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... and we are in the New Year, coming up on my first anniversary with this car, now at 67,175 miles, just under 10,000 miles since I bought it on March 13, 2017.
I have not yet bonded with it like my old '92 which is really having a tough time with my brother, new scrapes on the front turn signal lenses, a new crack on the rear tail light lens, a new bumper hit, a torn driver's seat bottom, a smoked Nakamichi power amplifier, and a general level of daily filth that I cannot brook. But that '92 still has a silky smooth engine, a balanced driveshaft, and a spirit that I connect with instantly. I don't understand how this all works. Maybe the years of shared experience in snow storms and hot Austin Texas summers and banzai blasts up to the northeast.
So, the new Lexus has yet to pass the gauntlet, it is just as boringly efficient as a new car, and I might have to find adventure. I was so looking forward to a nightmare of icy roads here in Pensacola to put it through its paces, but we barely got a donut glaze on the roads.
Meanwhile, I demand of any car I own that it "work as intended", and the combination meter is now doing exactly that, with all needles within my range of inaccuracy, the airbag light reset I can do with no problems now, and just yesterday, in this icy blast of freezing weather, I finally beat the cassette transport into "high fidelity compliance". The celebration was tempered by the crack sound that the gorgeous console wood issued when removing it. There is now a hairline crack in the perfect finish directly over the damn clip that hung up on me. And I was using a Motel6 room card to pry up with. It ain't fair. I yell at God and He says "ashes to ashes, dust to dust, enjoy it while you can."
Had to disassemble the "friction clutches" on the what do you call them "intermediate gears" and clean, lubricate, and stretch the springs just a bit for less slipping. These are sophisticated highly annoying little units. If the "Hall Effect Sensors" do not have the correct mathematical relationship as the reels "proportionately change speed" the damn thing throw the tape out. It starts with high speed take up reel/ slow speed provider reel. Then at the midpoint of the tape, they both go the same speed, and at the end, the take up reel is slow and the provider reel is spinning quickly.
After putting it all back together, all back together, all back TOGETHER, the cassettes advanced correctly, the wow and flutter were GONE, but the music was utterly muffled. all back APART, I had to plug the system in and play the 80's tape while adjusting the azimuths for best treble response. Punched the motor speed up to 3005 hertz against the 3000 hertz test tone, and everybody seems happy.
Finally! Bach Organ Contada rocks!
Drove down to the Law Firm and gratefully experienced my VW starting instantly, driving smoothly, and no problems at all with its nonexistent cassette player. No, it has a real AM radio driving a dashboard speaker.
Please take good care of your Lexii in the coming year. Do not treat it dismissively just because its market value is punky.
Colin
I recently inherited a 1991 LS400 with 224K from my uncle who was the original owner. It was garaged, babied and lived it's life in CA, AZ and NC - so NO RUST. I plan on keeping it in 'as new' condition for as long as possible. Right now, I'm compiling a rather small list of things it needs, but, it's condition in no way reflects it's miles.
Regarding the chrome wheels. Although I'm not really a fan, I'd say keep them. They are original and appear to be in great condition. I had an SC400 that had factory chrome wheels that eventually failed. Once the chrome plating starts coming off, it will be time to jettison the wheels.
Where can we learn more about your VWs? They all look great.
I recently inherited a 1991 LS400 with 224K
chrome wheels, keep them.
Where can we learn more about your VWs?
a) color scheme?
b) OK
c) website is in my signature line . . . it is my actual career for the past fifteen years, but numbers are diminishing each year due to fires, crashes, rust-outs, and assorted idiots killing them.
Colin
Yeah, thanks. I saw your website and looked around a bit. Good for you. Those air-cooled VWs are worth keeping around. I am sure their 'universe' gets a bit smaller each year. Although I don't have a VW at this time, I'm going to register for the site. May be a regular lurker.
Is there a particular photo sharing site you use? Want to avoid that whole Photobucket fiasco.
Color is cream over gray. This is my 4th Lexus, having owned a LS430, ES350 and a SC400.
Yeah, thanks. I saw your website and looked around a bit. Good for you. Those air-cooled VWs are worth keeping around. I am sure their 'universe' gets a bit smaller each year. Although I don't have a VW at this time, I'm going to register for the site. May be a regular lurker.
