I have looked through the forum, but before I pull out the cluster I wanted to throw out my scenario and hear someone's best guess.

So, The speedometer has never worked since I bought the car, though the cruise control has. The check engine light is not on. The needle will bounce around, or stick at 70, and every 60th trip or so register the correct, if not almost correct speed. Then the cruise control died. I replaced the VSS and nothing has changed, except I haven't even seen the speedometer needle bouncing or moving at all (yes, I did put in the little shaft key that turns inside the VSS). So, best guess?

Thanks to all who respond!

 

Please read the rules and post in the correct section.

Was/is the odo or trip odo working? This gen does have issues with the PCB for the speedo.

 

Sorry, I can't find the rules that you're talking about, can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

 

Well, Poorman probably moved the post so I don't know where you originally put it.

EACH forum has it's own "sticky" threads at the top with titles like "POSTING RULES" or "WHAT THIS FORUM IS ABOUT". It helps us organize this place.

"New Users" - general "welcome" or "introduce myself" posts.

"General Tech." - pretty much any technical questions.

"DIY (Do It Yourself)"
This one's tricky because we can't change the forum structure the way we'd like. We want this one to contain ONLY complete write-up procedures to do something. Not someone asking "what might be wrong with my ...?" We'd REALLY like for nobody to post there. Moderators will choose nicely-written procedures and move then into that section.

 

Jango- sorry for that but Jim explained better than I did.....I need to work on that...again, sorry.

We want to help, can you answer the question I asked?

 

Okay, wow, sorry it took me so long. I didn't understand that you could actually move the post to the right spot. Sorry. I am not in forums very often. Thanks!

Okay, when the speedometer works the odometer works too. Sometimes, however the odometer will work even though the speedometer isn't doing anything. I have only ever seen both the trip meter and the odometer moving together.

Oh, and what is a "PCB"? I googled it but I still couldn't find the meaning. Sorry, but a lot of acronyms throw me...

 

Printed Circuit Board. The small green circuit board on the back of the speedometer can get faulty solder joints and then cause strange problems.

Do you know how to solder?

 

I haven't ever soldered, but there's never been something I couldn't learn. I'm not sure if I've got a soldering iron around... Maybe...
So, basically I need to pull out the cluster to see if I have some loose wires? If I don't, and everything's plugged together, would it be the cluster then?
Another thing I haven't mentioned is that the tachometer works. That's how I tell how fast I'm going, roughly. Wasn't certain if that's also connected to the vss or something.

 

The tachometer gets it signal from the ignitor in the distributor. The speedometer, odometer, and cruise control get the signal from the vehicle speed sensor (VSS).

The problem is not loose wires that plug into the gauge cluster. It is the circuit board itself. You have to pull the cluster out of the car, take apart the cluster and remove the speedometer. On back of the speedometer, is the circuit board we are talking about.

 

Okay, so, then why would the cruise control be working, even when the speedometer wasn't, and then all of a sudden die? Is it tied into the PCB? Thank you everybody for all of your suggestions.