My speedometer stopped working and so I pulled the gauge cluster out to see what was going on. While taking out the cluster you could already hear parts rattling around in there. From the front it still looked ok:
On the back side a different story:
Luckily I have a couple of speedometers and dash clusters, so I grabbed the odometer counter from the broken speedo that was in the car when I bought it 11 years ago. There's a little clip on the opposite side of the gear that needs to be removed and out comes the counter. Luckily I took a photo from the side before I took it out, because there are little notches for each wheel that hold it in place. Not that easy to line them all up and getting them in there!
Next up was some preventative maintenance. There's a little hole with a little brass cup that holds a wick that is supposed to oil the speedo internally. The cup already has some perforation for a special service tool (I assume), but you just use a very small screw and screw it carefully in there, so you can pull the thing out. The wick was rock solid and not reusable. I thought about using some cotton, but feared that it would wrap around the shaft and block it, so I went without it. Just used a good amount of 3-in-1 oil and spun the speedo with a drill, so it would get where it needs to be.
It's a bit blurry, but you can see the cup that I filled with RTV to close the screw hole.
Then I popped it back into the hole. It didn't want to go in the way it came out, but it did backwards and that was fine with me. It's really just to keep dust out at this point.
By the way this is the paint I use to freshen up the needles of the gauges (see above).
I cleaned everything in the cluster including the circuit board. A while ago I figured out that it works better with regular bulbs for oil, high beam and turn signal indicator and LEDs for the instrument lights.
I even used some foam tape to replace the rotten foam at the oil light etc.
It was dark when I finally had it back in the car. But I finally figured out why it broke in the first place. Well, after I connected the speedo cable, it was really bouncy and I was discouraged and disconnected the cable again. Then I tried something... I remembered that when the old cable broke and I replaced with one that you cut to length. And apparently I cut it just a bit too long, so instead of just rotating it put pressure on the tail end of the speedo and eventually broke it. So I loosened up the connection where the cable attaches to the speedo a bit and voila: The speedo runs smoother than it ever has. Since there is a good amount of threads on that connection I figured I could make a little spacer and tighten the speedo cable with the remaining threads. I made one that was about 1/16", but that was not enough. I will make another one that's closer to 1/8" and test again. For now it works ok just loosely on there, haha.
Anyways, all that progress motivated me to get back to the A/C install. That meant drilling a hole in my custom made, CNC'd adapter bracket to attach the belt tensioner:
It took about 4 different tensioners to find on that aligned with the compressor pulley.
Then I bolted it into the car and tried a few different belts and it finally works:
I'll still need a longer belt to have a bit more clearance and I will shave down the head of the bolt a bit for the same reason, because it is really close to the fan. But now that the compressor finally is driven by the belt, I can look into how to route the hoses and connect everything.
