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R&R Speedo drive gear. 56k Warning!

36K views 39 replies 17 participants last post by  Donn29 
#1 · (Edited)
The speedometer drive gear drives the speedometer driven gear. The driven gear is easily removed from the side of the transmission, even with the transmission on the vehicle. The driven gear drives an elbow connector that drives the speedometer cable which goes up into the back of the speedometer in the instrument cluster behind the steering wheel.

Drive gear - Driven gear - Elbow - Cable - Speedometer
Any one of these components can go bad or break disabling your speedometer.

On the 84/85 when the speedometer stops working the ecu (computer) will go into open loop because the vss (vehicle speed sensor) is an input into the ecu and without that input the computer can't calculate the proper air/fuel ratio. The check engine light will come on with a code 42 (No vehicle speed input.) Open loop is when your computer does not use your sensors to run your car but a predetermined setting. Not fuel efficient. I had sucky gas mileage and my engine wasn't running very good either.

I removed the speedometer from my dash, unhooking it from the speedometer cable. Then disconnected the other end of the cable from the elbow and removed the elbow also. I hooked up my cordless screw gun to the back of the speedometer to check if the speedometer worked. It did. Then I checked the cable by having someone confirm that it spun or didn't spin when I cranked it with the screw gun. It worked. The elbow is easy to figure out. It fits in your palm so you can see for yourself if it works by sticking a pencil in one side and spinning it with your other hand. To check the drive gear the driven gear has to be installed. Put the rear end up on jack stands making sure it will definitely not fall. Start the car in second gear. Watch out for the spinning rear wheels!! Get under the car and put your finger in the hole where the elbow screws into the driven gear and feel if the shaft is spinning. Mine wasn't. I finally figured it out was an internal problem.

The driven gear is made out of plastic so if anything binds in the system and prevents it from spinning the metal drive gear that's meshed with it in the transmission will actually melt a divot into it and it will no longer mesh. That's one reason this whole thing even started for me. I put in one of those after market neon cluster faces over the black back. After a month it started bowing up and started binding the speedometer needle and prevented it from moving. That transfered back through the system and the metal drive gear melted a divot into the plastic driven gear.

There is a single clip that holds the drive gear in place on the output shaft. After 20+ years of abuse this clip looses strength and wears out allowing the drive gear to slide out of mesh with the driven gear.
Note: *The drive gear is inside the transmission and cannot be replace through the driven gear housing hole. It is impossible!

The reason this problem cannot be fixed through side hole on the transmission the driven gear sits in is because the clip is actually in between drive gear and the output shaft. The gear has to be taken off the shaft to replace the clip.

This is how you replace the speedometer drive gear clip.

The speedometer drive gear and clip.


Viewed through the hole on the side of the tranny where the driven gear is normally installed.




Step 1: remove transmission. To remove the transmission the center console must be taken off and the shifter must be removed. The drive shaft must be removed. Mark it's position before removing and reinstall it in the position it was removed, otherwise it could become off balance and vibrate unnecessarily while driving.

Center console:




Absence of drive shaft:




Remove all the bolts holding the transmission to the engine. Unbolt the slave cylinder. Remove the cross-member that supports the rear of the transmission. Lower the transmission down.

About to lower the transmission:


Transmission off:


Be careful with the throw-out bearing retaining clips. I removed the throw-out bearing because I completely disassembled the transmission to calculate the exact gear ratio since I had it off. I didn't know I broke both of the clips until I had the whole thing back together and ready to put back on the car. Luckily the 3rd dealership I called had them in stock. They were like $4 for both.


Disassembly:
These bolts must be removed first. Remove this cover.


Next.


Remove the driven gear by pulling/twisting it out. Don't loose the little half oval wedge that the bolt goes through. You must put it back into the gear slot in the side of the driven gear when re-installing. After removing the driven gear remove the bolts circling the case and pull the case up.



When pulling the case off, pay special attention to the shaft because it fits into 3 forks and literally rests on them. The shaft must be 'in' those 3 slots when assembling.


This is what it looks like with that half of the case removed. See those plastic things? Those fell down from behind the first cover when the case was put upright. Those are neoprene shifter bushings. Notorious for falling into the case.


That is the drive gear. The culprit for my non-working speedo.


You can see the clip not fitting into the hole here. This is why is slides out of mesh.


Insert small screwdriver and pull it out.


Slide the gear up.


Remove the other end of the clip from the shaft.


Slide it up the shaft.


The ends that fit into the holes will fit in the grooves and when reinstalling try to evenly place in the grooves to easily slide it down the shaft.


Mark the gear before you fully bring it off the shaft to reinstall it facing the same way, though I don't think it will matter. Do it just to be safe.


These holes on the shaft and are what the clip that holds the drive gear in place fit into. When the clip wears out, it will not be able to stay in the hole resulting in the drive gear sliding on the shaft and not driving the driven gear.




