Just got a 300SD with a problem with dash
 

My girlfriend's beater toyota was stolen so I convinced here to get a 1983 300SD we found here.. anyway the car is okay except for that fact that the speedometer does not work nor does the dash light up.

What is it going to take to fix this???

sounds like broken speedometer gear....try a search on broken speedometer W126

What about the lack of illumination?

dimmer reostat is bad....jumper it or replace it...very common problem.

How do you pull the cluster out? Do I need a special tool?

take a coathanger..........cut it in half........on one end of each bend a 1/2" "L" slide that between the cluster and dash..rotate for the L to catch the back of the cluster and pull....its interfearance fit.

Thanks.. I found some other stuff.

Sound slike I may have to send it out to get the speedometer fixed??

depends on your mechanical aptitude...you can buy just the gear for about $25 .....look through the sticky threat at the top..there is a FAQ for doing it....let me see if I can find that link....

http://www.odometergears.com/ this is one.

Cool.. I will try pulling the cluster and see which gear has been stripped.

I know there is at least one other site for that gear but can't find it right now.

I hope that that girl is a good one. If she wasn't already high maintenance she is now!

What coz I'm fixing her car??

Ya, I can hear my wife saying, "well you said it was a good car and easy to fix." But that would be OK for me, the wife is not high maintenance.

Have fun.

Er.. maybe it's the speedo cable? Its not uncommon for a speedometer cable to snap, either. May want to take the dash off, and see if the cable spins whle rolling forward..

As for illumination.. jumper / fix the rheostat. If it still doesn't light up.. check all the solder tracking.. sometimes a solder track will break (happened on one of my 300D's)

the W126 (1983 300SD) has a electrically driven speedo I am certain of.....