[george w]

If the New Yorker is like all the other models then it's an analog electrically driven speedo. The most common cause of odometer failure is a broken odometer gear or gears.
Go to www.odometergears.com. You'll see the two gears that typically fail. You'll want to replace them both even if only the smaller 20 tooth gear is broken. The larger gear will fail shortly as well.
It's not a difficult job if you're a automotive DIY'er.

 

[crashyyz]

wow. who knew. thanks so much. I'll get this one apart and see what I'm dealing with. ensure that the gears are bad as opposed to the motor or something. I watched the video of the how do and looks pretty simple. worst part of the job will probably be just getting the cluster out lol

 

[Bob Lincoln]

One of the most common causes of this failure, other than heat embrittlement, is hitting the reset button on the odometer while in motion.

 

[crashyyz]

I think I'll try sourcing a couple of clusters at my local yard. at $5 or $10 each I'll find some usable gears. great info as usual. my 81 yr old mother that has driven the car the last few years wouldn't have hit the trip meter. she never used it .. just must have been age and they got brittle.

 

[Bob Lincoln]

You're far better off repairing your existing cluster with new gears. They are made from a better plastic, and no one here has reported any of the replacement ones failing. A junkyard one will likely fail.

 

[crashyyz]

no offence intended, I don't feel comfortable shelling out $25 + $25.62 shipping for a gear smaller the size of a dime. I can go through a lot of gears from the wrecker for that, if necessary.

 

[valiant67]

I bought a Dodge Dakota brand new in 1987. After about 2500 miles the odometer quit working and the dealer replaced it as an assembly because the gears had broken. That's how cheaply made the OEM gears are.

You may find junkyard ones that are OK, but you may find many of them are just as bad as the ones you are replacing and won't survive the removal and installation.

 

[mydodgedip]

I swapped spares into my 91 Imperial since I had so many of them around and I agree, the gears are a little expensive. I've only had to change it twice so far in 150K miles. Hardest part about the cluster coming out is the shift indicator. If you can get to the screws from underneath, remove it from the cluster and the cluster pulls right out. If you leave it on, make sure to not snag the white plastic tail that hangs down on anything or it will break off.

 

[george w]

The $ 25. charge for the gear sounds correct, but the shipping doesn't. All the OEM gears are extremely likely to be broken or to break imminently. I'd venture to say that just about every one of these odometers in the scrapyards are either already broken or are about to. The OEM plastic gets very brittle from age and the teeth are quite fine. The OEM gear seems to shrink or get stuck and freezes to it's post and the teeth just shear off when it does.
The folks at odometer gears had to make the molds which are expensive and use a better plastic than the original. I tried swapping gears from other clusters over the years and now I have a baggie with a bunch of broken gears. It seems that the little 20 tooth gear goes first, but eventually the large gear fails as well.
Double check on the shipping costs, as the gear could be sent in a standard first class envelope.
While it's not particularly hard to change out the gears, it's a job that you really don't want to do twice.

 

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Option B - swap to the digital dash. A 1990 Imperial, Fifth, or New Yorker can donate one that will require minimal wiring.

Other options if you can't find the correct 1990 cluster include swapping in a 1988 New Yorker digital dash or a LeBaron GTS cluster. Both will require a lot of wiring, while the GTS cluster will also require modding for a shift indicator. You will need the shift indicator from an AC/AY digital dash regardless of the one you choose - the analog one does not fit.

I threw a GTS cluster into my 1991 Fifth parts car once upon a time. Required a lot of wiring, including adding wiring and a pin to the ECM for the tach signal, but it worked well until the car ended up with a broken rocker pedestal. It was kind of neat having a tach in that car.

Note that the only option that will give you correct mileage is the proper 1990 digital dash. It will get the info out of the BCM. The 1988 and GTS clusters store mileage right in the cluster, and there is no reprogramming them.

 

[crashyyz]

well. I hate to say it .. but technically the ny'r is now out of my driveway and now in my next door neighbours. he has purchased it from my in lieu of my 00 neon that he owe me one last payment on. once he saw the ny'r and took it for a drive. he asked if we could rework the deal on the neon. I agreed. the bonus of this is.. he already has part of the trim and such off to prepare to do the minimal body work it needed. he's going to do it right and better than I ever could. the 1990 will have lots of good years left and will be with someone enjoying it.. and taking care of it... with eye shot

he knows about the gear and the odo site. I'll let him choose what he wants to do. if he wants the new ordered.. I'll order it for him. I will also double check with the site re: super inflated shipping. shouldn't cost more than $2 imo .. lol I will also let him know about the digital. I bet if I can find him one he'll go for that..

 

[mgill3]

From what I understand, clusters out of later cars have better gears that don't break.. (92-93). Maybe finding a newer (non-VDO) cluster with similar milage would be a good idea? I thought about getting one with somewhere's around 130k and then just wait until I hit those miles, then swap.

Any reason the replacement gear for $25 would be a better idea? ... mine is working right now, but I'm told it will eventually fail, so it's best to come up with a plan when it decides to do so.

 

[scalebowler]

I'm so glad I found this since my odometer quit working recently (I thought it was strange that my odometer was telling me I only got 20 miles on half a tank of gas) Those little gears are pretty expensive but I'm going to order a set of them just because I really don't like having things that don't work on my car.

 

[Bob Lincoln]

From what I understand, clusters out of later cars have better gears that don't break.. (92-93). Maybe finding a newer (non-VDO) cluster with similar milage would be a good idea? I thought about getting one with somewhere's around 130k and then just wait until I hit those miles, then swap.

Any reason the replacement gear for $25 would be a better idea? ... mine is working right now, but I'm told it will eventually fail, so it's best to come up with a plan when it decides to do so.

It was on my 92 that it broke, around 268K miles. Re-setting while moving is what I think stresses it. I replaced it with the odometergears.com one, it was a different plastic that looks more durable, worked fine the next 40K miles that I had the car.

 

[mgill3]

It was on my 92 that it broke, around 268K miles. Re-setting while moving is what I think stresses it. I replaced it with the odometergears.com one, it was a different plastic that looks more durable, worked fine the next 40K miles that I had the car.

Did your 92 have a VDO brand cluster? I think I saw a 92 in a yard with a VDO...

I got a non-VDO (I forget the name of the brand...) speedo head out of a junked car, and I was even able to manually spin the miles back so it matches my milage perfectly. I'll be swapping that in this week.

 

[Bob Lincoln]

It was a VDO.

 

[John Wood]

Did your 92 have a VDO brand cluster? I think I saw a 92 in a yard with a VDO...

I got a non-VDO (I forget the name of the brand...) speedo head out of a junked car, and I was even able to manually spin the miles back so it matches my milage perfectly. I'll be swapping that in this week.

Nippondenso was the other vendor the Chrysler used toward the end of the EEK era. They plug in perfectly and function identically (on identical vehicle models), however, the color of the pointer (more red color) does not match well with the color of the other needles (i.e, tach, fuel and heat gauges).

 

[mgill3]

I've just got the speedo head, which I'll swap in... thanks for the heads up, I'll swap needles, assuming the old one will fit onto the newer speedo head...

 

[Neurodeliri]

hey, ive got a 91 new yorker whose odometer has quit but speedo still works like yours, and upon reading this thread ill probably be swapping out the gears like you guys have recommended

but here's one thing, my speedo doesn't ALWAYS work, sometimes i gotta hit a little bump or something for it to "wake up"



im guessing this is just a faulty connection and when i get the whole panel out to swap the gears some cleaning oughta fix?