[quote name='pickwick' post='25629' date='Aug 27 2006, 04:24 PM']Today I fixed my odo with Brett's gear. My photos look much like sp4149's above so I won't post any. Eight screws for the oval bezel, four screws and three connectors for the panel, eight screws to remove the cluster from the black/clear cover, four to remove the speedometer unit, and two to remove the little motor to get to the broken gear.
I wasn't able to remove the panel w/o removing the steering wheel; I was having to pull too hard and didn't want to break anything else. So add two Torx screws and a connector to remove the airbag, a 24mm nut to remove the wheel, and four screws to remove the rectangular cover behind the wheel.
Was easier than I expected. And whoever said their voltmeter now reads higher: mine does too, by a good half volt.[/quote]
Well, I suppose it was inevitable, but my odometer recently stopped working, too. Fortunately, thanks to all the great info in this thread, I was able to diagnose the problem, to my relief, as (apparently) being due to just the classic broken geat problem. I've attached a picture of the gear; sorry if it's a little fuzzy, but you can see the amber 15-tooth geat with the missing tooth adjacent to the hole for the motor's driveshaft. You can actually see the missing tooth against the outer gear in the background.
A few comments/questions: First, a guy by the name of Brett was selling these gears for $10 a couple of years ago. I have tried emailing and PM'ing him, but have gotten no response. His profile shows him to have last been active on 10/1/07. Does anybody out there know Brett, and if so, know of any other way to contact him, like with a phone number? If so, please email or PM me with the info. This puny gear costs $25 from other sources, and I'll pay that if I have to, but it looks like this thing costs all of $2 to make, so if I can get it for $10, I'd obviously prefer that. Yes, I know, I'm a mega-cheapskate... Or if somebody knows of any other sources for this gear, please let me know.
Also, I've heard people advise replacing two gears. What's the second one? The outer clear one that the amber gear drives, or the black one on the motor drive shaft that drives the amber gear? Odometergears.com (if I'm remembering that right) sells the second gear, but it runs 50 bucks, which is a lot of money for a little piece of plastic.
Finally, as far as the removal process, I've read that some people have removed the steering wheel to get the gauge cluster out. I didn't have to do that, and found that the "trick" was to disconnect the three electrical connectors before pulling the cluster out. Once I figured that out, it came out easily, with plenty of clearance. And Pickwick, thanks for the screw-by-screw description of the removal process. Just one very small correction (at least as it applies to my '92), in case it might confuse somebody. There are actually nine screws that hold the cluster to the black/clear cover, not eight. Although, maybe there are year-to-year variances, so maybe some have eight screws, and some nine. But again, thanks for the description, it was very helpful to confirm I was on the right track once I got the cluster out of the car.
Thanks again for all the great info on this very common problem. Hopefully I'll have it back together soon, as soon as I get the new gear or gears.
