speedo and odo stopped
 

I recently followed the how to from dieselgiant about fixing the odometer on my 1980 300td. I did it and it started working perfectly. Just the other day out of no where both the speeodometer and odometer stopped working at the same time. The only thing I did to the car was a valve job recently. I took the dash apart again an disassembled the speedo unit and reassembled it and it still doesn't work. Any ideas?

sounds like the speedo cable either came loose from the transmission, since you already pulled the dash, and i assume you would notice it not connected to the cluster:rolleyes: or the cable itself broke. if you take it loose from the transmission and it was not off already, try spinning it and seeing if the speedo moves. if it moves, you may have a damaged ring in the tailshaft. :eek:

probably a broken cable. Are you sure you fastened it properly to the speedo?

i checked the connection in the tranny and it appears to be fine. I also removed and replaced back the speedo cable to the back of the speedometer and it still doesn't work???

explain what you replaced again... not following.:confused:
did you hook the cable on the transmission end to a drill and spin in and see if your speedometer moves?

All i did was disconnect and reconnect the cable to the speedo. I Looked at the connection at the trans and it appears fine.

ok, go follow the previous instructions and report back.
we can help you, but you have to try a few things and tell us what happens.

totally understandable and thanks. Is there any special way to get it out of the tailshaft of the tranny. If it is ok, I don't want to break it in the process.

BE VERY CAREFUL GETTING IT OUT OF THE TRANNY!!!!
I broke TWO tailshaft connections doing it in a hurry!
loosen the screw, and look it over carefully before you take any tools to it.

great!!! Maybe I'll just drive w/o it working then. I didn't even see any screws attached to it. It appeared at a quick glance that it was just stuck in there with a rubber type mount. I'll have to get it up on the jacks again later tonight and look at it again.

Ok I got under there and disconnected the cable and this is what I found...should it be this way???? ALso, when I removed the gromet from the trans a little bit, water started pouring out. I would think that the thing still in the trans should be attached to the inside of the hose, but I really don't know. I didn't want to pull on the metal spike looking thing sticking out of the transmission.

You found the problem, your cable is broken.

yeah... I'm thinking you found the problem... any junkyards near you? ya needs a new speedo cable.

looking at the second pic, you have a broken bolt in the transmission. that looks fun to get out...
the ring around the cable sticking out, needs to be carefully fitted with a new speedo cable, I think you can carefully drill out the bolt. I'd soak it with penetrating oil, and then get at it with a left drive drill bit. ya might get lucky.

thanks for the quick replies!!! That bolt was just removed by me. I unscrewed it because I didn't know if it needed to come out or not to remove the line. So that shouldn't be a problem.