Sunday, February 15, 2015

Repairing a Failed VDO Hour Meter/Cummins Engine (Tuggers Vol. 63)

Nellie's VDO hour meter stopped working. The tachometer, which contains the hour meter continued to work fine. This is a common problem on LNVTs. The hour meter's gears are plastic and they simply wear out with extended use. The choice is either to repair or replace the unit. I chose to repair it for the following reasons:

1. The repair cost is about the same as the price of a new unit.
2. A new unit would have a different bezel than all the other instruments on Nellie's panel.
3. The repaired hour meter can be updated to include all the hours since the meter broke (a new VDO's hour meter can't be updated--it must start at 0 hours).
4. New VDOs require a different wiring harness. The old one is plug and play.

Pictured above is the unit repaired by Lauderdale Speedometer and Compass. The hour reading was updated from 5642.35 to 5835.00. Total cost for repair and rejuvenation was just under $200. Hopefully it'll last another 5,600 hours.

Dave Howell
Nellie D. 37VT63
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownMay 15, 2015 at 9:18 PM

    From tug owner Patrick Mitchell, "My speedo pals http://www.nhspeedometer.com fixed Elnora's 37VT37 hour meter and added a new face cover for about $150. They specialize in VDO and do many car restorations. They claim original parts in hour meters were like super weak and they added parts that will never fail."

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