Drive gear without clip:


Drive gear with clip:




Reverse the process to reinstall.
Total time: 1 weekend.
Total cost: $1.67. $7 if you replace the throw-out bearing retaining clips also.
Don't forget to add the cost of 3 quarts of gear oil. I believe I used 75w90. Check the TSRM.
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TSRM/MK2/manual.aspx?S=MA&P=9
Call around to different dealerships. Some tried to charge me $5 for the gear clip! A 10 minute drive saved me 3 bucks! Woo! Same with the retaining clips.
 
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#7 ·
That is very well the required steps.
I just did this, on my way to replace the bearings in the tranny.

You forgot to mention to drain the tranny as the first step.
And did you replace the tranny gasket ?
 
#12 ·
I have to ask this although I think I know the answer. If you take off the elbow to check the drive gear would I be correct in assuming that the fluid will come out? Also, do you know the part number of the clip? As I was at the dealer today the guy I talked to didn't know what I was talking about. Right now I'm getting tired of looking at a blank speedo and a check engine light.
 
#13 ·
I don't know the part number unfortunately, but I referred to it as the speedometer drive gear clip and the few dealerships I talked to knew what it was instantly. The first time I went in I had them pull up a diagram of the transmission and was able to point it out to the guy. The diagram is pretty much identical to the tsrm:
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TSRM/MK2/manual.aspx?S=MT&P=6
The clip is not actually pointed out but it is right between the speedo drive gear and the snap ring.

Fluid should not come out when you take out the elbow.
Fluid can and will probably pour out if the drive gear is removed.
 
#14 ·
the "s" clip on the output shaft that holds the drive gear is
90467-25001 on the MT

for the slushbox, it seems to be holding from a ball and 2 C clips...
 
#16 ·
This thread is just one of the reasons why I love CS.com. Thank You!
 
#17 ·
My 85 had bad speedo elbow when I had 5M-No CE light. I know my CE light worked. Does code 42 ONLY apply to Auto ECU's?
 
#20 ·
Maybe you never exceded 3000 rpms? lol...

Might be like MyOther said. Maybe the Speedo is defective I.E. still sending some sort of signal to the ecu.
 
#19 ·
Code 42 should have nothing to do with tranny type. It's specifically for letting you know that the speed sensor signal is missing so the ECU doesn't know how fast your car is going and will therefore have no way of adjusting a/f, etc accordingly.
I would expect a code 42 to be triggered any time your speedo isn't working and I'll bet that if you check your codes you'll find a 42 stored, although it's possible that some Supras don't consider it a critical enough code to light the C.E. Light as only certain codes do and some codes only make the light come on temporarily while others keep it on until the cause is corrected.

Fluid CAN leak out when the elbow is removed from the driven gear housing IF the o-ring in the driven gear's housing is going bad. It can even leak out with the elbow piece and speedo cable still connected to the housing if the o-ring has failed completely.
My only experience with this is on a 7M but the 7M still uses the A340E/W58 trannys (plus the R154 that's also uses the same speedo cable parts) so it should be similar if not identical. When you undo the bolt and slide the driven gear's housing out of the tranny, the driven gear then slides out of its' housing, comes with a new o-ring iirc from Toyota, and can be replaced separately but for only a little more money you can buy the entire thing as one complete unit that's ready to install, pull out the old housing, slide the new one in being careful to get the driven gear's teeth lined up right with the drive gear, reinstall the retainer tab and bolt, and call the leak fixed...
 
#21 ·
No code 42 intermittent or stored during several times speedo was down. Once do to elbow, twice due to cables. Id read about this before, and had never experienced coded open loop condition. I've had 2 different instrument panels in car during speedo downtime, also.
 
#24 ·
I can voucher for my 85, as soon as I didn't have a speedometer, I had a hard code MIL (Light stayed on at all times.)
You got lucky I guess.
I went into open loop because of it and my car ran like crap too.

Heh, on a coincidental note, I just picked up TRD83's transmission today. I'm replacing his drive gear's clip. :zzzzz: It took me a freaking sluggish 2.5 hours to get the tranny out. That's super little slow and sad. :crossjerk
 
#27 ·
Thanks! I feel better because I thought I was EXTRA slow doing that. I wanted to do it in 1 hour. Putting it in on the other hand is a little more tedious and much more time involved if you can't line up the splines correctly.


Nice Write Up.
Gaskets a good idea.
As for the Code 42........seems only to happen when you get a little higher in th rpms. I could usually avoid CE light untill i got aggresive or jumped on the highway. The light bugged the shit out of me, but so did driving calm, or going slow. kicks in after you hit a certain rpm range for a certain amount of time.

