Strange Speedo/Odo Things
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11-07-2017
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Strange Speedo/Odo Things
Hey guys, first post as a member of the forum! I’m having some strange problems with my speedometer, and I’m hoping someone can help.
I bought the truck for $800 back in July, and boy was the poor thing beat. All sorts of problems. One of the most prevalent though was the inoperability of the speedometer. Like a week later, the thing sprang to life one day, but I still planned on replacing the VSS at some point. In the meantime I replaced a lot of other things, and the one important one that I can think of would be the speed control switches, since mine had cosmetically seen much better days. While I was in there, I think I broke one of the wires off of the ribbon harness for the switch on the right side. A few weeks later my speedo stops working for good, and I replaced the VSS. The old one came out in two pieces, and I installed the new one with some dielectric grease on the connector since the truck is 20 years old. A trip around the block confirmed that we were back in business! ...until later that night when I tried to turn on the speed control and the damn thing died again.
So I looked at wiring diagrams to find out where the speed sensor signal and the speed control meet and found that they join in the servomechanism’s controller. This computer had a clip on it at some point in time that’s supposed to hold the wiring harness on, but has broken off. So I hit that with some dielectric grease and zip tied it snug which also seemed to fix my problem, until it happened again.
Now I’ve been trying everything to get this speed sensor signal back, and sometimes if I turn the truck off and on again while driving it will come back, but sometimes it doesn’t. Lately, not even that works anymore. But I also noticed while doing this that no matter what, the speedometer always works when the key is in the START position. Not RUN, but START. The minute I let off the key, the speedo dies again.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, but do keep in mind we’re trying to diagnose a truck with what I can only assume has way more than 211,000 miles on the clock.
Thank you!
1997 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4
4.0L V6 OHV
I bought the truck for $800 back in July, and boy was the poor thing beat. All sorts of problems. One of the most prevalent though was the inoperability of the speedometer. Like a week later, the thing sprang to life one day, but I still planned on replacing the VSS at some point. In the meantime I replaced a lot of other things, and the one important one that I can think of would be the speed control switches, since mine had cosmetically seen much better days. While I was in there, I think I broke one of the wires off of the ribbon harness for the switch on the right side. A few weeks later my speedo stops working for good, and I replaced the VSS. The old one came out in two pieces, and I installed the new one with some dielectric grease on the connector since the truck is 20 years old. A trip around the block confirmed that we were back in business! ...until later that night when I tried to turn on the speed control and the damn thing died again.
So I looked at wiring diagrams to find out where the speed sensor signal and the speed control meet and found that they join in the servomechanism’s controller. This computer had a clip on it at some point in time that’s supposed to hold the wiring harness on, but has broken off. So I hit that with some dielectric grease and zip tied it snug which also seemed to fix my problem, until it happened again.
Now I’ve been trying everything to get this speed sensor signal back, and sometimes if I turn the truck off and on again while driving it will come back, but sometimes it doesn’t. Lately, not even that works anymore. But I also noticed while doing this that no matter what, the speedometer always works when the key is in the START position. Not RUN, but START. The minute I let off the key, the speedo dies again.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, but do keep in mind we’re trying to diagnose a truck with what I can only assume has way more than 211,000 miles on the clock.
Thank you!
1997 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4
4.0L V6 OHV
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rangerdanger86
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10-22-2011 09:40 PM
