1956 speedometer works, odometer not working

[George Clayton]

I have a 56 little bird. Speedo works perfectly. The odometer does not work at all. Any known remedies? Do I have to send it out for repair? If so where? All suggestions are welcome.

This page contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated. As an eBay Partner, and Amazon Associate I may be compensated if you make a purchase at no cost to you.

 

[Shawnski]

Who repairs speedometers and tachometers?

 

[jimntempe]

Who repairs speedometers and tachometers?

In AZ we have Dick's Speedo-Tach. A bit over $200 to have them go thru it.

 

[Ward 57]

In AZ we have Dick's Speedo-Tach. A bit over $200 to have them go thru it.

Tacoma Speedometer is another good one. They did mine.

 

[doug7740]

I have a 56 little bird. Speedo works perfectly. The odometer does not work at all. Any known remedies? Do I have to send it out for repair? If so where? All suggestions are welcome.

The reason your odometer is not working is because the nylon drive gear is stripped. This gear is designed to strip in the event that one of the odometer number wheels jams, causing the speedometer to lock up. Inside the number wheels are a set of switching gears that move the next number wheel at the appropriate time. I have rebuilt a number of these speedometers and if you have the time and patience it is nothing more than a simple mechanical device. The problem might be getting the parts needed. I am fortunate that I have a few speedometers that I use for parts.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue

 

[GPF]

Williamson Instruments
Ron, 479-369-2551
Recommended to me by Cassco Restorations.
Work on their website is impressive.

Williamson is in PA. I shipped mine there. Return shipping is included in his price.

 

[56Donnervogel]

I see this thread is kinda old, but... I have a 56 export model with a metric speedometer, and an odometer problem. Only the 1/10 kilometer number turns and the rest do nothing. I'm pretty sure that one of the internal gears in the drums is the culprit, but unsure about how to disassemble the unit. I got a replacement odometer from Hill's, but it is for a MPH speedo and has a different gear tooth count than my original. It is also in much better shape than mine. I'd like to take all the number drums off my old shaft (the one with the correct gear), and reassemble with all the other pieces from the replacement odometer on the old shaft (with the correct gear). Is this possible, and if so, how do I take the odo apart; do I somehow pull the brass washer off the end of the shaft opposite the gear? I hope to be able to do this myself; thanks for any and all help!

 

[Tom Alpers]

I see this thread is kinda old, but... I have a 56 export model with a metric speedometer, and an odometer problem. Only the 1/10 kilometer number turns and the rest do nothing. I'm pretty sure that one of the internal gears in the drums is the culprit, but unsure about how to disassemble the unit. I got a replacement odometer from Hill's, but it is for a MPH speedo and has a different gear tooth count than my original. It is also in much better shape than mine. I'd like to take all the number drums off my old shaft (the one with the correct gear), and reassemble with all the other pieces from the replacement odometer on the old shaft (with the correct gear). Is this possible, and if so, how do I take the odo apart; do I somehow pull the brass washer off the end of the shaft opposite the gear? I hope to be able to do this myself; thanks for any and all help!

Just thinking about it I would think the whole drum part would be the same. The drum doesn't know if it's doing miles and tenths of miles or km's and tenths of km's. If you look a few posts up where there is a photo with the words "nylon drive gear" in it, I think if you can keep that nylon gear and the two other gears on the left of the photo, you could swap out the rest of the drums that are to the right of that thin metal gear which appears to connect to the white one-tenth drum.

 

[56Donnervogel]

I think that’s right Tom. On this unit both the worm gears appear to be metal, but the odometer appears the same as the MPH unit except for that thin gear. I’d like to do what you suggest, but not sure how to disassemble the odometer. I don’t think the gear will press off, so I think the thick brass washer at the other end may come off. Have you had any experience taking one of these odometers apart? I would be afraid of ruining a one-of-a-kind piece if I did it wrong, so I thought I’d check with you folks for advice.

