1. Drop the steering wheel down and undo the 2 screw at top of cluster 2. Take off the dash fascia surround by unplugging the light switch first then the aircon plug and the other plugs depending which model you have. 3. Once the fascia is off you will have clear access to the cluster. 4. Undo the 2 screws where the white tabs are, these are the only 2 screws holding the cluster. Now you can pull the cluster out, it might take a bit of wiggling but it will just pop out. 5. Once the cluster is out turn it over and take out the 4 Torque screws (T10 size) if you don’t have a torque screw bit you might use a tiny screw drive to do the job. 6. Unclip the 2 white tabs and separate the cluster 7. Once separated turn it over and unclip the black lead with a small flat screw driver, undo the 4 black screws holding the speedo in place 8. Your speedo is ready to come out now. Carefully slide out the black dividers holding the speedo in place from the front 9. Now we need to pull the speedo apart, there are 2 flat head screws on the speedo face that need to be removed and the speedo needle, the needle you need to be very carefully not to break but it will pop off with a little pressure.
12 You will see a round silver part about the size of a 10 cent piece with 2 screws. Under this is the cogs which run the odometer, aka Sun Dial Cog 13 Carefully take the circuit off to expose the cog, if you notice a few broken teeth on the cog that is why your odometer doesn’t work. Replace the cog with a new one from eBay or such. Once replaced put it all back together in reverse pattern.
I did have a quick look when pulling it apart but didn't know how to change the mileage. The post was me taking pic's so i didn't miss anything putting it back together, i figured it might be handy for other wanting to change the cog or just remove a cluster.
Great write up. I did this about 7 or 8 years back. An easy job with a nice write up on hand. It would be a nightmare going in blind though.
When you replace the old gear have a look for teeth that have broken off and are lodged in the other gear wheel. Otherwise they will jam your repair job. I did this job on my VP some years back and I think the VP gear wheel set-up might be different from the VS. I replaced the sunwheel and then had to do it all again to replace a larger grey gear wheel cos it also had broken teeth.
There are 2 VS variants, most are the standard set while the 50th Anniversary Ute seemed to have a unique gear set. Best advise is not to just replace the small gear but replace both the larger and smaller ones together and thus not have to do the job twice. Also it has been previously suggested if your odometer is still functioning from original, never press the trip reset while the vehicle is moving, rather do it while you are stationary. You'll find that they fail due to the reset being activated, they never stop if the trip reset is never used.
Been there, done that, however one important thing that I learned the hard way... My odometer gear carked it & then after replacing both gears the entire speedo was dead on refitting it. The reason was that on the back & base of the assembled cluster are surface mounted printed circuits and 2 of them had been stuffed when getting the instrument panel out of the dashboard. On the bottom of the metal cutout for the instrument panel in the dash assembly there are some protruding thin tabs which are perfectly placed to catch & break these circuits as the complete instrument panel is jiggled around when removing it from the dash. So... when removing the instrument panel just gently pivot it up enough to be able to work a towel underneath it along its whole length, ensuring that it covers those booby trap tabs. As a consequence of the above saga, did you know that replacing a dead speedo with a police speedo works perfectly, providing you only drive during the day! The police speedo needle is all metal & thus has NO illumination from underneath from the tiny light shining through the central hole in the speedo, thus being totally invisible at night. Also, the police speedo has a MUCH larger shaft that the needle fits onto. I enlarged the hole in the original needle just enough to fit onto the thick police shaft but there was only .25mm wall thickness left on the quite brittle plastic needle boss, so it is not a job for the ham fisted (I work with micro mechanics every day so I had the experience & gear to do it).
the police cluster has a light globe in the centre of the top piece of the lens shining light down so they can turn off the headlights and still see the speedo at night as its connected to ignition power, the police pointer is from a ford EA speedo
