Aloha, new 914 owner here!

While peeling off the nasty 50 year old Perlon carpeting, I dropped the dealer-installed A/C unit on my 1973 1.7L. I found that there was a weird control knob connected to a small metal bracket that was pop-riveted to the back of the under-dash A/C unit. It was also secured to the underside of the dash with a 1/4" sheet metal screw. The cable that extends from the switch goes up into the instrument area, and it does not appear to be related to the A/C unit itself.

Any ideas what it could be? Possibly a felonious odometer rollback device? The odometer is ganked on the car, it reads 4500. But just wondering if anyone has seen something like this before?

TIA,
-- mike

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That indeed is the odometer reset for cars equipped with the A/C console. If the odometer isn't working it could be because someone tried to reset it with the car in motion.

It can be fixed if you want to open it up and fiddle with it.

Aloha Mike!

Awesome. Mystery solved.

Now I'll have to figure out how to crack the odometer and fix any stripped gears.

"Clocking" the odometer is now a felony! I guess it wasn't in 1973. I really like the idea that there is a knob on my car that facilitates crime! Breaking the law!

I'm pretty sure that rolling back the odometer has always been against the law. That knob controls the trip odometer (the small odometer at the bottom), not the odometer itself.

Yeah, sorry, I meant the TRIP odometer reset.

I would never encourage breaking the law

And that is the early style trip reset. Interesting that they had to create a bracket due to the AC since it blocked where the knob usually goes in the dash hole seen in one of your pics. Never seen one of those.

The speedo fix is easy and fun if you like that kind of thing. Get a good light a beverage and take your time. Great instructions are here on the forums.

That is the trip odometer reset, doesn't do anything with the actual odometer. If the knurled knob turns in the cable housing and you don't want to reinstall it, I'm looking for one. Mine rusted up solid.