kjr914

before reinstalling the bezel and glass permanently, hook it up in the car (just don't push it all the way back in), and TEST it....

ask me how I know.....

Make sure you get all the little pieces of the broken gear out.



And I've got 2 (of 3) non-functional lights in the speedo.... haven't had a chance to figure out how to fix it yet...new bulb didn't help, so I probably loosened a wire or something like that.

cabrio993

I just replaced one of the background light bulbs on the tachometer. You can't remove the Tach without removing the steering wheel. So I had to remove the speedometer and the oil gauge to gain acess to the bulbs behind the tach. The Light bulbs are 1.5 watts (yellow socket), the .08 watts ones are for the warnig lights (green socket).

I have always used a flat screwdriver with a wide tip covered in soft cloth to get the gauges to losen up and then you can easily pull them by hand as other have stated.

gonzilla

Oh man... just wait until you try to remove the outer bezel from the gauge.

kjr914

Thanks alot.....I'd been suppressing that memory. And you just brought it back!!!

Just have patience and work carefully on the bezel...

Allen

Revsion to my earlier statement...removing the speedo from the dash is in fact NOT the most difficult part...the bezel is...

But hey....I did it...

I have the speedo torn down to the gears. A few comments:

1 - IMHO, there really is no good way to get the black aluminum bezel from the gauge...it just requires time and patience...AND an understanding (hope?) that the rubber trim piece will cover up the bezel lip that gets pretty beat in the removal process. Also, when you are lifting up the edge of the black bezel, you will begin to expose the metal lip that you must slide the bezel over to remove it. As you begin to expose this lip...you will see a black 'tab' at the 12:00 and 6:00 position of bezel. These are NOT magical places to press down on or pry on to make the bezel come off. I think they are tabs to line up the speedo face up to the bezel...I'll know for sure when I put it back together. But don't use them to pry on, because they will get broken off or chewed up and not be a tab anymore...and I think they are needed.
2 - It seems that removing the clock first, then reaching through and pushing the speedo out is definitely the way to go. The 'prying angles' required to remove the gauges are just not there with the speedo, and the clock being on the "end" of the dash really works better.
3 - When rotating the speedo needle clockwise for removal, you will bump up against the trip odometer reset stalk...I just tilted the needle up JUST enough to get past the stalk and kept rotating. It took more vertical force while rotating than I expected. No question that is a delicate task...but you will indeed have to apply some vertical force when rotating to get the needle off...just be sure you apply the force straight vertically up. NOTE: Brian Smith's write-up calls for clockwise rotating of the needle...works great. But if you follow the instructions write-up linked by the odometergears.com, it says counter-clockwise. I really don't think it matters.
4 - Not sure how the process of getting the aluminum bezel clamped back on is gonna go. I suppose I'll just press it back down as good as possible...that works ok???
5 - FOR SURE...testing it before the bezel is put back on is a must...definitely don't want to have to repeat that. Also, locate and account for ALL the broken gear pieces...mine had a single broken tooth.
6 - On the bulbs. It does seem that all the gauge bulbs are the yellow base bulbs. So I would guess that the idiot/indicator lights are the green base. I'm not sure which base is which wattage (0.9W or 1.5W). "JasonF" mentioned that the idiot lights use a higher wattage bulb, but "cabrio993" says the opposite. The question is not which base color is used where...for a fact, the gauges use the yellow base, but which base color is 0.9W and which is 1.5W. I'll check when I get home, but my guess is that the yellow is the 0.9W and the green is the 1.5W...because the idiot lights do seem much brighter than the gauge lights.
7 - When I got to the gears, I saw a single tooth missing from the small yellow gear...the other bigger gears looked fine. The guy at odogears.com suggested replacing both gears while I'm in there, which make sense...actually, I not even sure which is the second gear he is sending. Price for gears 2 x $25 + $4 shipping = $54.

Sorry to be so long winded about it, but sometimes the little things learned along the way make a huge difference for the next guy...removing the clock first is a good example of that...testing it before re-assembly is another.

Allen

I have had these clock bulbs that would not light, then re-seat them in the socket and they work. The 'friction' socket that is used on the guages isn't the most positive connection. Try re-seating the bulb while power is applied and if you get any response. Otherwise, you may just need to re-solder the connections. I'm a little concerned about the solder connection of the speedo motor to it's circuit board...it doesn't feel/look to good.

clib

it took me three tries to find the little broken cog. I didn't understand the instructions very well that the broken piece is usually lodged in the corresponding space on the opposite gear! makes sense but I am dense.

2ndof2

I did this job a few weeks ago and replaced both gears.

I found that the odo didn't work the first time but knew not to reinstall the bezel before testing it.

It turned out the most miniscule tiniest bit of broken plastic from the broken gear had gotten into the teeth of the motor. Initially I found and removed the main broken piece thinking that was it. Not so! There was a very very small bit that was all it took to prevent the odo from working with the replacement parts. I had even hit it with compressed air really well the first go round but after failing at my first attempt, only carefully checking each internal gear with a pocket knife revealed the culprit!

