nc_growler]

Not your usual place to start a technical conversation, but this question is not a model specific one.

Earlier this week, while repairing the completely crumbled odometer gear on my '86 944 Turbo, I had an unfortunate experience at the very end of my thus far successful repair.

While reassembling the speedometer, I pressed the speedometer needle back on and it was slightly off zero. While carefully removing it again to re-position, it pulled the center pin out of the plastic screw that attaches to the speedometer itself (see pictures).

My plan is to "re-glue" the pin back into the plastic screw (or as a back-up plan, find a donor in-operable speedometer if that doesn't work).

My question is: How tight do you tighten down the plastic screw onto the speedometer? It seems like it should be snug, but I worry that too loose and it will come free and too tight it might either damage the speedometer or cause unnecessary drag on the speedometer mechanism.

Anyone have practical experience or insight here?

Thanks in advance!

[Tom]

Well...... if yours is like my spare, it looks like you broke the little pin/axle that the needle sits on. The white plastic piece appears to be a bushing to support the outer end of the pin. It was glued in place, but I was able to pick the glue out and get it turning. It does screw in an out, I assume to keep the face pushed out so that the needle is always tight against the face. The bad news is that pin, at least on my spare, is one piece that is connected into the mechanism below. See video. You can't glue the pin in the white bushing, because it needs to rotate inside the there. In theory, you could replace it with a spare like mine, but at some point I suspect it would just be easier to find a used one that works. Resetting the odometer is disturbingly easy if you wanted to keep the miles accurate. Maybe someone else has a better idea, but yours looks broken to me unfortunately.

[nc_growler]

Tom,

Thank you so much for tearing down your spare and taking a look. I believe you are absolutely correct. That pin must have actually snapped off in mine.

While that's disappointing, at least I now have a well documented answer.

And yes, resetting the odometer to make up for the un-recorded miles was super straight-forward and only took a couple minutes.

Thanks again for documenting your findings in video. That made it incredibly clear what had gone wrong with mine.

Off to find a used/working spare to replace mine.

[Tom]

If you wanted to send me yours, I could see if I can fix it with the various parts I have on hand. Fair warning, it's 50/50 whether I fix it or completely ruin it.

[nc_growler]

Hey Tom. That's a pretty amazing offer.

I had someone ship me one as replacement but it turned out to not be the correct model. It's being returned.

Give me a week or so to see if I can find a spare/replacement. I might take you up on that...

Stephen