The odometer and tripometer quit working, and so I assumed the worm gear I put in a couple years ago took a dive. When I took out the motor, it still looked like new, and so I am wondering if the motor could have taken a dive, or is there a way to check to see if it is working, or could there be a problem somewhere else?

Can manually turn the gears, and tripometer, and odometer works.

 

Year of the Ranger please?

I am assuming 1995 or later

 

Yes, a 1995 XLT.
The worm gear does not appear to be slipping on the shaft either. Not sure if for some reason it quit meshing with the other gear, or if it is worn enough to quit does it job?

 

Yes, in a 1995-2003 the odometer and speedometer use different electric motors but share the speed signal, so if speedo is working then the speed signal and its electric motor are working
Which leaves odometers worm drive and electric motor
now the driven gear on the odo can break, so worm gear has nothing to turn but that should be fairly obvious

I can't find any way to test odometer motor, no wiring diagrams, so its basically a speculation replacement part
The worm gear is just a friction fit on the motor's shaft, so should be hard to slide off and on

 

Also, do I really need that metal cover that is under that front plastic cover, and also, is it advisable to notch out the plastic in behind where the hood release mounts, so it can stay intact when removing that front cover?

 

Seems the tripometer/odometer works intermittently. My mechanic said that sometimes the solder points on the back can have a crack, and lose contact, and to recook them all, or could be the motor going bad.

Anyone know which points in particular would have to do with the odometer motor running?

 

Was able to find a odometer motor from a guy that was parting out a 2000 Ford Explorer, and used the odometer motor out of it.
That's all that was wrong with it. Even though the motor still turned, it was getting to weak to operate the odometer.

 

Good work

Thanks for posting THE FIX