HOW and WHY Dodge Odometer Gears Break!

[JimmieD]

Hi guys,

Sorta good news/bad news... Most everybody around here has heard that the Dodge Ram's Odometer and Trip Mileage indicators with their plastic gears break very easily, and unexpectedly. Major PIA!

Just found out for the first time HOW and WHY Mopar odometers break! Plastic gears, yeah but there's more to it.

Talking to my buddy last night who makes a living dealing in Mopar Police, Fire, Rescue, Emergency Response and other specialty Mopars back to the 60's vintage. He's the same person I got my '90 W-350 Ram from.

"I'm having lots of fun here, buddy, fixing the odometer and trip meter on that Ram I got from you. The blasted plastic gears broke."

"Oh, yeah, they'll break real easy, IF YOU TRY TO RESET THE TRIP METER WITH THE VEHICLE MOVING, IN GEAR, THAT'S WHAT BREAKS THEM. Don't ever reset those with the vehicle moving, ONLY WITH IT STOPPED!"

I thought about it afterwards and it makes perfect sense. With the vehicle moving the driver mechanism is imparting 'Forward' motion to the little plastic gears, to increase the number display incrementally. So if you jam down on the little button with vehicle moving you're not only forcing the gears against the normal forward DRIVEN motion of increasing number movement, you're also FORCING IT TO TURN BACKWARDS, AGAINST AND IN OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF ITS DRIVEN MOTION!

Something's got to give, and of course it's the plastic gears, getting forced in 2 opposite directions at once!

Hopefully this info will get spread around far and wide so that others don't break their gears. It's the first time I've ever heard WHY the blasted gears break.

JimmieD

[PToombs]

I wondered why I haven't had problems, I always reset mine before I start the truck to take off.

[Bob L]

Hey thanks JimmieD. This makes perfect sense.
So far I have been lucky, still working. I try and reset mine while still at the service station before I start moving.

Thanks again, very much appreciated !.

[JimmieD]

Great, spread the news guys and maybe we can save others from the misery!

[The_Head]

Thanks for the heads up, I have wondered why I have been lucky with mine so far.

[Diesel]

Yes this is very correct! I used to own old porsche 911's from the 60's and those did the same thing. Question is where can we get new gears for our odos?

[ellis93]

Look in the sticky section over on dtr,there's a write up on it.

Also has a link n where to buy gears

[PToombs]

There's one here too.

[RCCUMMINS89]

I just put in a gps..........though, I do wish my speedo worked. As it is hard to do speed tests when you over run your gps by 30mph.

[PToombs]

All the money you make selling all that hi-perf diesel stuff you should be able to afford something better than a Walmart GPS!

[RCCUMMINS89]

All the money you make selling all that hi-perf diesel stuff you should be able to afford something better than a Walmart GPS!

One only makes money in this "game" if they sell Chinese knock off junk or jump on the Industrial Injection flat biller train.

[PToombs]

wooooo-woooooooo! chugga chugga chugga

[stoneagemaxx]

where to find theee geqrs thanks

tim

[JimmieD]

In addition to the stickies try the Yahoo search engine for 'speedometer gears', several companies sell them.