My odometer stopped working recently and although it's no big thing I wanted to fix it, I got the gears from
http://www.odometergears.com/ and put them in. Then I decided to do the SI board batteries as the cluster was out any way and they were 16 years old. Plus I needed a light replaced on the left side. I put in a Progama rebuilt board from BMAParts.com. It was $113 with a $50 core charge but I can't solder for crap and it was guaranteed. The batteries are $20 and a real pain to solder in. Put it back together and no odometer. This was what started it all in the first place.
The problem was I had put the little gear on really tight and it was dragging. Also the gears had a few rough spots that were causing friction. I pulled the little gear out a mm and used emery cloth on the sides of the other gears. I could spin it and it would run really smooth. Put it back in and bingo I had an odometer.
Stuff not working, burnt out dash lights, etc. can give you really ambivalent feelings. Then they become one more thing that defines a junker.
I had previously noticed that my temperature guage would be at operating temp at the 1/4 mark. Now it's just below straight up. This probably accounts for the recent posts about the different guage readings with similar temps.