I have a 1968 Oldsmobile 98 and none of the gauges on it work. The speedometer doesn't work, gas gauge doesn't work, and my clock doesn't work. If anyone can help me with this that would be amazing. Priority one is to fix the gas gauge because I ran out of gas the other day.

Thank You.

 

Did they ever work, or did you get it like that? If they never worked the first thing to check is if they are even connected. If they worked before, did they all fail at the same time. We need more info.

 

When I got it they didn't work. I tried taking apart the dash and got to the speedometer cable, and the pin thats inside that's suppose to spin doesn't spin at all. The gas gauge the needle is way pass F. I'm trying to explain this the best I can, my friends who know more about cars then I do aren't really helping that much.

 

• Speedo: The plastic piece that spins the cable core inside of the driver's side front wheel bearing dust cap is missing or damaged.
  
  
• Fuel gauge: See this thread (and this post within it), and this thread.
  
  
• Clock: They never work. Sorry.
  If you want to fix your clock, you may be able to take it apart, clean it, clean the contact points, partially unwind the coil (if it's burned), and re-connect it, and re-lube it with ultra-thin clock oil, but it's usually not worth the trouble, because it just stops again in a few days or weeks.
  May as well check to be sure it's got power, though (orange wire).

- Eric

 

Let's back up a little. The speedometer is mechanically driven by the flex shaft and is unrelated to the other gauges, which are electrically operated. Let's deal with the speedo first. You car is unusual in that the speedo is driven off the LH front wheel. The speedo cable actually passes through the spindle and is attached to the dust cap on that hub. I'm willing to bet that a previous "mechanic" simply did not install the dust cap properly, which is why the flex shaft is not turning. If it is connected properly, then you likely need a new speedo cable.

The factory clocks on these cars use a spring-driven system that has electrical contacts that trigger a small motor to rewind the spring. The contacts burn out and the clock stops working. This is VERY common on these cars. You can either have your stock clock rebuilt or converted to quartz. There are many vendors who perform either service.

Finally, the gas gauge problem could be one of many things. Most likely is that the ground wire from the tank sending unit to the frame is broken or corroded. The sender could be bad (another common problem) or you could have a bad wire from the sender to the gauge. Finally, did you verify that the gauges fuse was good?

Bottom line is that your three problems are probably all unrelated and each has it's own unique cause.