Once free of that little broken bit things worked just fine when tested. Pulled it back out of the dash after testing, reinstalled the bezel, put the speedo back in my dash and that was it.

Hardest part was the needle removal. I fully recommend pulling the trip reset button before attempting needle removal. Wish I'd done this from the start.

Really no biggie removing the needle once that reset button is out of the way. Do it any other way and you risk damaging the pin that connects the needle to the motor. Any DIY instructions that suggest otherwise is just opening up needless risk of expensive damage.

Hopefully this thread will help the next person doing the repair. The other thing I figured out was in removing the bezel having a tiny flathead screwdriver for prying the bezel away and another screwdriver to use as a pivot point for leverage is a real helpful approach (hard to describe without a pic).

Congrats on completing the job!!! (you did get it to work..yes?)

cabrio993

The Yellow lights are the 1.5 Watts and are used for illumination The Green lights are .9W and are used for warning lights.

The wattage is actually stamped on the back of the bulb in tiny numbers so you can double check this if you want, but I just replaced mine.

The reason the warning lights seem brighter is because they illuminate a small confined light socket, where the background illumination light is spread through out the whole gauge face. The Tachometer, as an example, only uses 2 illumination lights, and it is the bigger gague of the 5, that's why always seems the dimmest.

Falcondrivr

To re-install the bezel, I just rolled the whole thing back and forth on a hard surface covered with a towel...

Allen

I have confirmed this to be true. I replaced all (3) lamps in my speedometer.

So I replaced both gears, installed faceplate and needle, plugged it in car and test drove. Speedo worked fine, but odometer did not move. Took it all apart again, looked closely for any issues...found nothing. Put it back together...this time not installing faceplate or needle...basically just odometer. Plugged into car and still didn't work. One issue troubleshooting this thing is that you have to be moving for the motor to run. So while driving, I'm trying to see what is not happening. I wiggle the 2 motor wires...nothing. Then I notice the motor was very hot. I figure it's binding on something, so with my finger, I try to rotate the trip odometer. It was hard, but I put a bit of pressure to it and it rotated over once. This seem to unbind it and it started working...I was back to the house at this point, and had something to go on, so I parked it and took it all apart again. BTW, as long as the faceplate and further has not been installed, disassembly/reassembly/testing is no big deal...nothing to easily tear up. So I check for broken gear pieces and find nothing. I had already located the single broken tooth from the gear, so didn't really pursue any other broken pieces too much. Anyway, I now begin to check all the gearing for binding...with motor out, trip odo rotates fine, main odo rotates fine. Pulled core out of motor...all fine in motor housing. Two new gears engaging each other nicely. So I carefully slide the motor into the odo housing, messing up the gears, snug it up nicely. By had I am able to rotate the trip odo back and forth...you have to overcome the motor, but that's no problem...so all the gears seem be meshing and working. Put that part back together, plugged it up, and it worked. I removed it from the car, set it on the bench, and went to bed.

Apparently, there was something binding my gears. And after reading just above about someone finding a piece of broken gear binding theirs...I wonder if I had the same. BUT...my gear was very cleanly broke off at a single tooth, and it was still somewhat connected, so I can't imagine it was a piece gear. I did notice the very slightest difference in the tooth spacing between the new gear and the old gear...the big one that meshes with the odo gears...same amount of teeth, just that the new one had "fatter" teeth, which makes the spacing between teeth a wee bit smaller. So it's a tighter fit for the meshing odo gear teeth. So my thoery is that when I slid the motor gear into the odo housing to mesh with the 2 odo gears, that those gears didn't line up too good and maybe bound each other. So I'm ready to put it all back together and try it...I'll test it one last time with faceplate and needle before putting bezel on.

Sooo...after all that writing, there actually IS a few take aways from this. Once you have the motor off: 1 - look for any pieces of the broken gear, 2 - manually rotate the trip and main odometer gears to be sure they are clear and rotating freely. Once you have installed the new gear(s), manually rotate the gears again...because the motor is now engaged, this takes a little more pressure. Most importantly...don't put the bezel back on until all has been tested ok. There my be other things as I still haven't put it back together.

Allen

I think I'll try that.

BTW...who do you think you are...posting a good idea with a single sentence explanation like that... You need more words.......just look at mine above...now THERE'S a real post....

2ndof2

Allen,
As I mentioned above, my broken odo gear had only one tooth break off just like yours. I THOUGHT that it was just the one broken piece. Even after hitting it hard with compressed air the tiniest little broken bit was still on one of the teeth of the motor's gears. So small you wouldn't notice unless you were looking very, very carefully. Apparently the lubricant held it in its little hiding place and only going through it meticulously with my pocket knife one tooth at a time did the perpetrator reveal itself. I was suprised that this was all it took to prevent the odo from operating. I'd suggest going through it like I did so that whatever caused the odo not to work for you doesn't re-lodge itself and cause you to have to pull the whole thing apart again. Just my $0.02