odometer woes

raerjim · #1 (**permalink**) 08-24-2006, 10:14 PM

Guys, my odometer and trip meter quit a while back. My speedo still works tho. What gives?? Thanx a lot

raerjim · #2 (**permalink**) 08-24-2006, 10:20 PM

Oh... 2WD '96 Explorer 4.0L might help...

raerjim · #3 (**permalink**) 08-26-2006, 08:57 PM

no one have any ideas?

97custXplor · #4 (**permalink**) 08-29-2006, 03:56 AM

Does your ABS light come on? sometimes when there is a problem with the ABS, or ABS sensor, it will make the odometer stop rolling. Let me know, if I cant help you... I have friends that will be able to.

texan2004 · #5 (**permalink**) 12-12-2006, 01:30 AM

raerjim,

I recently noticed that mine has done the same thing (96 Explorer Sport - 4WD, 5-speed manual transmission). What transpired with yours?? Is it fxed? What was the casue? What did it cost?

Thanks,

Carl G.

raerjim · #6 (**permalink**) 12-12-2006, 07:17 AM

No ABS light. or any other symptoms. It just quit. I have not fooled with it lately. Thanx for any help.

texan2004 · #7 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 08:59 PM

Well it took a year and a half to get around to this but I got it fixed. The problem turned out to be the worm gear on the little motor that drives the odometer gears in the instrument panel. The worm gear is either a real soft plastic or rubber. It had disintegrated.

I had purchased a used instrument bezel from a local bone yard. My Explorer is a 4x4 Sport with a manual transmission. The one from the bone yard came off of an automatic - no idea if it was from a 2WD or 4WD. These bezels are very easy to disassemble. If somebody else encouters this problem, I would recommend buying a new/used instrument panel and removing only the parts you need from it and reusing as much of your original unit as possible. The reason being that there were a number of different vehicle configurations/accessories that could impact the instrument panel such as 4WD, Auto vs. maual transmission, etc. I chose to reuse original circuit board because I know works for my particular vehicle. I did not have to worry if the 4WD lites would work wiht the new bezel etc.

If you remove the plastic cover to the bezel. you will find that the instruments are broken into three removable sections. You have to remove the outer two to get the speedo/tach/odometer out. With the sppedo/tach/odometer out, a working one from a different instrument cluster can be transplanted into your existing unit. It's all snapps together at this stage. Replace the cover and reisntall.

Also, I did a test run with the new unit plugged in but not totally reassembled to make certain that the problem was with the odometer module and not in the intrument panel circuit board or some other component before I permanently reassembled everything.

Anyhow, hope this helps someone else. Rather easy repair.