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FAQ BoardThis board is where some of the most informative and helpful Frequently Asked Questions we get here at ThirdGen.Org are put for easier reference. This IS NOT a general question board.
I'm in Canada and I need an etest for my car... And it won't pass with the broken speedometer cable. Can someone please send me a step by step tutorial so I can attempt to fix it. Thank you
The trip odometer is one of the most common engineering disasters on thirdgen cars (symptoms of failure are listed in post #25); however, the fix is both simple and inexpensive--my cost $.09 at the local hardware store.
To access the speedo, remove the black bezel. Once that's removed, look in the rectangles that house the e-brake light, check engine light, etc., and you'll note a, I believe, 10 mm nut on each side of the cluster housing. Move the seat back all the way. Drop the lower dash panel for access to the speedo cable and its clip (this clip holds the cable to the speedo head). A long-shanked, flat-bladded screw driver is perfect to trip the clip. A flash light/trouble light is indispensible. Once the cable is free, so is the cluster. Lowering the steering wheel, and/or dropping the steering column a fraction will help in the removal but is not necessary. To protect from scratches use a bit of masking tape on the steering column.
Note the speedo cable clip.
JamesC
Good advice, but your speedo looks nothing like my '92 RS. It's total electronic, no "J" clips. My speedo gets "jumpy" once in a while and the odometer and trip don't work. Upon inspection, I found almost everything in there was corroded, slightly, looking to use trans fluid, a few drops from a hypo only where I can. I also found the connections on the circuit board were corroded badly. Cleaned them up with 400 grit wet/dry. I also found a 150uf/25VDC electrolytic capacitor on that board had leaked. Removed it, cleaned up the board, replaced the cap. Had to improvise a jumper from the cap to 1 of the diodes because the fluid from the cap ate one of the foil paths. I've seen a lot of leaky electrolytics in ham radios do the same thing. Oh, and check the connections the whole cluster makes to the harness in the dash. I found some of the copper tabs were loose. A little super glue under the tabs fixed that. Polished them up also with 400 grit. In my radio work the majority of problems are "cold" solder joints and bad connections. Kenwood ham gear is notorious for this!
Check out my ham web site, go to https://www.qrz.com/index.html
Then in the upper left hand corner type in my call sign...... N8TCQ. Caps aren't required.
Thanks to everyone on here, your information and experience is invaluable.
More info, I fixed the tach problem. Found the info on this web site. Had to cut a foil path to the resistor chip, then put 2 resistors in series. One was a 100K, the other was 150K. That adds up to 250K or 250,000 ohms. That's about 6,000 ohms less than recommended but it was parts I had on hand. The resistors were 1/2 watt types. You could probably get the exact value of 256K from Mouser or Digikey.
Still working on the speedo, need to lube it up. I'll post results soon.
Last edited by OldMuscleCarGuy; May 1, 2017 at 10:52 PM.
Reason: Added Info
Thanks for this write up and pics! Worked like a charm.
Actually, took two tries, though, so I have a couple of simple recommendation if these haven't been mentioned yet.
One, as James stated, make sure to push in on the reset stick to fully seat the axle when wiring it up.
Two, bench test the odometer/trip with a cordless drill before re-installing in the car. I thought I was all good, but the trip still didn't work in the car on the test drive. Had to pull the cluster back out and fix, the issue was that the wire I used might have been a bit too thin, and/or I didn't seat the axle fully. If I had tested it before reinstalling the cluster, I could have avoided the second cluster pull.
actually, i know from experience, if you pull the guage cluster and undo the little computer attatched the speedo and swap that on to your current speedo it will then be a 140MPH speedo. you will of course also need to swap the faceplate/guage face. i broke my spiffy 145MPH speedo and tested this theory. mine works great.
I'm not following what he is saying. Does he mean there is a "little computer attached to the speedo" of a 115mph version and removing it with cause the speedometer to read like the 145mph style? You would just have to change the face to 145mph.
Quick update to the OG's post. I stumbled on the same problem with my odometer and today I got a junked speedo that I had the pleasure taking apart and fix it (Not totally fix it cause the needle shaft was snapped), but I took some up to date pictures that people like myself could use which show exactly details and zoomed in....sorry OG, your pics were just way out of focus brother....
So not sure it was covered or not, more likely yes, but you DO NOT need to or plainly DO NOT pry or jimmy off the speedo needle..... the problem shaft is accessed from the back...period.
The problem....and yes, this view is from under the speedo face which I removed for learning purposes only.....