Same old story, odometer was broken. I opened it up and the gear was broken. I replaced the gear and the odo worked again. A few months later it stopped working again, so I opened it up and everything looked good, but the mechanism was just stuck. I rotated it and it freed. I checked to make sure there were no small parts of the old gear trapped in the gear train, cleaned it with compressed air and reassembled. I worked again for a few days, then stopped again.

I am not going to send this to VDO. I am using a GPS as my odometer now for TB changes etc. But I would love to have it work again.

Any tips?

 

I have the same problem. I have given up on it. What year is your car mine is an 86.

 

Also an 86

 

This may be a dumb question, but have you pushed the trip reset button at all while the car is moving? Doing this can break any mechanical odometer, especially 944s.

Take care!

 

It's not the gear, I just replaced that. I talked to a bunch of people at 944Fest and the suggestion above about the sleeve to keep the digits in place seems to be a universally accepted approach. Will try soon and report back.

 

Did you try shimming it? Sometimes there is lateral play and using a paperclip or something to shim it will correct the problem.

 

Sorry, yes it is fixed. I made a small shim out of tygon tubing and put it on. I also cleaned all the gears etc. under a microscope and injected a very small amount (2 ul) of teflon-based lube under every digit and at the joints. After that it spun nearly freely and has been working fine.