My odometer was broken, so yesterday I took out the panel and took it apart. I saw that the tiny gear was broken, and replaced it with one from FCP groton here - http://www.fcpgroton.com/product-exe...ategory_id/161

First, I used Ozark Lee's excellent pencil/drill method to wind the miles up to my actual mileage from the ECU, it took a while but I eventually added 17000 miles to the odometer. The trip counter and the odometer both wound fine, and so I am fairly certain that there is nothing wrong with those gears. Also, the gear pod appeared to be in great condition, looked like there was no wear at all.

After putting it all back together and putting it back in the car, I found that neither the trip meter nor the odometer are counting up! This is a bit frustrating, especially because since the gear was clearly shot I figured that was the issue, but I guess there is more wrong here.

My speedometer and all of my other gauges work perfectly. Any ideas?

 

did you forget to plug the odometer back in?

 

Did the blue big gear break after getting it back together?

 

My odometer has the 4 pin prong plug, so I know that is plugged in. I also plugged in the ABS module and obviously the 2 plugs for the whole instrument cluster.

The big blue gear that turns both the odometer and trip meter appeared to be in great condition, I don't think it would have broken. I can take it apart and see.

The tiny gear that I replaced, it has a shaft and it can either lay flush with the gearpod or have the shaft touching the gearpod, is there a right way to place it in there? I placed it in so that it is flush with the gearpod.

If the motor is bad for the odometer unit is there a way to test it?

 

12v DC.

 

I hate to say it, but I would take it apart again, test the motor with 12V and see if anything is binding

 

kk will do. checking the junkyard first today because they said they have a 850 in "dark green" (the same color as mine, I want to see if it is the exact same), which means I might go get a few body parts for it cheap while I can. then I'll come back and test.

 

ive just about got the motor out, does anyone know how to test it, are the terminals marked, and does polarity matter?

 

Poliaryt wouldn't matter I would think. It would just spin the other way. Just try all of them.

 

+1 on this

 

if you spin it the wrong way you will click and grind and maybe even break gears....

 

Alot of times everything is just not in line. I have had to pull them apart and reset up to 5 times on some cars.

 

Problem solved!
The problem was a small break in one of the lines to the motor on the PCB. I noticed that I could drive the motor directly from its terminals, but not from the connector, and just traced it back from there. Soldered a small wire to bridge the gap and all is well .

Tested it by itself, then with the odometer, then tested it while attached to the larger board, and finally was confident enough to put it back in the car. It works!! Great feeling. I start summer work tomorrow, and managed to get this and the automatic transmission flush done today and yesterday, so all the potential big issues seem to be fixed.

about polarity - it seems that it doesn't matter when the gears are not attached, but I figured out the forward direction before testing it with the gears.