MOXIE62

When the previous owner had my car restored he had the miles turned back to zero. He said he got the OK from law enforcement to do this. I would like to put the miles back on the speedometer which according to what he told me and the past resignation slips they should be around 60K. Is there a way to do this without removing speedometer. I would just like the car to show original miles.

Frankie the Fink

Drive it ?

I'm sure there may be some trick with a drill bit on the cable but it wouldn't be worth it to me. Most states don't give a hoot about the mileage if the title is marked EXEMPT (meaning the odometer doesn't reflect original mileage)...

Its easiest with the speedo out and the odometer drive train exposed...not what you wanted to hear I know..

hope2

remove the odometer wheel and simply turn to whatever you want. you can run a drill but it would take forever, run the drill really fast and risk damage.

Roger Walling

When I was in the used car business, the other guys (not me) used a machine that turned the speedometer forward until it went past 0 and then ran it until the "correct" milage was showing.

(at 100 MPH it takes 10 hours to advance it 1000Mi.)

65GGvert

It's a bad idea. Just keep any documentation you have and explain it if necessary. This way you keep track of miles since restoration. Nobody believes the odometer on a fifty year old car anyway. You' just end up explaining how you put them back on anyway.

Frankie the Fink

WAY back there was a guy that made the rounds of the used car lots in Norfolk and would turn a speedometer back to whatever you wanted for $35 per car; $50 for the tougher ones though. He was a busy man...he wouldn't let you watch him do it...the rumor was he used dental tools.

Who knows ?

SERIOUSLY THOUGH: These odometers are FRAGILE, if you use some trick to set the mileage you are asking for trouble IMO. If you want to reset it to something without potential damage its a dash pull. I even made a bracket to hold my trip meter in the 'reset' mode disconnecting it from the odometer drive train to make the piece last. It cuts the 'load' on the wheels' drive train in just about half...

jrm5657

Gotta remember Ferris Bueller movie, except Cameron was trying to take miles off the Ferrari 250 GTO. I would not suggest adding miles using his method.

ejboyd5

I disagree that resetting the odometer to approximately what it should be is a bad idea. The present owner is unhappy with the prior reset to zero at the time of restoration and is trying to correct what he perceives as a misrepresentation. More power to him!

GTOguy

I agree with this. If the owner is truly unhappy with his odometer reading, then he needs to remove the dash cluster and have the odometer advanced by a pro, and then he can re-install it in the car. More power to him if he goes this route. Me, not in a million years--life is too short for' make-work'.

vettsplit 63

Not that it matters, but I know of no LEO who has the authority to tell you it is OK to tamper with and odometer. Technically it is against the law. But as others have said, on a 50 year old car, who cares?

hope2

the used car lot guys who used dental picks scratched and damaged the wheels. not a good idea. plus when you "spin" one you can tell by looking at it, the numbers aren't in correct "roll" anymore. if you want to do it remove cluster or run drill at 70 mph.

MikeM

If your car has had the front end rebuilt, the rear control arms bearings replaced, engine rebuilt, new interior and I think you complained about a worn transmission some time back, what do you have in your hand that would lead to you believe your car only has 60K miles on it besides a few dated lube stickers?

PS. My '63 showed 50K + miles on it when I bought it 11-12 years ago. It wasn't long before I found evidence the car had over 100K on it 10 years before. The odometer broke about 5 years ago. But I didn't care as all the necessary stuff had been replaced and the car drove nice and tight. I haven't bothered to fix it.

My '65 that I bought in 1972 showed 32K miles on it but the odometer was broken. The car was a daily driver for the first and only owner. He followed that same dog path every day of his life. Using a real vintage lube sticker stuck to the A post the previous year with the correct mileage on it, I calculated my car actually had 45-50K on it when I bought it. Did I mention the odometer is still broken 45 years later? I'm guessing the car probably has only a few more thousand miles on it than when I bought it.
If the above conditions exist, you have far more evidence that your car has far more miles on it than what the seller told you.

I'm like GTO. Why make work? Resist the urge to tinker and possibly screw something else up.

MOXIE62

A car made in the sixties was worn out when it reach 100K. Not like today when they far exceed that number. I think a 1963 car that is 50 years old and needs what you describe could be typical for a 60K mile car. I would just like to get it somewhere in the ball park of what the mileage maybe. The title states mileage unknown so I'm not trying to fool anybody if I ever sell the car.

MikeM

I think you're ignoring my point because I'm saying a 60K mile car shouldn't need any of what I mentioned if it was reasonably cared for. I don't care how old it is. Many, mnay cars back then ran 130-150K miles with decent care. Rust got many of them along with the seats getting ratty. Mechanicals, still good in many cases but the engines would be getting pretty loose.

The '65 Corvette I mentioned above has maybe 50K miles on it which is close to your guess of "worn out". It's never had anything replaced on it except normal items like the fan belt, radiator hoses, battery, radiator. Still drives great. Front end never been aligned. Everything good and tight.

I had a '66 Nova, L 79 a few years back. One owner. Had 50K actual on the speedo. It not only drove like a new car (with the original exhausts) but it still smell new inside.

But you need to do what keeps you happy.

MOXIE62

So, you never farted in it.

MikeM

In that yellow car? I don't think so. I did do a little kissy face and huggy bear in it. And more but I don't remember any lingering odor.

Last time I heard about that car, it was in Atlanta, showing 8K miles.

hope2

The guy who suggested remove odometers from cars was on the right track. What is incredible is people want to believe and do believe these never ending low mileage claims.

Roger Walling

As far as the length of life off the 50's cars,
With all the turning back of the spedos at that time, I would imagine that when the spedo reached 100,000 mi, it probably had been clocled at least two times making the true milage about 160,000!

Frankie the Fink

I saw hundreds of cars pass through wholesale auctions and used car lots in the '60s in a Navy town. Yeah - true car guys got the miles out of those era cars with good maintenance and not flogging them to death. The average driver though (think Navy wife with husband out to sea for 6-9 months) didn't change oil, drove the car while it was running hot and if it came between tune-ups and feeding three brats; guess what happened ?

The crappy maintenance and all too often rich-running carbs washing down cylinder walls reduced engine lifespan... A used car of that era with triple digits or even 70K or 80K miles on it was a 'hard' sell... If you COULD move it you had to just about give it away...

"Squirrel cars" (e.g. what muscle cars were called at the time) were usually ragged out POS after some 19 year old sailor drove the crap out of them burning through his saved up pay after sea duty...

Enough of that... No, ITS NOT illegal to 'tamper' with speedometers and entirely necessary at times. Doesn't require any "authorization" either...

I just sold my 2006 Durango and had to swap in an entire new instrument cluster and the mileage is embedded in the computer memory. It had a defective circuit at 187,000 miles; swapped in a low-mileage cluster with 53,000 mile which had the added benefit of having already had a dealer recall installed and plugged it up.

The buyer got a written statement from me that the mileage on the car did not reflect actual mileage and the title became EXEMPT in Florida. No big deal.

GTOguy

Friend of mine in law enforcement just closed a HUGE case in CA where a married couple who ran a used car dealer got sentenced to serious prison time for setting the odometers back/changing them on over 100 car.....they were taking 350,000 mile pickups and minivans, rolling them back to 90k miles, and financing them at about 35% interest to poor people who could go nowhere else. Cars were absolute junk, and the dealer and his wife complete drug-addled dirtbags. In CA, it is totally illegal to change odometer readings. Guess it depends where you are....in a state full of rainbows and snowflakes, or one filled with poisonous snakes and alligators!!