I own a 85 4cyl 5 spd & 86 6cyl Auto, on both cars the Odometers & trip counters have stopped functioning. I know for some people with new cars this would be a blessing , but with the age of my 2 , the more they can tell me the better.
Does anyone know how to trouble shot or what piece normally goes bad?

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Are you also getting code 24 from the ecm? The vss may be stuck or not fuctioning properly. I hope the drive gear hasn't fallen off them. Check your dash/radio fuse. Mine wasn't working for a while and it was just the fuse!

If the speedo is still working ok, then you can just replace the odometer with another from a salvage yard.

That's a common problem. I talked to a speedometer shop locally and they said there's a small plastic gear in there someplace that wears out. They wanted $300 to fix ...

As long as your spedo is working I have an extra spedo/odometer for your 4 cyl if it is backlit or you can disecet the odomoter motors and gear from it and put it in eather of the cars Pm me if intrested

Just wondering...do they click as you are driving? Sometimes the reset button doesn´t work with just one push.Try resetting it two or three times, and you MIGHT just find it will work again!!
fierofetish

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RESPONSIBILITY WILL SOLVE EVERYTHING.USE IT WISELY.

[This message has been edited by fierofetish (edited 03-26-2005).]

speedometer works fine in both cars, no clicking is apparent on odometer or trip gauge, & radio fuses are ok in both cars. From the sounds of it i'll start taking things apart & document as I go. When I find the solution I'll post it. Thanks for your input

First question I have is are both the odometer and the trip odometer dead or just the odometer? If the trip odometer works and the other doesn't (or vice versa) there's definitely nothing wrong with your VSS and probably nothing wrong with your circuit board on the back of the speedo. If neither of them work but your speedo does, you probably have a problem with the circuit board itself and you're in the market for a whole new speedo/odometer assy.

IF you believe that it's just the odometer, you have to take it out of the cluster. That's not hard, just take the face off the cluster, then remove the speedo assembly. Look in the front at the odometer assembly. Here's a picture:

See that little gearset on the right side? If those gears look fine, your motor is probably shot and you can replace the motor by itself without changing your odometer (and changing your mileage).

Both the odometer and speedo are driven by exact same motor. If you don't care about the trip odometer and it works, and your odometer doesn't, and the gears are intact, you can just swap the motors and your odometer will work again.

To swap or change the motors, you have to take the two screws off each motor that hold it in and move or replace it. Both motors are wired into a common 4 pin header that plugs into the circuit board so if you DO change them you'll have to take the 4 nuts off the circuit board that hold it to the speedo itself since there isn't room to unplug it with the board attached. If you just swap the motors then there is enough wire that you don't have to unplug it.

John Stricker

I've got an old 85 mph speedo unit you can have if you want from an '85 4 cyl SE. Was working fine when I took it out. Only issue is that the little spring on the gear side of the odometer is missing. I was messing around and reset the counter back to zero after I put in the 120 speedo just for the heck of it, but I figure you probably would want to put your original odometer counter in it anyway. At worst case, you can rob the circuit board off of it. Just pay the shipping (figure five or ten bucks max). PM me if you want it.

mine did that.
i hit it real hard and its been working ever since.

PM sent to RTNmsds

Got PM's from a couple people in this thread. Going to give John first chance to see if he can get his speedo working. Just let me know what you need done John.

if you need an odo i have one sitting here on my desk it reads 169k but it should work.
nevermind i just killed it
the motor still works but i killed the rolling thingy lol i wanted to see how it works
soo you could put your rolly thing in and it'd work :P

[This message has been edited by Weponhead (edited 03-27-2005).]

Ok here's were I'm @ with this. I disassembled the dash tonight & unbolted the motors. There is no gear damage visible & both the odometer & Trip spin freely with the motors removed.
Should the motors spin freely when disconnected? I can not spin the motor gear at all, it won't budge on either motor. any suggestions or comments? I'd hate to replace the board and have screwed up motors burn it up.

Does anyone know if I raise the back of the car up & put it in gear will the speedometer work thus causing the little motors to turn . This way I can trouble shoot with out having to drive down the road.

sk8rfiero
85 2M4 coupe
86 SE 2M6

quote Originally posted by sk8rfiero: Does anyone know if I raise the back of the car up & put it in gear will the speedometer work thus causing the little motors to turn . This way I can trouble shoot with out having to drive down the road.

I've been told It is not recommended to do this. The axles are at a severe angle & you can damage the axle boots.

What you can do is pull the VSS out and chuck it into a drill.

Problem has been fixed. Thanks to everyone for their input.
Solution was -install new circuit board , once I did the odometer started working but not the trip. I grabbed a different motor & installed it on the trip odo. & everything is working.

FYI to anyone trouble shooting this in the future, you can not turn the motor gear , meaning just because you can't turn it doesn't neccessarily mean its bad.