Hey Miguel,

Before the gears go altogether, they get real soft and gooey. One tooth may smush and lodge in the fixed rack, and the "grease" does get waxy and sticky. The gear will actually drive the odometer with one tooth missing, but not two.

Another cause for intermittent operation is related to the solder failure that plagues all the relays in the 240- a crack around the terminals of the heavy parts. In this case, it is the odometer motor -- three terminals need to be reflowed. Gotta be a bunch of posts on that. Drives folks crazy.

Don't worry about the capacitors -- that's a 7/9 problem.

http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/volvo/1489930/220/240/260/280/odometer_failure_modes.html

That "cold heat" device you have and a bit of fresh solder may be just what you need.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Back in the 1800's the Tate's Watch Company of Massachusetts wanted to produce other products, and since they already made the cases for watches, they used them to produce compasses. The new compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California . This, of course, is the origin of the expression,..."He who has a Tate's is lost!"