Odometer miles not working

Killa

Active Member
Jul 9, 2007
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I part my mustang for over 5 month, the battery went die, i put new batter, and now my edometer not working, and the gas MPG/Trip thing not working ether, i drove over 400miles, and they both still stay the same number. Any one have any ideal ? thanks
 
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KillaGT:

in the '98, the speedo and odo are driven by the VSS (it generates an AC signal). It is possible that the VSS has failed or a wire on that harness has failed or the fuse has popped (not sure why but it is easy to check). The VSS is usually at 10 o'clock on the transmission as you look at it from the back of the car towards the front of the car.

HTH,

Chris

**edit: More correctly, the odometer is mechanical (driven gears) but the driving signal to the instrument panel comes from the VSS. Sorry for not being clear in my original reply.
** end of edit
 
Odometer worm gear stripped

Not the VSS. If it was, the speedo wouldn't work as well.

This is a very common problem on the 1995-1998 Fords (not just Mustangs). The worm gear in the odometer did not get enough lube from the factory. It dries up and strips the tiny plastic gear inside the odometer.

There are MANY shops that specialize in Ford Odometer/speedometer repair. It should cost about $100 as a bench job. Likely $150-175 taking the car in.

For an example of a company that has done mine:

United Speedometer and Electrical > Home

I am sure an online search will yeild others (local and mail in).

If you ever think about selling the car, get the Odometer fixed before it can become an issue with any new possible buyer.
 
Not the VSS. If it was, the speedo wouldn't work as well.

This is a very common problem on the 1996-1998 Fords (not just Mustangs). The worm gear in the odometer did not get enough lube from the factory. It dries up and strips the tiny plastic gear inside the odometer.

There are MANY shops that specialize in Ford Odometer/speedometer repair. It should cost about $100 as a bench job. Likely $150-175 taking the car in.

For an example of a company that has done mine:

United Speedometer and Electrical > Home

I am sure an online search will yeild others (local and mail in).

If you ever think about selling the car, get the Odometer fixed before it can become an issue with any new possible buyer.

+1 on that. Mine stoped working too nearly 2 weeks after I bought in Feb. Since I hit junk yards around here a lot I pulled a few instrument clusters apart and found that the gear it a plastic POS and all that I have found the gears just simply get brittle and break. Oddley enough, almost all of them have a good amount of lube on them. If your the DIY kind of guy, late model restoration supply sells a rebuild kit that is super easy (and I mean SUPER easy) to install.

odometer - LRS Search gear repair kit&vehicle=Mustang

Good luck!
 
wmburns:

Yes, you are correct *blush*. I got excited and did not read the post thoroughly. :D For sure, KillaGT's odo gear is shot. Good link posted by 98GTfromGA for the replacement work.

Kilgore Trout: LOL! Some pre-98 models did not get enough "green grease" and this caused the odo gear to wear faster than it should. The T-Bird crowd seemed to suffer from odo-gear-itis a bit more than us Mustang owners.

Chris
 
Meh, every model of car have common, annoying issues if they survive long enough on the road for anyone to care about them and to figure out what they are.

This same thing happened to me and a new gear fixed it right up.

Cars with mechanical odometers, be sure you're at a complete stop when you reset the trip odometer or you run the risk of shortening that gear's life or strip it out right there.
 
A light white lithium grease should work well. IMO, it may be a good idea to clean the old grease so that different kinds of grease are not being mixed.

Note, a previous poster pointed out that their gear had stripped teeth even though it was apparently covered in grease. Note, the problem is not specifically with the worm gear not getting enough grease. It is also the driven gears not being lightly greased.

The driven gears dry out and increase the load on the worm gear. Over time, this leads to failure of the primary worm gear.

Obviously, you do not want to drown the other gears in grease. The worm gear is still the part that needs a liberal coating of grease.
 
Good Post!

I don't think my odometer gear failures had anything to do with inadequate grease. The driven gear had become brittle and the teeth crumbled off. If grease had anything to do with it, it is because the grease chemically attacks the gear plastic and makes it brittle...


My 98 Cobra had a black plastic driven gear and a white plastic worm gear. The worm gear was in excellent shape, but I replaced it anyway while I was in there. My driven gear failed at 77k miles.

I suspect that many of the driven gears were made of the wrong material in the first place.