Last week I purchased a nice 1993 940 from the original owner. The odometer says 124,000 but they told me the speedometer and odometer quit working about 3000 miles ago. The car is really in pristine condition...leather interior with no cracks, sunroof that works (no leaks) and the paint looks like it did in the showroom. I guess that's what spending 23 yrs in the garage every night will do for you. New tires, new exhaust, timing belt replaced at 115,000, and new plugs, wires, etc. I am loving this car....except for the odometer, speedometer, and gas gauge not working. I have read up on the issue and today I pulled the instrument cluster and refloated all the solder joints on the back. Once reinstalled, all the warning lights now come on as they should and the gas gauge seems to work well....but no speedo/odo. I have read it could be the speed sensor...Is that the next place to look...if so, where is it located?
BTW - paid $1400 for the car...I am loving it!

 

Just purchased a 1995 940 with 123,000 miles. Spent more time in the garage than on the road. Was in minor fender bender and the lady purchased a new volvo. The people on this site are very knowledgeable, you will know how to fix or replace it it notime.

 

ksmith: you can check the rear end, where the speedo pick up is located, to see if there are any wires broken, chafed, etc, BUT,

Most likely the problem with the speedo is the speedo itself, the capacitors are fried. It's a fiddly repair, and not always successful, to replace the capacitors. Good job on the refloat, if the gauge came to life, the lights work, that's all you can do refloat wise.

 

The odometers on the 240's and 940's are known to fail over time. It is a small plastic gear that breaks it the odometer mechanism. I believe IPD sells a kit to repair this and also has a step by step video explaining how to repair it. Mine has never fail and the secret is to avoid resetting the trip meter.

 

That depends on who made the cluster, for the Volvo 7-9 series there were two cluster types:

VDO: Same company that made 240 guages, BMW, Chrysler. Mercedes, etc. They make decent stuff, but in all their cars the odometer gears love to break.

Yazaki: These dont seem to have delicate gears, but they do suffer from sub-par solder jobs. Parts are more scarce as the company has gone out of buisness.

The easiest way to tell the difference is to look at your trip-odometer, Yazaki will have wide gaps between the numbers, VDO doesnt. The speedometers are slightly different too.

 

240 speedos are nothing like 740/940 speedos. The small plastic gear in the 240 is not used in the 7/940.
Never seen a VDO in a 940, early 740, pre 1989, yes but all 940 that I have seen have Yazaki Meter and the capacitors fail way too readily. 1991-92 are the worst, in both 7 and 9 series cars.