czar

I have an '88 944S. This is my third Porsche and second 944 (i had an '83 about 10 years ago and a '68 912). When I got this car, the odometer was not working properly nor were the gas, voltmeter, and temp gauges reading properly (all read low). I purchased 2 new odometer gears from Rennbay, and got a used cluster out of an '87 car thinking that I could swap the gear in the used cluster and then swap the clusters so there would be no down time. Although the used cluster only had about 24,xxx miles on it, I was correct in thinking the odometer gear would be worn.

I swapped the gear and then the cluster. The odometer worked correctly, but the voltmeter was bad and the speedometer needle moved VERY slowly. It would get up to speed quickly enough, but was slow to settle back to 0. Only immediate and hard braking would return the needle promptly. So, I took my original cluster, changed the odometer gear, and cleaned all of the connections. When I reinstalled it, everything worked great - the gauges all read more accurately - except the speedo and odmoeter did not work at all. Figuring a slow odometer was better than nothing, I pulled the cluster and swapped the speedo/odomoeter units between the two and reinstalled. I still have the same problem - gauges all work great except speedo and odometer.

Question: do you think I damaged the units when I swapped the gears or is there something going on with the elctrical connections? I was thinking that maybe I damaged the needles when I pulled them off? The spindle looks OK and the needles both move freely (although there seems to be more drag on the speedo needle as compared to the tach needle).

I don't want to send out the unit to someone for repair and pay $$ only to find out that there's a bad connection somewhere in the dash. Just strainge that it was working properly before...

Thanks for any help!

czar

Just another piece to the puzzle - not sure if it helps since I'm not sure how it works, but the shift light is also not working (I noticed tonight). Also, and this was happening before, the dash randomly shuts down. I was thinking a bad ground?

czar

problem has gotten worse - intermittent gauge issues have now become constant. I took out the passenger seat tonight to hook-up electrics as the PO had new seats put in and not done that (and when I saw the mess of wires, I knew why!). Calmchaos mentioned that maybe the DME might be affecting the gauges, so I peeled back the carpet in the footwell and pushed the wires around a little. Now, no gauges at all. A weird thing too is that I've heard a constant clicking noise in the pass. footwell and narrowed it down to the recirculating air button on the HVAC. Now, the button only stays "clicked" 2/3rds of the time. Not sure if it's related, but weird that it would happen at the same time.

I did see two unhooked connectors in the footwell. One looked like the white Molex xonnector to reset the airbacg (female). The other was a 4-prong male connector (4 prongs in a row) with the number 8 handwritten and circled on it. Porsche number 944.612.549.00 (I think - hard to see under theere at night!).

ANY help on this would be greatly appreciated!

Calmchaos

You also said that the car would cut out, didnt you?
That's what made me think it was the DME.... I KNOW I've heard that before.
And now that you tried to snug the connector up, you have NO gauges? Oil? Volt? Nothing?
Jeez.....

czar

Hey calmchaos. Thanks again for the help. The instrument cluster itself was cutting out, not the car. I didn't get into the DME at all (I'm assuming it's the orange box?), but I just prodded at the wires in the footwell area for a minute or so to see what was going on. Like I mentioned above, I saw those 2 unhooked connectors.

I also pulled the fuse (18 I think?) and took a look at it. Some of the relays were a little loose, so I snugged them up. After that, and getting the seat hooked up correctly, I'm getting nothing on the gauges! I didn't pull the cluster yet to examine the worm gear to get the speedo and od working, but I don't think it's a connection in there related to the gauges not working, I think it must be some wire that's running under the dash somewhere.

Anyone know any wires running around near the passenger footwell that would affect the instrument cluster? Or is there something I should look for in the fuse box?

Thanks!

Rock

Thats a lot to read, so of course I didnt read it.

The odometer wont work if the speedometer isnt working. Period.

It isnt uncommon on these cars to have the speedometer not work below a certain speed unless you TAP on the plastic gauge cover. My 86 N/a, and 86 951 had this problem. It would sometimes not work until it got to 40-60 unless you tapped on it.