205 trip meter

schlitzaugen

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My trip meter is hard to reset. It does reset, but erratically. Sometimes very easily on the first push, sometimes it's a bastard and takes multiple attempts and lots of foul language. The trip meter is a very good s/h working unit I have serviced when I rebuilt the engine, some four years ago or eight, and used to reset smoothly on the first go.

I guess the erratic behaviour might have something to do with the position of the little cams when I try to reset it (when it doesn't want to reset, I just drive the car a bit and let the meter register another number and then try again and it does eventually work), but there may be something else as well. Now I don't remember if I used any grease on the gears, but I do remember I used a light oil on the drums' shaft. The trip meter works (as in registers all the time, no problem there) so I guess the little lever actuated by the push button doesn't engage the cams correctly in certain positions.

Anyone else had this problem? What was the solution?

I am a bit hesitant to pull the dash out and break some more of the crappy plastics before I know that I can fix the problem.
 
Lanox helped with a very jerky indicator stalk action on my 309.
It doesn't have any solvents that dissolve old french plastic.
It comes with a fine tube that fits the spray nozzle. Very helpful for directing the jet. Use the shortest of squeezes each time and see if it gets to the right spot.

search for INOX MX4 LANOX LANOLIN Protective LUBRICANT 300G AEROSOL Prices vary a lot.

It's a good general lube for squeaky bits on old french cars.
 
Thank you. Found it.

You had the dash apart, I take it?
I didn't have to pull much apart for the indicator stalk fix, fortunately.

The spray can will be difficult to get near where you want it for the trip meter. Maybe a longer tube could be fed into tight places while keeping the aerosol vertical enough to spray.
The tube supplied is only about 50mm. If the piece was cut in half with some longer flexible tubing (of the right I.D.) for the middle section it could weave around some of the obstructions.

I can't guarantee that it will fix your problem, but if you are able to spray a small amount down the re-set shaft into the mechanism it *might* help the plastic bits slide better.
 
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