Todd_In_Texas

About 2 months ago I noticed the odometer and trip-meter have stopped working on our 1996 Ford Mustang GT Coupe. About 4 years ago the speedometer, odometer and the trip meter stopped working all together. I replaced the "speed sensor" in the back of the transmission and that fixed that problem and everything worked fine for a while. However, this time the speedometer is still working fine.... just the odometer and trip meter are frozen. I can't find anything in my "Haynes" book to fix it. Any ideas?

Below is a low resolution picture of my instrument cluster:

Instrument Cluster Pic

I've tapped that meter reset many times and it hasn't kicked it back in. Once I tapped it a little harder and the trip-meter went to halfway between 009.9 and 000.0 but still didn't move when the vehicle was rolling.


Thanks!
-Todd

nathansmith50

my parents have the same problem with my mom's 96 gt vert. she drove it from michigan to myrtle beach and back and she put 35 miles on it.

they've had it looked at by all sorts of people.....private mechanics......racecar teams(my old man knows some craftsman truck guys) and a few different dealerships......they all say it's fine.......nobody knows what's the deal.

jmmorgan82

your odometer gear is wiped out. mine did the same thing, I pulled the little gear out and half the teeth were missing. check out odometergear.com. they have them for about 25 bucks or so

Todd_In_Texas

Thanks jmmorgan82 that's a great site. That looks like that will fix it.

Pardon my ignorace but I've never worked on anything in the instrument cluster before. When you replaced your odometer gear how did you do get access to it?

jmmorgan82

where at in TX? im in San Marcos. first, you take off the 2 screws on the underside of the bezel, and remove the headlight ****. then the bezel just pulls off. now there are 4 torx head screws holding the entire cluster in. take those out, pull the cluster towards you, and undo the 2 electrical connectors on the back. set it on a bench or whatever, and make note of where your gauges are pointing because they will have to come off. now, take off all the torx screws around the edges and lift the plastic cover off. pull your needles off and then pull the gauges off..starting with the sides i think. and after that i really dont remember, but its pretty simple to do. also, since you'll be pulling all this apart, its a good time to throw in some white face gauges if you want em.

Todd_In_Texas

Wow... thanks again jmmorgan82. That's great info... and by the way I'm from Mesquite Texas... Dallas area.

I checked my book once I got home and for anyone that's interested this is what is says:

1) Disconnect the negative battery cable, then the positive battery cable and wait two minutes.

2) Pull the headlight switch outward to the "On" position. Push the release tab at the bottom of the **** to remove it.

3) Remove the bezel retaining screws.

4) Tilt the steering wheel down to the lowest posistion. Pull the top of the instrument cluster bezel outward while disengaging the lower clips on the bezel. Remove the bezel from the vehicle.

Thanks again... you've been a GREAT help. I'll post pics of the damaged gears as well as the work I did as soon as I get the parts and do the work.

-Todd

szeise

Thanks for the previous posts - my gears had fallen apart also.

Here is a little more advice to save you some trouble:

Do not pull off the needles! The two side gage assemblies should be removed first. Remove the torx screws Pry the whole assembly out - they plug in to electrical sockets.

Pry out the middle assembly (speedometer and tach) It also plugs into a socket.

Knight_Rider

Just goes to show, old advice is NEVER bad advice!!
$48 incl the shipping [8D]

My apologies to my Westerly neighbors, but this thing looks like it grew up in Alabama!!

Knight_Rider

IMPORTANT:

DO NOT, say again, DO NOT try to start the engine for any reason with the cluster unplugged!!! You will engage the Anti-Theft and have to have it reprogrammed by Ford!!!!

99mustang38or46

just fyi not true about the reprogram vy ford when starting it with out the cluster. When I switched out my cluster for an autometer one I thought why not see what happens when you start the car with not dash cluster. All it did was engage PATS once you put an appropriate cluster back in it started up fine. So ya not trying to be an a** just thought everyoone can learn from eveyone!