Odometer a comman problem

[Rojas109]

As I've read from previous searches the odometer that stops working is a comman problem. As i have as well encontered this problem. I also have read that instead of replaced the odometer gears, moter,ect that you just put in a 140MPH cluster instead. I would like to do that but i don't know what typed of cluster would fit my car or if there anything else I need to know to install this into my car. My car is a 90 Ford LTD Crown Victoria LX. I would appreaciate any respose to my question since I'm noOb here.

[87_crown_vic]

try to find a retired cop car like yours and swap out the instrument cluster. i think it will be a lil rough since i think that you need a 90 or newer type cluster for your car. kinda hard to come by so you are gonna need to search junkyards or maybe somebody has one they will sell ya.

[nitroracer]

What you will need is the gears or entire cluster from a 90-91 Crown Victoria, 90-94 Grand Marquis, or 90-94? Lincoln Town car. The 92+ clusters need the 'wiring film' transferred from your old cluster but otherwise will work fine.

[P72Ford]

You definitely need a 90 and newer cluster. I too fell victim to this problem, and I already have the 140 unit (it came in my P72). The 140 unit is prone to the same problem as the (85mph?) unit. I never changed mine, mainly because I don't feel like finding another. I now use an hour meter (no comments please) to roughly estimate the amount of mileage I have traveled. Very simple to install, but it would still be nice to know the actual mileage. (I probably change my oil twice as often as necessary, and perform regular service at retardedly tight time intervals.) The gears can definitely be changed, but you'll have to find replacements, and while you're at that, you might as well score the more desirable 140 unit. I think the gear changing might be tedious, but not necessarilly difficult.

I may get around to mine (yeah right), and I would probably change the gears. I really don't care about the mileage, because no one but me will ever own the car. When I'm done it will either get junked, or passed on to someone else in the family.

Best of luck with your repair.

[87vicFIVEO]

...I now use an hour meter (no comments please) to roughly estimate the amount of mileage I have traveled. Very simple to install, but it would still be nice to know the actual mileage. (I probably change my oil twice as often as necessary, and perform regular service at retardedly tight time intervals.)

I think total run time is a more accurate representation of wear and tear on a motor vehicle.

I'd rather know how long a car has run before I buy it than how far it's traveled. Idle time counts too.

[P72Ford]

thank you for the support. You don't know how many people I argued with stressing the same damn point. Beautiful. Great minds think alike you know!

[1987cp]

I think total run time is a more accurate representation of wear and tear on a motor vehicle.

I'd rather know how long a car has run before I buy it than how far it's traveled. Idle time counts too.

Interesting thought, hadn't thought of it that way. Stop-and-go traffic and LA rush hours are awfully hard on a vehicle's major systems!

[Rojas109]

Just would like to say thank you all for you responses and also to update my problem. I recenlty hook up a PIONEER DEH-P5900IB onto my car and the funniest thing happen. My odometer went back a couple of miles !?! :confused: I'm assuming it happen when i reconneted the - terminal. Before I can tell it wanted to go forward but know I can tell it wants to go backwards! I'm assuming the grears broke since it wants to go back but does'nt(kinda know what i mean?).

[P72Ford]

I know what you mean. Mine did the same thing for a while. Actually, what happened to me was: I was on my way to the Carlisle All Ford Nats in 2006, when I realized my odometer was not changing. It looked to be "jumping" (trying to change, but not doing it). Sure enough it was broekn. On the same trip I noticed that when I was slowing down, I heard a ver light clicking sound (to the tune of my then warped rotors). i didn't think anything about it.

A few months later I'm dropping my Mom off to pick her VW up from the dealer. Up to this point I was keeping track of mileage by using the trip odometer. I reset it everytime I got gas. So I stopped to get gas before I dropped her off and I reset it (and recorded my mileage). When I got back in and drove down the road, the trip odometer was not working. Damn!!! I pushed the reset a whole bunch of times, but nothing happened.

So this is when I installed the hour meter, because I didn't want to just stop logging my mileage. However, first I took the dash apart, to find, viola, broken gears. And the slight ticking sound I was hearing were the gears rolling back and forth on their pirch, as my warped rotors turned. (Those rotors are gone now).

I decided the job looked quite painstaking (lots of little things that my big fingers could break (most of them looked like they would be hard to replace). I could have swapped the actually gear set up from another car, but I didn't. I think you may be able to take just the "clock", and change it. However, I really wasn't into a project at that time. The hour meter has been great.

[P72Ford]

I know what you mean. Mine did the same thing for a while. Actually, what happened to me was: I was on my way to the Carlisle All Ford Nats in 2006, when I realized my odometer was not changing. It looked to be "jumping" (trying to change, but not doing it). Sure enough it was broekn. On the same trip I noticed that when I was slowing down, I heard a ver light clicking sound (to the tune of my then warped rotors). i didn't think anything about it.

A few months later I'm dropping my Mom off to pick her VW up from the dealer. Up to this point I was keeping track of mileage by using the trip odometer. I reset it everytime I got gas. So I stopped to get gas before I dropped her off and I reset it (and recorded my mileage). When I got back in and drove down the road, the trip odometer was not working. Damn!!! I pushed the reset a whole bunch of times, but nothing happened.

So this is when I installed the hour meter, because I didn't want to just stop logging my mileage. However, first I took the dash apart, to find, viola, broken gears. And the slight ticking sound I was hearing were the gears rolling back and forth on their pirch, as my warped rotors turned. (Those rotors are gone now).

I decided the job looked quite painstaking (lots of little things that my big fingers could break (most of them looked like they would be hard to replace). I could have swapped the actually gear set up from another car, but I didn't. I think you may be able to take just the "clock", and change it. However, I really wasn't into a project at that time. The hour meter has been great.

[gadget73]

I had the gear crack on my 73 SuperBeetle odometer. I used superglue to put it back together, worked fine for 3 more years till the car fell apart around me.

[88grandmarq]

dont bother with a used cluster, this is a common problem and most used units you find already are broken or will break soon.

get new replacement gears and fix it.

http://www.odometergears.com/subpages/ford.html

[tp8728]

that website is the one that i was looking at to replace my gears, same thing happened to me my odo quit working and i donk know how long it was actually out, bout 2 months i think, so i started using my trip meter to record milage as one above did. Instead of dumping 50 bucks on some new gears, i got bored and decided to see what exactly happened and what broke, so i took my cluster apart. after i removed the odo, i saw that the black gear ( http://www.odometergears.com/subpages/ford.html ) was missing about 5 teeth, which i found in my housing, so i was looking for inexpensive ways to fix this, i pulled the tripmeter out and realized its the same gears mounted backwards, so i pulled them out, and put them in the odometer, now my trip meter is broken, but i got "accurate" millage again, it will probably break again but this gives me time to find a new cluster, or rebuild mine. it wasnt that hard, there are a few small parts to watch out for but with a $3 pick set from walmart you can work around them easily without damage, i took about an hour maybe two, but not real long and didnt cost anything.

[1987cp]

Oooh, ooh, odometer question. How do you set the mileage on an aftermarket speedo like a mechanical AutoMeter?

[P72Ford]

Can I use pre 90 odometer gears in my 90 cluster? $50 bux for gears is impractical for me.



1987cp, I know that to calibrate an autometer electric speedo (you can easily convert from mech to elec) you play some games (press the rest some number of times, etc) with the unit itself and then drive a measured two mile distance (at a reasonable pace, 45 mph I think) and then the unit calibrates itself. Go to autometers website, and you can find installation and calibration procedures.