Also, going to the shop to have this piece replaced is a good 1000$ job.
At least it is here.
Thank you!
Now that you bring that up, I do remember that it came on above 2500 rpms.
Silly me! :kekekegay
I wonder if it would be cheaper to fly me up there to do the job for you?
Maybe a $500 or $600 round trip ticket? That would be quite fun indeed, that is if you were going to pay $1000 to do it. :sadsmilie

The clip was $1.80, output shaft seal was like $10, and the gasket was about 5 or 7 bucks. It's definitely worth getting those if you have it off.
 
#26 ·
Nice Write Up.


Gaskets a good idea.
As for the Code 42........seems only to happen when you get a little higher in th rpms. I could usually avoid CE light untill i got aggresive or jumped on the highway. The light bugged the shit out of me, but so did driving calm, or going slow. kicks in after you hit a certain rpm range for a certain amount of time.

Also, going to the shop to have this piece replaced is a good 1000$ job.
At least it is here.
 
#28 ·
#29 ·
Found these, thought it would go nice in this thread.


Some Speedo gear part numbers from Jeff Watson:
http://forums.celicasupra.com/showthread.php?t=3634&highlight=speedometer+part


Well Gentlemen,

Well, the first portion of the response is for informational purposes only - unless you are bored one night and feel like doing some mathematical computations. The primary variables utilized in speedo gear determination is speedo and tire revolutions per mile (RP/Mile), along with tire height and gear ratio. The computation matches 1000 speedo RP/mile to (x) tire RP/Mile. This ratio of course factors in tire height and axle gear ratios. It goes something like this...

Speedo Gear Calculator

1.) Determine Tire Diameter ( 225 x 60 x 14) = 24.63"
2.) Multiply Tire Dia. by pi ( 24.63 x 3.1416 ) = 77.38 tire circumference
3.) Divide one (1) mile into inches or multiply yards by inches (1,760 yards x 36 inches ) 63,360
4.) Divide 63,360 by 77.37 ( 63,360 / 77.38 ) = 818.8 RP/Mile of tire
5.) Multiply tire RP/Mile by Axle Ratio to determine driveshaft RP/Mile ( 818.8 x 4.30 ) = 3,521
6.) Divide by 1000 speedo RP/Mile (3,521 / 1000) = 3.521 (Round this number to 3.5 - this is the ratio you want to achieve).

You will now need to research the available gear ratios for your tranny and determine which combination will work best. My 86 Supra came with a 4.30 rear gear and a 35/10=3.5 speedo gear set. When I went to the 3.90 rear gear I chose the best available speedo set which was the 31/10=3.10. After doing the calculations I found myself at an actual ratio of 3.19, which ends up at a 2.8% error (3.10 / 3.19) x 100 = 97.2 or 2.8%. After correcting for my taller tires (25.1") I recalculate a speedo error of only 1.0%. Supposedly +/- 3.75% is an acceptable error percentage. This equates to 3/8 of one mile error for every ten (10) miles traveled.

I made a more thorough presentation the first time, but hopefully this still helps in your quest to find the proper speedo gear sets. If someone would like, please save this info for others that would like the reference.

Regards,

Carlos

(from: http://forums.celicasupra.com/showthread.php?t=10668&highlight=speedometer+part&page=2 )
 
#30 ·
Okay so im going to be that guy and ask the question.. Does all this have to be done because just replacing the speedometer elbow gear isnt enough to have the speedometor to work again. I used the drill test on the speed cable and the speedometer worked. I am hoping i dont have to drop the whole transmission just to get the needle to move.

Or did i read that this tutorial was to replace something else in the transmission that was broke?

Jesus
 
#31 ·
If the elbow works and spinning the speedo cable with a drill works the speedo, then this is required. The spring slips off with age and use, and the gear slides away from the elbow. A bit gettho but I used rtv to hold the gear in place once.
 
#32 ·
I just went to SILV and on the last day my speedo went out. Threw a code 42 the whole way home (vegas to Phx). The gas mileage was not bad. but after 4 hours of driving the car would stalled when I got off the freeway but started right up. I just pulled the elbow and all the stuff is good up to the speedometer. Felt inside the tranny and can move the drive gear on back and fourth. Great writeup on this post. Now I have to do all this work to replace a 2 dollar clip. Funny I was just thinking about changing the tranny fluid. Looks like the car is down for a while. Before SILV the car was down for three weeks doing a differential rebuild, rear wheel bearings and CV axels.
 
#33 ·
Hi everyone, can the drive unit in the dash unit wear/break? I have the digital dash (UK car) and the elbow works fine, and cable rotates if the rear wheels are rotated but the cable seems to only engage inside the dash unit temporarily (a speed is briefly shown then drops to zero again).

I am fearful that there is wear inside the dash and this is not repairable.

I have not dared try to take the dash apart yet so does anyone have experience of this issue before I attempt some surgery!

Thanks.
 
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