Tested Gauge Clusters

[gf0012-aust]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CSA4-19MG...oAAOSwEeFVMXLs

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MURATA-CE...UAAOSwQJ5URk2T

US seller is easy to do business with.

note, these are Murata's as well - the recommended replacement

[mudnut]

Good to have the right stuff to work with,

Cheers.

[mudnut]

I haven't done much of late, but I have finally made a small table which fits on my work bench so I can work with better posture.

I have settled on and built this Variable speed circuit to run the old battery drill to drive speedo senders.

[mudnut]

Finally made the battery drill run off the cigarette lighter, with the above circuit. It now runs from zero to around 60kph, which should be ample for testing but not calibration.

After experimenting with the drills gearbox, by locking one stage, to get it to go up to 110 kph, I found the drill's motor dragged too many amps and nearly cooked the electronics..

I have made a threaded attachment that is glued to the torque setting ring on the drill. The speedo sender is screwed into modified PVC pipe extension which is then locked onto the drill using a nut.

[mudnut]

After a long break, I've had a couple of days mucking around with the cluster that @Rossco sent me. I unfortunately found that removing the needle off the tacho, destroys the bearings.

Bugger! They have designed the collar to protrude under the hub of the needle, so there is no way of removing it, without the whole spindle sliding out.

This will make it a lot harder to conduct repairs on the PC boards of both the speedos and tachos.

So, if anyone has had success in removing the needle please let me know how you did it.

I have also found that the TD42 diesel cluster loom sockets aren't compatible with the RB30 and TB42 clusters. so I will have to find a way to make adaptors for the test bench. I'm guessing the RD28 is different again.

On a positive note, I redesigned the electronic speedo signal generator to produce a stronger, smoother output. I also found that a 10k ohm resistor across the output kills any feedback voltages from either the sig gen or from the speedo, which is a bonus.

[MudRunnerTD]

After a long break, I've had a couple of days mucking around with the cluster that @Rossco sent me. I unfortunately found that removing the needle off the tacho, destroys the bearings.

Bugger! They have designed the collar to protrude under the hub of the needle, so there is no way of removing it, without the whole spindle sliding out.

This will make it a lot harder to conduct repairs on the PC boards of both the speedos and tachos.

So, if anyone has had success in removing the needle please let me know how you did it.

I have also found that the TD42 diesel cluster loom sockets aren't compatible with the RB30 and TB42 clusters. so I will have to find a way to make adaptors for the test bench. I'm guessing the RD28 is different again.

On a positive note, I redesigned the electronic speedo signal generator to produce a stronger, smoother output. I also found that a 10k ohm resistor across the output kills any feedback voltages from either the sig gen or from the speedo, which is a bonus.

@liftlid you might find this thread of interest mate. I have that cluster out and sitting on the camper for you to pickup mate. The Speedo is all but Gone but the Tacho and other gauges are there and the cluster is a TD cluster.

@mudnut, yes i went through this when i did my ground up build and also failed to get the needle off damn it. I was though able to correct the speedo calibration (needle position at 100km/h) by simply driving with the face cover off and man handling the needle and spinning it on the shaft. I was able to do this by spinning the needle past full speed and took a 5degree spin on the shaft or so. L then let the needle go and was able to do this in either direction to get it bang on at 100kms running 35s.

[mudnut]

@MudRunnerTD. You were very lucky that you didn't break the return springs, doing that but, hey it worked!

I wonder if heating the hub will release the needle. If that fails, the moving coil unit must be non serviceable.

Since stuffing the tacho up I have found that it is very easy to un-solder the unit from PC board, to gain access to the other components.