Bloody speedo and odometer

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E30touringbegins
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Post Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:13 pm

Had problems with the speedo and odometer since day 1 , god knows how many miles it’s actually done. Worked intermittently but now pretty much never works , brought some more clocks but different part number. Still vdo but put them in and nothing on the speedo and the red line is at 4000 rpm ????? Using the car as a daily so really need to know the speed and what mileage I’m covering . Any ideas , solutions or people who can fix the original clocks ?

Thanks
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BenHar
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Post Thu Sep 26, 2019 9:42 pm

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aimlessrock
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Post Fri Sep 27, 2019 9:06 am

I suspect you have a number of issue that will need to be worked through

If he speedo is dead i would first be checking the speed sensor on the diff., these cables can break over time - indeed on one E30 i bought years ago the terminals had almost disintegrated when i pulled the cable out.
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E30touringbegins
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Post Fri Sep 27, 2019 11:38 am

The gears on the odometer are fine and on the replacement cluster , odometer works on neither . I have checked the wiring and cleaned diff sensor . If I banged the dash it used to work so I pulled the clock checked all wiring and soldered joints and everything looks good . Absolute nightmare stuff and absolutely puzzled
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Post Fri Sep 27, 2019 4:09 pm

I had a similar problem that was fixed in the short term by giving the dash a whack. All soldered joints and connectors looked fine so I replaced the clocks and everything worked as it should. Maybe you've been very unlucky and the replacement clocks are also knackered, any chance of getting hold of a third set just to check?
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Brianmoooore
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Post Sat Sep 28, 2019 3:58 pm

Soldered joints on the pins that the speedo assembly plugs into the mother board with, and the connections to the stepper motor itself are the ones you need to be reflowing. This assumes that the wiring to the road speed sensor in the diff. is intact.
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Post Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:23 pm

have you got the correct rev counter code plug in the clusters , sounds like you've got a 4cylinder code plug in a 6 cylinder car ?
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Brianmoooore
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Post Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:42 pm

magpie wrote:
Sun Sep 29, 2019 9:23 pm
have you got the correct rev counter code plug in the clusters , sounds like you've got a 4cylinder code plug in a 6 cylinder car ?
Other way around, isn't it? For every 100 pulses a four cylinder engine sends to the tacho., a six pot will send 150, so a four cylinder engine won't produce enough pulses when it hits the rev limiter to send the tacho. needle more than 2/3 of the way around.