Hi, I have an 83 300SD and both my odometer and trip odometer do not work. I am curious what to look at first? Cable? replace the plastic gears?

Basically the following items dont work. RPM gauge, clock, odometer and trip Od. but the oil pressure, speedo and gas gauge do work.

I understand that there is a cluster behind the dash. Is it just one big one or does each function have its own.

Is this common for these older cars? Any advice on where to kick off would be great.

thanks chris

 

Chris,
I don't know if this'll help--the other non-working itemsmake me think there is something unplugged--but it's something to check. I have an '81 240D and the trip odometer often malfunctions on these older models. If you have a reset button in the middle of the dash--it may also control the intensity of the dashboard lights--you can try pushing it just a bit, or lifting it, or otherwise giving it a nudge while you're moving. If you find the decimal digit moving, let go and see if it continues to work. If the trip odometer doesn't work, neither will the general odometer. This procedure was my work-around for a couple of years before I had to finally replace the speedometer. I found that most often the problem occurred on the change from .9 to the next mile (.0), though it could happen at other points, too.

 

HI, Thanks for the info. I went out for a short drive and pulling pushing the button didnt help. I could see the digits shake when I pushed the button in but they wouldnt rotate. On a side note, the button for the clock wont even go in at all but I can turn it but it doesnt do anything to the clock.

I guess Ill have to pull the instrument cluster and see if anything is unplugged or loose. Any other ideas?

Chris

 

Have a look at Dieselgiant for a good video article on repairing odometer.

 

The Diesel Giant fix is very helpful. I just followed it about two weeks ago on my '83 240D. I used a "twistie (like you would use on a bag of bread) to apply the loctite, rather than a tooth pick. It flowed better and was easier to get in the small space. As a side note, I was able to use my o-ring picks to remove the instrument cluster, so I didn't have to remove the lower kick panel. It may not be worth it from a time saving perspective versus potential damage to your dash and/or a broken o-ring pick...but it worked for me.