Broken Odometer
 

Hey everyone,

Would anyone have any ideas as to why the odometer in my '87 may have stopped functioning. I had a new engine installed a while back and am wondering if something forgot to get re connected. The speedometer works fine and I believe the speed and odometer are all controlled by a single electronic sender.

It may be the gear, they tend to break, but you may have to take apart the speedo to find out. www.odometergears.com has them, and also check out www.clarksgarage.com for speedo and odometer help. I bought my car with the odometer not working. I took apart the speedo and found that my gear wasnt broken, it slid down the shaft and was not connecting with the other gear to rotate the odometer wheels. Good Luck.

I just fixed such a problem...it was the gear.

The odometer is driven by an electric motor with a gear on it which mechanically advanced the numbers. It's unlikely the electric motor is dead, and so long as everything that wires to the DME is wired correctly the gear is likely the issue.

When I took mine apart the gear had just lost 2 teeth (right where the electric motor drives it). But when I removed the gear it just crumbled.

The new gear I put in fixed everything for about a week then it died again. When I took it apart again I found a screw loose that was holding the shaft the actual numbers turn on...not quite so likely.

the odo gear is a common problem on the 944's, make sure after you fix it that you don't push the odo reset button while the car is moving.
Also, while you have the gauge cluster out, clean all of the elec. connections

It sounds like the gear is a pretty common problem. I'll have to get in there one day and take a look. How much time should I expect to set aside to pull the instrument cluster and replace the gear, if that is is the problem?

Thanks for the info guys!

I have an early 944, so the setup is different, but after having done this myself a few times I could do it all in about a half hour. So I would say the first time, more like an hour or so. It is not a huge project, just read the proper way to remove the cluster so you don't mess anyting up.

It's a quick process. Took me less than an hour start to finish - I took the steering wheel off too, which isn't really necessary.

http://www.rennbay.com/odotutorial.html

Pete