I have a 91 745 that I purchased years ago that had a non working speedometer. It was a two owner car that we seldom drive- just enough to keep the fluids moving. I installed a cluster from a 1994 after doing the work around on it to get a working fuel gauge.
The procedure to rework the later cluster to get the fuel gauge to work is in the FAQ's. Apparently installing the later cluster as found and replacing the fuel sending unit for a 1993-94 will result in a functioning gauge as well. Pick your poison.
Since my 91 wagon has low original miles I thought I would look into having the speedometer repaired. There were two shops in the FAQ's that at least at one point repairing these troublesome instruments.
I called Overseas Speedometer and talked to Rick. When I asked about making the repair he told me they don't take them on anymore. He indicated that they have to guarantee their work and too many of them were coming back and he no longer gets involved with them. He actually told me to call DMA Speedometer and talk to Andy.
I called DMA and Andy answered the phone. I explained what I was looking for and that lead into a nice conversation about those particular speedometers.
He was very familiar with the problem of the capacitors leaking and the speedometers not working. He said years ago the repair was straight forward enough- disassemble the unit, clean up the board, install new capacitors and return the repaired unit to the customer.
As time has gone on those leaking capacitors have had the opportunity for the corrosive leakage to wreck havoc on the circuit board itself. Cleaning up the mess and checking the tracks is a time consuming job and many times requires replacement of portions of the damaged board.
He himself doesn't do the work but has an employee that seems to enjoy the challenge and still takes them on. I explained the method of installing a later cluster with the fuel gauge circuitry reworked. He said that sounded like a reasonable route to go.
So if you have a non-working speedometer in a 1991-92 and don't want to use a GPS unit to monitor your speed or install a reworked 1993-94 cluster DMA Speedometer (888 495-2777) will repair yours. The current cost is $175 plus shipping.
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Any twenty minute job is just a broken bolt away from a three day ordeal
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