So, after two weeks, three whole boards and speedo heads later, one home-made 12 VAC rig, two solder burns, I have a working ODO on the 87 244.

In summary, it was a combo of two bad boards (one finally was proved good), one bad speedo head motor (those three tiny pins, yeah, one of them was broken) and two minutely gummed up set of teeth in the clear plastic tooth housing to the gear assembly. A cludged together combination of the three assemblies finally worked last night around 8 o'clock.

A particular thanks to "Paul Driver of Inga" who relentlessly pointed me in the right direction and made me check and recheck the teeth (which did turn out to be the culprit after all). It just goes to show there is no substitute for experience.

It still moves with an odd "clip", not totally smooth, but seems after 30 or so miles, reliable. I will let you know if it holds. :) Speedo also seems calibrated, so I will let it rest for now.

Many many thanks again,
Hannah C.