The speedometer in my '73 2.0 worked fine since I purchased the car almost a year ago. However, the odometer and trip odometer never worked. Then, last week the speedometer starting making a high pitched buzzing sound from inside. I'm guessing broken gears.

No biggie. I bought a backup instrument cluster a while back that I was planning on eventually restoring when I had time and doing a full instrument cluster swap.

So I pulled the noisy speedometer out and I dropped in the backup in. Speedometer works just fine and no noise. However, the odometer and trip odometer don't work in this one either.

Questions:

1. Is it likely that the odometer gears inside both are broken?

2. The trip odometer cable that goes into the back of the speedometer wouldn't have anything to do with these issues would it? Or is the only function of that cable to reset the trip odometer to zero?

3. I'm unable to reset the trip odometer to zero via the knob under the dash. When I try to turn the knob there's resistance - it actually won't turn at all. Does that mean I didn't put the other end into the speedometer correctly or could it be something else?

the most common failure is that the gear starts slipping on the shaft...

this is very repairable
you have to "carefullly" bend the benzel back
you will need to reuse it so be careful

then open the gauge and disassemble the stack
there is a better thread on this site if you search
it takes a good hour or longer... and attention to detail is important.

brant

I’ve “attempted” this repair three times now but never get farther than putting the gauge in the vice. Always get scared I’m going to mar or tweak the bezel just enough so that I will notice it every time I sit behind the wheel.

Beyond this step I’m told it’s very easy.