How to repair a not working odometer: the Minitools guide

One of the most common problems on classic cars and motorcycles is a malfunction of the odometer, which is the mechanism that measures the distance (kilometres or miles) travelled by the vehicle, which can be stuck and don’t work.

This problem to the odometer, also called mileage counter, can affect both the total odometer and the partial odometer (trip meter), and can be caused mostly by two factors:

• On or more worn gears inside the gauge (this may happen both on electronic and mechanical instrument panels);
• Malfunction or breakage of the transmission cable, also called tacho shaft or speedometer cable (this problem may occur only on mechanical instrument panels).

In the first case, when the issue is related to the gears, only the odometer doesn’t work, the rest of the instrument (like speedometer or rev counter) works fine*.

In the second case, together with the mileage counter stuck and not spinning, the issues extend to the rest of the instrument: speedometer or rpm needles may bounce or be completely stuck.

*Note: if one or more needles on an electronic instrument cluster are bouncing or stuck, this is probably due to a fault in the stepper motor driving them, if you’re encountering this problem, please contact us.

Furthermore, in case the replacement part you’re looking for is not on our e-commerce, we may produce it for free for you, just contact us!