Tripmeter broken

[TominMO]

Searched in vain for any guidance on repairing my tripmeter. Speedo and odo work fine, but tripmeter does not budge. When I bought the car I noticed it not moving. I then reset it to 0 miles, and it never moved off that. Thoughts?

[Mark]

That happened to me on my '83 hatchback. When I took the gauge cluster apart I found a small piece of plastic from the trip counter assembly broken off. I tried gluing it back on, but it wouldn't stay stuck. I then tried using some JB weld to re-create the broken-off piece of plastic. This sort-of worked, but the trip counter was unreliable and wouldn't match the odometer. It often gets stuck. I just left it for now. If it happened on my wagon I might look into repairing it further or try replacing it with one from a yard.

[Petros]

easiest to just replace the cluster assembly. as the tiny plastic parts age, they become brittle and tend to break off. No way to fix it after that happens.

[TominMO]

Thanks for the insights; kinda what I expected. I do have a spare cluster that came with the car, so I'll try it out.