Althouth my tach is working, it would only make sense to replace the capacitor while things are apart. Accessing the capacitors on the clock has been well explained and is fairly straight forward once things are apart. The tach capacitor however doesn't appear to be accessable without removing the needle and faceplate. Am I missing something? I'm very apprehensive about removing the needles.

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You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need.

The cluster removal was prompted by the recent odometer failure. Speedometer still works. What I think I found was the green gear on the end of the shaft that runs through the odometer was slipped out and not engaging the white screw type plastic shaft. After playing with it a bit the green gear appeared to still be on the metal shaft but the whole shaft assembly had shifted to the left when viewing from the front of the meter. It appears the dark grey gear on the right side of the odometer is no longer firmly attached to the metal shaft allowing the shaft to shift to the left. After carefully manipulating the green gear, was able to get the gear and shaft to slide back in to place. I did not attempt to spin the meter to confirm it would work when in the correct place, but I would be surprised if it would as I thing the grey gear needs to be attached firmly to the shaft also? I don't think any of the gears are missing teeth but I can't really see it well as the faceplate blocks the view.

If indeed this is accurate, does the faceplate have to be removed to "operate" on the odometer? If so, how does the faceplate come off without removing the speedometer needle? If the needle must be removed, what's the best technique to accomplish it? If the "operation" is successful, how is the needle returned in its proper position?

As stated before, I'm really apprehensive about removing the needles.

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You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need.

Also, is my Weller soldering gun capable of r/ring the capacitors or do I need a smaller soldering iron? Never messed with circuit boards before.

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You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need.

If the speedo works but the odometer and trip do not, what can be the problem besides the gears? I have taken apart twice, inspected each gear and spun the stator motor wheel by hand and the odometer works fine. Can a capacitor or board cause the problem? Not sure where to look or how to test.. Appreciate any ideas.

Thanks,

Bill

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87 560 SL
93 300E 2.8
91 300CE-24

Well I repaired my odometer. The shaft runing through the center of all the numbered wheels had one of the gears become loose on one end. I slid the shaft out and a like sized drill bit in from the other side to keep everything in line. Once out, I scored the slipping end and reinserted pushing out the drill bit. Had to tap it back into the other gear that was slipping so I assumed a firm connection. Here's where things went bad.

Decided to test my repair with a drill motor. Found a nail that appeared to be the correct size to fit the back of the speedo on the work bench, test fit looked good. Chucked it into the drill and started spinning. Everything worked great as I ran it over a mile. When I stopped and was pulling the nail back out it was somehow stuck? Pulled a little harder and it pulled an inner sleeve out and poped the needle off the front.

So I'm now looking for a speedo for a 190D with the 2.2 liter automatic. I understand the speedo head in the dash is geared to the differential so I need a 2.2 automatic for the speed to be correct.

Stuff happens!

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You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need.

I've pulled the cluster out of my '84 300SD to repair an intermittent clock. I would like a bit of guidance before I get into it.

My clock works sometimes, but it appears that whether it works or not depends on the position of the knob used to adjust the time. I haven't completely disassembled the clock/tach portion of the cluster, so I don't quite know what I need to be looking at. When the clock stops working, and I re-set the time via the knob, if I'm very careful with how I handle the knob, it will work for weeks on end. Could it be that this is just a coincidence and that the capacitors are actually the problem?

Also, my speedometer and odometer appear to both be reading about 10% too fast, but they work very well. The gears are in good shape, but I don't know why they would both read too fast. I bought the car used, and it has a brand-newly rebuilt transmission from Sun Valley Transmissions (mercedesdismantlers.com). I'm using factory-sized tires (195/70R14), so it's not a tire-size issue. I have two other used clusters, and both of those read 10% too fast also. Could it be that the drive/pickup from the transmission is incorrect?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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1984 300SD
351,000 miles

The knob actually connects to the clock mechanism via a spring loaded rod type thing and sometimes that can get stuck extended. When it is extended it adjusts the clock so if its stuck the clock is held in position and doesnt change. That might be whats happening to you. Take apart the cluster and observe the knob mechanism, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Hrmm that does sound peculiar. Maybe a previous owner changed the differential or something? That, tires or trans are the only things that I can think of that would cause that difference on BOTH clusters.

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Cruise Control not working? Send me PM or email (jamesdean59@gmail.com). I might be able to help out.
Check here for compatibility, diagnostics, and availability!

(4/11/2020: Hi Everyone! I am still taking orders and replying to emails/PMs/etc, I appreciate your patience in these crazy times. Stay safe and healthy!)


82 300SD 145k
89 420SEL 210k
89 560SEL 118k
90 300SE 262k RIP 5/25/2010
90 560SEL 154k
91 300D 2.5 Turbo. 241k
93 190E 3.0 235k
93 300E 195k

1988 190E 2.3, identical loose gear problem. Odometer sometimes ok on cold days, but really slips on warm days and numbers stand still. Purchased car recently and suspect actual mileage is much higher than indicated. Saw one suggestion using careful application of super glue, but didn't want to try that in such a closely fitted mechanism. Scoring the odometer shaft looked like a much better idea. Small conflict on chasing the shaft out with a drill bit. Rather than risk further disassembly, I filed a little notch in the odometer frame to allow axial access. See photo. #33 drill bit (0.113 inch) worked fine, just barely long enough at 2.75 inches.

Wasn't sure what sort of 'scoring' would work on the shaft, so I just took the vise-grips to it, figuring no material would be removed, merely rearranged. See photo. Evidently that was overkill, since aggressive tapping was required to force that deformed shaft back into the drive gear. Solid connection now.

Electric drill test looks good. I use a short length of 1/4-inch nylon zip-tie to couple the drill to the odometer cable fitting. Kind of loose and eccentric but not likely to do any damage (wear eye protection). My variable speed drill goes up to 75 mph (turning counter-clockwise). Real test will be an 800 mile road trip this weekend. I may finally get some valid miles-per-gallon data.

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