odometer

i have a 1994 SL1 with 92K miles. the odometer/trip odometer just
stopped working. thank you in advance for all the help.

 

typical of that year, thru 1995 SL's. There is a tiny plastic gear that
drives the odo that breaks. It is a tedious process to replace the gear,
remove the dash, gauges, dig deep, etc. If you are mechanically inclined and
like very tiny parts, go for it, otherwise, it is an expensive and time
consuming repair. There are companies if you Google that sell that
particular odo gear.

 

Go to http://www.odometergears.com. They have the gears you need. As
another poster noted, it's a fair amount of work - but the cost for
both gears is only about $50. It's usually just the small gear that
breaks, but due to the amount of work to get to the gears, I would
replace both. I have replaced the gears in 1 Saturn, 3 Volvos, and 1
Oldsmobile. The 1992 Saturn was the 2nd easiest to do. While you are
at it, you may want to replace any burned out lights in the cluster.
Having done so many of these, I would change out at least the cluster
illumination lights. The indicator lights tend not to burn out.

Terry

 

I realize this is a second reply. It is possible to replace the
entire cluster with a used one. Having bought several, I can tell you
that the gears were broken in over half of them. Buying new gears,
IMHO, is the way to go.

Terry

 

VERY TRUE!
I went to the junk yard looking for a replacement dash cluster and
brought home a dud!
Then I went back to the same yard and proceeded to take apart EIGHT
clusters looking
for an intact gear set. NO LUCK WHATSOEVER! Out of NINE Saturns in
the junkyard, NINE had broken gears!
(Probably because of the intense heat and UV light down here in Texas)

So - I went ahead and bought the pinion gear from plasticgears.com or
whatever it is...
THAT worked. The guy shipped pretty fast and makes a good product.

-Don C.
PS - In 95 the gear drive changed drastically - you probably would
have this problem with 1994 models and earlier.