Hi,

I just replaced the borken small (sun) gear in my odometer but after installation, I was dissapointed to see that it is still not working. Does the stepper motor sometimes go bad? Is there an easy way to check it?

Any help would be appreciated.

Best,

Jay

There are two styles of clusters when it comes to the stepper motor. The earlier style has a pigtail that comes off of the motor and plugs into a set of pins on the main cluster PC board. That type is hard to get wrong.

On the later style the stepper motor has an integrated PC board that plugs in over the pins from the main cluster. About half the time - unless you really press hard to seat the pc board connector - it won't properly seat and the odometer won't work.

If you have the latter type just try to re-seat the connector and it will likely work.

...Lee

I have the earlier syle. Maybe I'll take it apart and see if the connection at the pig tail is ok.

Thanks,

Jay

By any chance is your ABS or TRACs light on? A bad ABS unit can also cause odometer/speedometer failure.

You'll probably have to take it out and check it over. Hopefully there wasn't a small missed piece of broken gear tooth that jammed it up and broke the new gear.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I know that there wasn't any broken chuncks in there. I actaully put 20,000 miles on the odometer with my coordless drill to make it jive with the onboard computer. I'm pretty sure the gears are ok.

Has anyone heard of the motor that drives the odometer going bad?

Jay

Hi, I just did mine, and didn't think about spinning it with a drill (nice), but I'm not off by more than 300 or 400 mile or so, give or take. I also didn't check the comp on my '97 OBDII. After the trouble of taking it all apart, I was excited to watch the numbers flip. I got 1/10 of a mile and it stoppped! I was very unhappy, and started to jiggle the reset rather briskly at first, and then whacking at it in frustration (just a mini tantrum -my son was with me). It finally started to work and has been working fine ever since. I had not seen the tiny gear tooth either, but I'm guessing that I may not have put the washer type piece just before the cover back properly. It seemed like something had gotten hung up in there. Try the jiggle method and good luck. Did you change the bulbs in there? Did you push the reset to test it before reinstalling the cluster?
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'97 855na, Mobil 1, K&N, various IPD's and eBay's

So you are saying a tantrum (though small) is in order? :) I have to say, I was a disappointed when it did not work; I didn’t even get to see it move one tenth.

I did replace some of the bulbs, and actually left one out while I wait for its replacement.

I’m not sure I know which washer you are talking about, can you elaborate?

I did push the reset, and everything worked fine.

This might help: have a look at http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/odometer_fix.php
and scroll down to the bottom where it says Odometer Fix Addendum Step 03. it says "...if not remove large gear and turn trip gear to the proper position." I think that's what you should do.
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'97 855na, Mobil 1, K&N, various IPD's and eBay's

Sounds like this could be the issue, especially considering that I put 20k on with my cordless. However, I'm not sure what it means by "turn trip gear to proper position." Any tips.

Thanks all,

Jay

The large bulbs are carried in autoparts stores, the small ones can be replaced with Radioshack Micro Lamp #7219.

You need to take the unit back out, those motors seldom fail. Look for the missing tooth from the old gear which might have clogged things while being upside down.

Klaus
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The more I learn, the more I forget. So why learn?

I would take it back out again and make sure it's lined up right and seated correctly.
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Wallie