Need help naming and replacing this part

[jimbohendrix]

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone knew the name for this part, and if there was a schematic/blueprint anywhere. It's for a 1965 300 and part of the speedometer drive I believe. Someone came into our shop wondering if we could 3d print a new one and while I can get pretty decent measurements with the calipers, having exact numbers would be for the best. If anyone has a spare of this part and is willing to sell it I'd also be interested. Thanks.

 

[Mike66Chryslers]

I don't have a spare but FYI it's actually the trip meter mechanism which binds-up everything and ultimately takes out that gear. Unless the trip meter is fixed or disabled, the same thing will happen to the replacement gear.

For whatever reason, the odometer and trip meter in a 65-66 cluster are NOT the same. One has nylon gears and one has metal gears inside the number wheels, and they aren't interchangeable. Only the trip meter seems to wear out and bind-up.

This is a very common cause of failure of 65-66 Chrysler clusters. I used to buy them whenever I saw one at swapmeets, hoping to find good replacements for that gear. Eventually I learned that if the trip meter was reading "000.0" it was because the gear failed, the owner tried resetting the trip meter to see if that would fix it, and it never moved again.

 

[cretin90]

I don't have a spare but FYI it's actually the trip meter mechanism which binds-up everything and ultimately takes out that gear. Unless the trip meter is fixed or disabled, the same thing will happen to the replacement gear.

For whatever reason, the odometer and trip meter in a 65-66 cluster are NOT the same. One has nylon gears and one has metal gears inside the number wheels, and they aren't interchangeable. Only the trip meter seems to wear out and bind-up.

This is a very common cause of failure of 65-66 Chrysler clusters. I used to buy them whenever I saw one at swapmeets, hoping to find good replacements for that gear. Eventually I learned that if the trip meter was reading "000.0" it was because the gear failed, the owner tried resetting the trip meter to see if that would fix it, and it never moved again.

great. So I own a 66. Is there any way to prevent this from happening? any maintenance that can be done?, or is it just a case of a 50 year old piece of nylon drying out and getting brittle?

 

[Mike66Chryslers]

great. So I own a 66. Is there any way to prevent this from happening? any maintenance that can be done?, or is it just a case of a 50 year old piece of nylon drying out and getting brittle?

You can tell your trip meter is starting to bind-up if you watch what happens to your speedometer needle while the 10ths digit rolls over to zero and increments the 1s digit. If the speedometer needle starts bouncing around while it's doing that, there is a lot of resistance on the trip meter and it's trying to bind-up the gears. If it's rolling-over more digits back to zero, there will be more resistance and the speedo needle will bounce around more. Then it will stop bouncing afterwards.

While they were still working, I sent 2 clusters off to get overhauled at Mr.Heaterbox out near Kingston, ON. They didn't have any repair parts for these clusters though, so I gave them my box full of spare clusters for parts. They rummaged through and picked the best parts to overhaul those 2 units.

If you don't want to spend money on that and have no cluster for your car while it's off getting overhauled, you can disassemble the cluster and disable the trip meter. (At least you'll still have a working odometer!) There's a shaft with 2 gears on it, one to drive the trip meter and one to drive the odometer. Remove the shaft and press-off the gear for the trip meter with your thumbs, then reassemble. You have to drill out a small rivet, so you'll need a small but and bolt to replace it.

 

[SGT FURY]

I have a 65 I'm parting. You can have it for free,but you have to come pull cluster yourself.
No guarentees it's any good. I'm in NorCal