Odometer stopped working.

[Skidzz]

I meant to post this a while ago. I figured while I'm out of town and the car is in the shop, I can come up with a plan of attack for this. My speedometer works fine, but the odometer just stopped working completely. It worked fine before I deployed, then when I came home from my short, four-month deployment, it wasn't working. I assume it's not a mechanical issue because the only thing that would be is the speedo gear and that would cause the speedo to stop working too. I do have a raptor shift light that splices into the back of the gauge wiring. I think that might be the culprit. What do you guys think? I also have a speedcal installed but I really don't think that would cause it.

 

[Skidzz]

So I just did a little googling and apparently this car has an odometer gear? I guess I should've looked into that first. Is the gear actually in the back of the gauge?

 

[Noobz347]

What do you need an odometer for?

 

[wveil3v]

Yes it is in the back of the cluster, and I did mine right after buying car. You can get the gearset (2gears worm&spline) from "latemodelresto" with instructions. It's basically a straigtforward fix but just be careful and aware of the gauge needles and try to do your work in a clean area. Word of caution, the odometer motor has the plastic worm gear on it and has to come out to replace. BE very careful removng it because it's housed in 2 plastic clips that hold the motor in place. If the gear has been replaced before, these clips can be worn or weakened from prior removal and might break . But from what I've read mine was one of very few cases so other than that it's easy.

So I just did a little googling and apparently this car has an odometer gear? I guess I should've looked into that first. Is the gear actually in the back of the gauge?[/quote

 

[1987stangman]

Yes it is in the back of the cluster, and I did mine right after buying car. You can get the gearset (2gears worm&spline) from "latemodelresto" with instructions. It's basically a straigtforward fix but just be careful and aware of the gauge needles and try to do your work in a clean area. Word of caution, the odometer motor has the plastic worm gear on it and has to come out to replace. BE very careful removng it because it's housed in 2 plastic clips that hold the motor in place. If the gear has been replaced before, these clips can be worn or weakened from prior removal and might break . But from what I've read mine was one of very few cases so other than that it's easy.

+1 on this. Also, due to age the wires to the little motor are old and brittle, at least on my 96' and I had one of them snap off right at the motor. I ended up soldering it back on and it's been fine but this is an over all easy fix.

 

[wveil3v]

You're right about that, it can def be seen why they went to digital the following years.

 

[Skidzz]

Yea I just bought the kit from LRS. It looks pretty simple. Might even do some white gauges while I'm in there

 

[Jinx]

Trust me. click here

 

[Skidzz]

Awesome link Jinx. Thanks! Your pictures are way better than the PDF from LRS. It will help I ton!

 

[wveil3v]

Awesome link Jinx. Thanks! Your pictures are way better than the PDF from LRS. It will help I ton!

Did the gearset fix your odometer? Hey after reading your sig I noticed you have a mag catted xpipe and was wondering how the sound is compared to the stock hpipe. I have a flowmaster catback and wanting a catted xpipe but don't know if I'll like the sound with the flows?

 

[Skidzz]

Did the gearset fix your odometer? Hey after reading your sig I noticed you have a mag catted xpipe and was wondering how the sound is compared to the stock hpipe. I have a flowmaster catback and wanting a catted xpipe but don't know if I'll like the sound with the flows?

I haven't gotten the part in the mail yet, but I'm sure it will fix it. I love the sound of my catted x-pipe. A lot of people will tell you that an x-pipe is more raspy, but with the high-flow cats and straight-through mufflers it sounds very deep and smooth. I think it's the perfect setup. However, since you have flowmasters, you have chambered mufflers and I honestly couldn't tell you how that will sound. It might not sound as good with that combo...or it might sound even better. There's only one way to find out! Personally, I think it'll sound good

 

[wveil3v]

Thanks, hope your gearset goes well

 

[txredgt]

Just replaced the speedo gears in mine and still not working.. Any ideas what could be the problem? I'll pull it apart friday again but I'm a little down that I thought I got it to find out no. Could it be something else in the car? The old gears inside were completely trash so they needed it but could it be something else?

 

[wveil3v]

Maybe something didn' lineup properly, pull it apart again and checkit out. If the clips are worn it won't hold the odometer motor tight enough to stay engaged..

 

[txredgt]

Maybe something didn' lineup properly, pull it apart again and checkit out. If the clips are worn it won't hold the odometer motor tight enough to stay engaged..

Any remedy if this is the issue? I heard it 'snap' into place and it wasn't a breaking snap so I figured I would be good to go. I'll say that getting the odometer motor was a PITA and the worst part by far. I greased the gears as well even since that's how they were from the factory. I'll pull it out and reinspect what may be wrong with it.

 

[Skidzz]

Just to update. The new gear works great. Recently drove her from GA to UT in 3 days and had no problems. I can't think of anything else the would cause ONLY the odo to stop working other than the motor so definitely take it apart again and keep trying of the gear didn't fix it. You said the old gear was toast so that has to be the problem.

 

[txredgt]

It's the odometer and the trip one too that won't work correct?

 

[Skidzz]

Oh yeah...and the trip. Forgot about that.

 

[txredgt]

It couldn't be as simple as switching the wires behind the cluster right? I'm gonna pull it all apart tomorrow again and see what's up but would it be possible to do this? They have similar connectors and of course I didnt pay enough attention to them when I unplugged them. In my 02 they were different sizes on that car and not this one.

 

[txredgt]

Fixed. Seems like the gear that you don't remove had some plastic parts still left from the old stuff in there so all it took was a bit more cleaning and snapping it back into place. All is good on this project for me, now on to the next.