Hi there,

I will have to say Trichard has put the best advice out there. Jump into soldering!

It's one of the easiest skills you can acquire with some practice. You can start with an inexpensive pencil type soldering gun for about $10 and a small tube of electrical rosin soldering wire for a buck or so.
Start with tips of some copper wire and heat the wire up and touch the solder to the wire until it melts. You can get it to flow more readily if you place the solder right where the two meet but I favor getting the copper or the joint area hot at once.

When you look at a solder joint, the surface of the lead should be shiny and not a dull gray or look whitish.
If you just add heat to the joint the solder will "reflow." You only have to dip the tip of your solder wire
into the mass to brighten the puddle.

You will want to do this on the three strips that the VSS connector attaches to. A little thicker film makes for a tighter fit and pulse conduction.

As far as the odometer gearing I think the whole planetary gear system is a little funky in that it only uses one gear instead of three gears. The platter which the gear sits on is only counter weighted.
Things are made loose enough that it jiggles around and being mounted vertically does not help.
The original gear will also biodegrade.
I have had several clusters that have quit around 204K to 214K. I used to get the whole cluster for the price of a replacement gear.

I have studied them and now have made myself some thicker gears out of Delrin plastic. They are about twice as thick with a very shallow hub. It engages more of the face or teeth of the ring gear and drive gear. It adds support to the platter.
Anyway that's my fix with the gears.

So this covers two issues!
Here is another that I just found out from the Wagonmiester himself because I purchased a car from him last week. Just so happens it was a 1992 sedan.

He refurbished the car and rebuilt the speedometer. He says he puts in new 2115 chips if they are bad and puts in new capacitors. I don't recall right now how many there are but he says he puts in new ones! He said they dry out from age and heat.

I surmise that the capacitor(s) help raise up current values of the pluse circuit or the motor itself?

From my limited experience with electronics I know that they are a weak link in a lot of circuits for that very reason.
The ones on two of my cars are likely to get serviced if I have an issue like yours! I'm lazy that way!

There is another Brickboarder, Anthony, that is asking about his odometer too!
He stated he has purchased replacements as he has his work done I think.
Maybe you two need to network at gaining soldering skills since you already bust them apart on a regular basis.

I could offer a few extra spare gears for the postage but many people are not to willing to share home addresses or e-mails over the net nowadays.
The Wagonmiester says he gets his made in quantities of 250 at a time. I don't do mass production, it's just too boring! I told Dave about mine but I didn't get the opportunity to see his replacements.

We just shared our love of Volvos with smiles!


Phil