'65 Odometer only reads 1/10th of miles?

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dibbons

dibbons

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In our '65 Valiant Signet convertible 273 Auto, the speedo works and the tenths on the odometer move like they should. However, the tenths never move the next mile digit so the mileage always stays the same. I removed the speedo and can't see anything wrong from the outside. I doubt there is anything I can do to correct the problem from here, but thought I would post this in case someone had a similiar problem/solution. Thank you.

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I would think that the problem is in the head. If you can't see the problem, then maybe a speedo specialist should look at it.
 
Try cleaning with CRC Electromotive and the apply a very "light" machine oil. After the oil has had a few minutes to soak in, try spinning the end of the drive "slowly" with a cordless drill to see if it does any good.
 
Be careful with the electric cleaner. Some of it removes paint. Will destroy your numbers.
 
Take this with a huge grain of salt, as it's been some time and I'm posting from the office....

I put a different speedometer in one of my "bumpside" Ford trucks a couple years ago, and just out of curiosity I dug into what makes these things tick (w/the old odometer). Upon disassmbly I seem to recall that each "9" digit had a small tab inside the number that would "catch" the digit to the left to make it move/cycle to the next number. If you can source a junkyard/used odometer that you don't care about, you could disassemble it, and perhaps you'll see something similar.

Of course this begs the question: Why is it doing this? Is this a new (to you) odometer, or a new car? Or has this just started happening on a known car?

Another thought, if you don't care about the mileage: Maybe spin the "ones" digit slowly to "9" and see if it make the "tens" number turn-over as it rotates to "0". Why? Based on my questions above, if this is a new odometer, maybe it's been damaged/tampered with.

But that's just a guess.

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Update: Visited a local gauge repair shop. The owner immeadiatly noticed cracks in the white portion of the odometer on the far right (where the tip of the pen is pointing in the photo). I decided to simply put the speedo back in the dash as is for now. Trying to place some type of glue/adhesive over the top of the damage was the only "hail Mary" solution without replacing the defective part.

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