 

[Tom Alpers]

I think that’s right Tom. On this unit both the worm gears appear to be metal, but the odometer appears the same as the MPH unit except for that thin gear. I’d like to do what you suggest, but not sure how to disassemble the odometer. I don’t think the gear will press off, so I think the thick brass washer at the other end may come off. Have you had any experience taking one of these odometers apart? I would be afraid of ruining a one-of-a-kind piece if I did it wrong, so I thought I’d check with you folks for advice.

The last one I took apart was over 50 years ago so don't recall much. I think it mostly just comes apart by pulling the copper colored parts up that are on the right side of the photo. They might be staked in place and a little of the pot metal cast material might have to be dremeled off to open up the staking. See if you can search for a youtube video of someone redoing one. There is a youtube video of almost everything these days.

 

[56Donnervogel]

I have the metric speedo put back together with a working odometer in it. I was able to take the odometer apart by pulling the thick brass washer off the shaft. I heated the pliers with a soldering iron and held it on the washer for about 20 seconds and then twisted it off.
In comparing the standard odometer to my metric one I found some notable differences. The drive gear on the standard odometer has fewer teeth ; 20 as opposed to 25 on the metric odometer.

Another difference is in the direction the odometer turns. They turn in opposite directions, as seen by comparing the way the numbers are placed on the wheels; on the left is a metric one; the rest are standard.

Another difference is the worm gears that run the odometer. First, metrics turn the opposite direction, as seen in the last picture, so the first gear is cut to turn "backwards." It is also metal rather than nylon like the standard ones. This means that it can't act as a fail-safe to keep the odometer from internal damage in case of a jam up, as Doug7740 mentioned earlier.

This resulted in damage to the tenths numbers. The 2 teeth were stripped off of the inside of it.

For comparison:

So I got the odometer back together using all the old metric numbers except for the tenths, which is from the standard odometer. This means that all the numbers will work correctly except the tenths, which will appear to be counting backwards... Best I could do. I have my doubts that this fix will last for the long term. I also wonder if any of the metric speedometers lasted very long. It seems that the odometer would turn about 1.6 times as fast, and the worm gears would have to turn even faster, as the metric driven gear has more teeth. On the other hand, there probably aren't very many of these out there!

I don't know if this info will be useful to anyone, but I found it interesting (like a bag of snakes)!

 

[Tom Alpers]

Thanks for providing the follow up. That's really strange. Seems like all they would have needed to do to make the US speedo do metric would be to change the ratio of a couple of the gears slightly and call it a day.

 

[56Donnervogel]

I thought so too. I’d like to get the back story on this. It’s kind of cool having something so different and unique (until it breaks)! 🤨

 

[Mr T]

Hello, I come from Germany, sorry for my bad English.
My speedometer works but my odometer doesn´t work.
I want to remove the Odometer, but I couln´t find out how I can do that.
Has anyone a step by step instruction how to remove it ? I want to find out, what is broken.
Has anyone a step by step instruction how to remove the Instrument Cluster ?
Thank you for any answer

 

[doug7740]

The instrument cluster is held in place by four clips behind the dash. These clips are attached to the instrument cluster studs using nuts and lock washers. On the upper right stud, the ground wire for the instrument cluster is also attached. If you are flexible you can squirm under the dash from the driver’s door. If this becomes too painful, the seat can be easily removed to allow more comfortable access. Although it is not necessary, you can also remove the steering wheel to gain the necessary clearance when removing the instrument cluster from the dash. If the steering wheel is not removed, you can use the telescopic feature to gain 3 additional inches of clearance.

Before the instrument cluster can be removed, you must disconnect the speedometer cable by the fluted nut that attaches the cable housing to the speedometer head. You will also have to remove the wires that are connected to the fuel and temperature gauges. It would be a good idea to label these wires as you remove them. Next, remove all of the light bulbs that are in the instrument cluster. These bulbs just push in the instrument cluster and are held in place by their sockets. I would suggest that you label the bulbs as you remove them from the instrument cluster.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue