[Velocity]

Was finally able to take on my "odometer isn't working" issue today, and as others have found, was able to remove cluster without removing steering wheel.  I'd purchased a set of gears from www.odometergears.com awhile ago, and just was able to do the work today.

 

I think I might win the award for "most destroyed gear" - the small gear was totally intact and undamaged, but the larger gear on rear that meshes with the actual gear that turns the odometer was completely obliterated.

 

   

 

Just for reference - the part labeled "Back" below is what that blue mush in my above picture should look like :

 

   

 

I suspect VDO may of made the original gear out of PlayDoh.

 

Fragments of the destroyed gear were scattered throughout each cog of the odometer gear :

 

   

 

I managed to clean them all out with a pick, brush, q-tips and compressed air :

 

   

 

After reassembly, odometer appears to work OK (for the first time since I bought the car).   

 

Worst part of the whole job, in my opinion, was the removal and re-attachment of the three ribbon connectors behind the cluster.    The rest was tedious, but not difficult.

 

Happy to help anyone else who is taking on this effort - the rest of the threads here were useful, but many of the pictures were no longer working, so figured I'd add some from my work today.

 

 

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[ds968]

Congratulations on doing this yourself ; you must have the patience of a saint , and the meticulous capability of a watchmaker .

Since I have neither of the above attributes I had to pay a speedometer shop to do that . IIRC, it cost me about $ 200 but that was “ many many moons ago” , I suspect shops charge much more for that now .

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[snova]

Hi Velocity,

 

I need to get to this. My broke just recently.  Which links were the most helpful to you? Not sure where to start and which fasteners to remove to get to it.

Anything you can reference to get me started would be greatly appreciated.

 

p.s. I already bought the gears.

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[Velocity]

Hi Velocity,

 

I need to get to this. My broke just recently.  Which links were the most helpful to you? Not sure where to start and which fasteners to remove to get to it.

Anything you can reference to get me started would be greatly appreciated.

 

p.s. I already bought the gears.

 

I read thru a ton of threads on both here and R.L. to get background, but when it came to the actual removal of the cluster from the dash, I found these instructions from sportscarleds.com (previous owner had bought the LEDs, but never installed, so I also replaced bulbs in the cluster lights with LEDs while i was in there) to be the best.   

 

Mentions nothing about the speedometer, but once you've removed the cluster via these instructions, it's a total of 4 screws on the back of the cluster to free up the speedometer assembly, then two more to remove the side panel (shown in my pics) to access the gears.

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[snova]

Thanks Velocity! 

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[Velocity]

Thanks Velocity! 

 

You're welcome - one more thread I found useful (here on 968forums) can be located here - http://www.968forums.com/topic/1444-odom...ntry174320

 

My speedo assembly did NOT have the metal housing they show in the video in that thread, and I was able to JUST remove the motor on side of bezel (that they do show) to access the gears without removing the back of the assembly at all.

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[snova]

Just got done with it a couple days ago.  All went fine. Only 1 tooth was missing.   Didn't need to remove the steering wheel. Only tip I have after doing it is :

 

Lift right side of the pane outward towards the steering wheel then shift the whole thing panel to the right.  At least that was easiest in my car. Trying to go directly out over the steering wheel was too tight. 

 

The tiny gear in my car with a missing tooth was yellow... unlike Velocity which looks blue. 

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[Roboman]

I had done this previously with my 944, so same challenge but this time far more shrapnel....        

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[Roboman]

Unfortunately this time it didn't work on reassembly so I'll have to go in there again.

Does anyone know if the motor that drives the gear is pwm? I'm going to have to test the motor.

I know I have pulses because my cruise control still works. I guess if it's pwm I can tap +ve like a woodpecker and see if the motor spindle twists.

Any ideas?

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[Roboman]

As it turns out I was sent the wrong gear which wasn't quite large enough to touch the odo spinning gears. The new one arrived yesterday and is the same size as Velocity's above so I'm confident it'll work when I get in there again.

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[Roboman]

And it did, all good now!


As an aside, I recommend anyone doing this job to give all accessible terminals on the dash a good clean. A couple of my gauges, including the volt meter, worked better after cleaning. In addition my dash had developed intermittent failure (car kept driving but no gauges functioning) ..... this problem has now gone away.

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[pdxmike]

Seconded. Gas gauge on mine goes to the top now, after cleaning. 

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[MCL968]

Yes, I picked up some oil pressure and my gas gauge is more accurate now.

 

I lubed the sliders on the connectors to make disconnecting them a little less nerve-wracking. I suggest that for anyone taking out the cluster since you never know when you will have to do it again.

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[Roboman]

Lube the sliders - good thinking M, now I just need to remember that the next time I'm in there

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[John]

Just did this. Only additional tips I can add are:

1) carve away as much as you can of the "dashboard trim" that's on the bottom of the cluster hole to the right of the steering wheel - this will add some clearance aiding reinsertion of the cluster;

2) listen for the "click" when you plug in each of the three connectors (bottom right is the hardest to seat).

... John

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