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

 

I've jammed mine up twice. Both times pulling away from the fuel station and hitting the reset button. Since then I only reset the trip when stopped.

Both times I've been able to get into it and free he jam.

Good to hear I'm not crazy.

 

I have some anecdotal info that sort of supports that. When I bought mine in 2001, the odometer was intermittent/on its way out. It quit completely a few months later. I fixed it per the sticky here and have not had any problems since. The relevant thing is that, since I keep track of mileage, I always note the mileage after I fill up, then reset the odometer, all while sitting stopped at the pump. I know it has never been reset while moving, since it was repaired...Mark

 

Now wait just a minute here, I never said you weren't crazy HAAAA!

But yeah, the whole thing makes sense now and sure enough mine broke when I pushed the button while underway. Wish I could have fixed mine today but it got too complicated for now, maybe later...

Yes, Mark, that further proves it too! Plus it makes sense thinking about it, of forcing stuff in the other direction from the direction it's being driven.

Sure hope the info becomes common knowledge amongst our Dodge and Mopar brethren, and sisteren?

 

That is good info! Thanks for taking the time to inform us.

This should go in the sticky....

 

My pleasure, TC! As mentioned my main intent is to save others from grief in the future. Hadn't thought of a sticky, but can' imagine any other way to share the info to more people? Might be good...

 

When I replaced the 2 gears in my odometer years ago, at the end of the instruction sheet there was a note that said that Now it was ok to push the reset button at any time even when the truck was moving.

You really cannot blame Mopar for this failure, the speedometer/odometer assembly is made by VDO.

Jim