all narrow sixes on Odometer

[pdc]

It's been a while I was here since I've been to busy professionally however I wanted to share what happened today. So far I have made a point to have my Pagoda inspected annually for emission and  safety tests. Every year I passed and today it was time for a new one. Here we call it 'autokeuring' and I choose to make online appointment to avoid long waiting times. Unfortunately I lost track of time and my i-phone message alarmed me I had to leave. That was some 15 minutes before the appointment for a distance that usually takes about 20 minutes so I knew it was going to be a bit tight. It was actually fun to speed a little bit 

Once I was there I noticed there was someone in front of me and soon enough I was waiting for my turn in front of the line and suddenly I noticed nothing but sixes on my odometer and the last one was just not flat . Now I though immediately if this just doesn't bring bad luck..5 sixes in a row..

When I drove in some of the inspectors came to take a closer look and I sensed immediately that this wasn't going to be a normal inspection. They were actually nice and all went well. The funny thing was that the car passed all tests but they didn't measure the exhaust for CO what they usually do. I think they were more curious about the car and don't see it everyday and probably forgot.

At the end of the positive inspection the odometer was exactly with all Sixes flat and I was very happy about my trip to the inspection today

A picture attached showing that all sixes are actually more narrow than the other digits.

Pascal



 

[kampala]

Nice catch.   Thanks for sharing.

[rgafitanu@gmail.com]

There is an explanation why the digit 6 is narrower than the other digits. The mile/kilometer counter mechanism has a shaft with gears behind the digit wheels almost opposite to the glass. Each digit wheel at a full turn (when ten digits have passed) engages through the auxiliary gears the next (higher order/ left) digit wheel to move by one digit. This happens when 9 changes to 0 and the higher order digit wheel advances by one. The cog that does that is right where the 6 digit is so in order to keep the numbers close to each other and to fit the cog they had to make the "6" narrower. Other solutions (older cassette tape counters) have the digits further spread apart in order to keep the digits width constant.
Radu

[66andBlue]

Correct, the cog needs space next to a "6" as Al  Lieffring explained here many years ago.
http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=9279.msg61715#msg61715

[Cees Klumper]

You got away there Pascal! Could it be that the CO test no longer applies to cars older than a certain age?

[pdc]

Cees,

Unless something changed here in Belgium I 'm not aware that the CO test for vintage cars would no longer be applicable as long the vintage car is driving with a normal license plate which mine does. Many here use a "O" plate and those only need to do a minimal inspection the first time they put the car on the road, no CO test for them. I have made it a point to keep driving with my original plate and had to rebuild the injection pump last year to get it passed. That went immaculate and I should be good for the coming years. Keeping the license plate is a bit of a challenge and keeps my on my tows to maintain it well.

Unfortunate the longer I have the car the more little details I want to see fixed, but I am not in a rush at all and enjoy the ride.