Is there a particular photo sharing site you use? Want to avoid that whole Photobucket fiasco.
Color is cream over gray. This is my 4th Lexus, having owned a LS430, ES350 and a SC400.
I am a bitter and outraged Photophukket customer who has to pony up sixtybilliondollars for the right to have "3rd Party Hosting" .
There is an excellent extension available to wake up every dead Photobucket link NOW in your Chrome or Mozilla browser. Search Google for "Photobucket Hot-link Fix". I do need to find a server/domain under my full control however, because I despise Photobucket with a vehemence.
I cannot conjure up "cream" over grey. I had a "pearlescent white" over grey, once.
Colin
Pearlescent white is what it likely is. I have an Acura RL and an Audi Cabriolet that are both pearlescent white, but the Lexus doesn't seem to have as much 'pearl' in the paint, so I was just thinking it was nice creamy white. It has not been intentional, but somehow I seem to wind up with white cars, but I've also had quite a few cars that were either silver or black.
Regarding Photobucket, I am not nor have been a member. Don't think I want to start now. I'll look around for a different photo hosting site. Was just wondering if there are some that tend to be more 'friendly' to forums such as this.
Not to go off topic, but I would like to post this to add more information to your instrument cluster needle tutorial.
Thanks to being able to look at how the inside of the cluster looks from your post, I attempted the same fix last week on my car. The tachometer needle had fallen off again, so I was hoping to find a more permanent fix.
Below is a zoomed-in image I took of the motor shaft (silver) and the bottom black hub of the cold cathode needle assembly.
NOTE FOR READERS: You cannot put too much Gorilla glue on the motor shaft - it literally has to be a small amount on the tip of the screwdriver. At first, my tachometer needle would get stuck at 1,000 RPM, because glue residue had settled in the wrong place.
You also don't want to get glue on what looks to be a spring or coil above the black needle hub.
Part of original post:
Originally Posted by Amskeptic
The whole reason I am even dealing with this is because my speedometer needle has "fallen off the stop" one time too many, just sickeningly dips to vertical south. I had driven it down the road THIS MORNING with the "smoked plastic" cover off, and watched the needle drop down at 30 mph, stuck it back ON at the stop light, and it FELL OFF within a block, and that was all she wrote, back to the garage and here we are. I have read many posts about these finicky things, and q-tipping the stops of excessive lubricant and bashing the top of the dashboard to free the needles (don't do that, you have no idea how delicate these parts are), and my problem was simply that the needle was no longer grabbing on to the motor spindle. You will see a dead-ahead reflection at the center point in the photograph, and a reflection that is slightly offset to your right. The dead-ahead reflection is the motor shaft. The offset reflection just above, is the black plastic "hub" that fits over the shaft. I pulled the needle assembly up ever so gently about a millimeter:
Then I offered my small screwdriver (that looks like a shovel in these confines) with a load of Gorilla Glue and delicately contacted the underside of the "hub" and rotated the needle about 180* to smear the glue crap on the hub and spindle. Removed screwdriver carefully, lowered the needle down 1/2mm and located its pre-ordained park position (a sliver of the gauge plate hash mark visible under the needle when viewing dead-on):
NOTE FOR READERS: You cannot put too much Gorilla glue on the motor shaft - it literally has to be a small amount on the tip of the screwdriver. At first, my tachometer needle would get stuck at 1,000 RPM, because glue residue had settled in the wrong place. The needle would work above 1k and below if it was nudged slightly with my finger, but this is ultimately not what you want.
You also don't want to get glue on what looks to be a spring or coil above the black needle hub.
Is it working correctly now? I cannot imagine going back in there to remove cryo-acrylic glue residue. The 180* needle/shaft rotation against the tip of the screwdriver helped me to have no "runs".
As for clock springs getting glopped, do NOT drink coffee during this surgery!
Colin.
Yes, no worries. Everything has been working perfectly for me since I went back in to fix it. I have only taken the car on a few short trips so far, but I believe this will last in the long run.
EDIT: Everything is still good 2 years later.
Last edited by CELSI0R; 03-22-20 at 10:00 PM.
Reason: Updated
All online purveyors of anything odometer-related have come up empty. Took apart the "mule" combination meter to see how the odometer failed again. Well . . . the gear glue job is actually holding up, so its failure is incumbent upon something else.
Ripped the fresh 65,000 mile odometer apart and lubricated it with silicone grease at the worm drive. Note that nice blue condom on the odometer illumination bulb:
This picture is ostensibly to have photo-documentation of the worm gear when one of you decides to go on a CNC tear <(hint)
Disassembly is simple and obvious, with the understanding that you must be deliberate and "delicate" when dealing with the soft plastic here in its 26th year of deterioration:
The whole reason I am even dealing with this is because my speedometer needle has "fallen off the stop" one time too many, just sickeningly dips to vertical south. I had driven it down the road THIS MORNING with the "smoked plastic" cover off, and watched the needle drop down at 30 mph, stuck it back ON at the stop light, and it FELL OFF within a block, and that was all she wrote, back to the garage and here we are. I have read many posts about these finicky things, and q-tipping the stops of excessive lubricant and bashing the top of the dashboard to free the needles (don't do that, you have no idea how delicate these parts are), and my problem was simply that the needle was no longer grabbing on to the motor spindle. You will see a dead-ahead reflection at the center point in the photograph, and a reflection that is slightly offset to your right. The dead-ahead reflection is the motor shaft. The offset reflection just above, is the black plastic "hub" that fits over the shaft. I pulled the needle assembly up ever so gently about a millimeter:
Then I offered my small screwdriver (that looks like a shovel in these confines) with a load of Gorilla Glue and delicately contacted the underside of the "hub" and rotated the needle about 180* to smear the glue crap on the hub and spindle. Removed screwdriver carefully, lowered the needle down 1/2mm and located its pre-ordained park position (a sliver of the gauge plate hash mark visible under the needle when viewing dead-on):
Pretend you are performing brain surgery on your beloved little child, that'll help you settle down and focus. Then I used a pushpin to delicately lay a little speck 'o Gorilla Glue between the black conductive backing and the fluorescent tube and squeezed the conductive coating onto the tube and held it:
Well, I glued the kids brain to my fat finger after all, good-bye piano lessons! and had to bisect finger from tube/backing with a razor blade without moving more than let's say .003256mm.
Cleaned everything, de-dusted, de-linted, de-dusted, de-linted de-dusted, de-linted cover glass, gauge face, odometer lens, ad infinitum, stuck the mess in the car, warned it that I don't need any of this crap, and went for a calibration test drive past the roadside speed limit nanny near the church. When it said "36/35/36/35/36/35" my speedometer said "35".
I said, "good enough".
Then I replaced the original Toyota rear brake pads and the replacement front brake pads, not that they needed replacement, but it was just such a relief to bash around with wrenches not worrying about delicate stupid fussy little fluorescent indicator needles.
Do you all use all the hardware? Are you sure?
I spy:
2 coppery spreader wires that engage in holes in the pads themselves
2 outer brake pad shims in a sporty polished stainless steel
2 inner brake pad shims in a discrete black matte finish
2 what-are-they springy clamps that grab the bottoms of the pads and appear to serve no purpose up front but a definite purpose on the rear pads. On the rear, they act like shock absorbers so the pads don't clonk in their grooves when you apply the brakes.
You can see these little things on the bottom of the assembled front pads. I thought maybe they were designed to screech against the disks when the pads get worn down, but where what how?
Don't forget to syringe some brake fluid out of the reservoir if you topped it off between pad changes.
Colin
I love this thank you for all the help. I've got 0 experience working on car dash clusters though and am worried I will mess something up permanently... if I were to show this thread to a mechanic do you think they would be able to help im having an issue with my speedometer odometer and tachometer.
I love this thank you for all the help. I've got 0 experience working on car dash clusters though and am worried I will mess something up permanently... if I were to show this thread to a mechanic do you think they would be able to help im having an issue with my speedometer odometer and tachometer.
I am too much of a control-freak to hand off something this delicate. I think you would have better luck with a watch repair expert in a very good relaxed mood.
01-17-18, 03:15 PM
