Hey there, new guy here, but old time mopar nut. My problem is this, we just purchased a '95 Dakota and the speedo and odometer do not operate at all. I got looking around and could see where someone had been trying to find out what was wrong or that they had just put in an after market radio, not sure which, but that's not the point. I removed the dash panel cover that goes on, only after getting a book on the '95 Dakota truck, that said it had a speedo cable and thought that someone had not hooked up the cable or hooked it up improperly. Well I found out there is no cable, it is electronic. There is no place for a cable even to hook if you wanted to put one in. So I looked down at the transmission where you would think the speedo cable would be and it is all electrical wires and plug-ins. I haven't pulled the piece out of the tranny to see if there is a gear there or not, being I'm not that great with electrical, I don't know where to start looking to see what could be possibly wrong. Oh yeah, it does have cruise contol on it , but haven't checked to see if it works. Have been judgeing speed by the tachometer. So if anyone out there knows anything about this type of system on the Dakota's and knows what I should look for and what to do, please let me know. Don't just say replace this and replace that untill I get it fixed, I'm on a fixed income and don't have the the funds available like I used to, to be able to do that. I want to know what I should check first and then next in line. Oh yeah, the truck has the V-6 engine for information. I hope I have given enough info so that someone can help me out. Thanks,
Dusterman70

 

If the system is electrical then I would say the first thing to check would be the fuse box it should be to the left of the brake pedal or clutch petal is a stick. There is also a fuse box under the hood behind the battery I belive you could also look in the book for the location and fuse number for the spedometer and check those fuses. When I get home tonight or tommorrow morning I will look in my truck to see if it is electric or has a wire going to the spedometer. It is a 92 Dodge Dakota 5.2 v8. But the fuses are a good place to start and dont cost a thing but time to check.

 

Blue Wolf,
Dusterman here, the fuse block under the dash doesn't have a fuse for the speedo. I have been through every fuse there and none are listed as for the speedo. When I was installing my new radio, I had a wire that was live all the time and by making a stupid hook- up I managed to kill that wire and also lost my dome light and my electric adjust for mirrors.
So I went through every fuse there and found none bad and went according to book and nothing was either marked for speedo, did find the ones for dome light and mirrors and that was good, but they still don't work. But back to the first problem.the book that I have doesn't show the speedometer as being electrical, it shows it as having a cable, but it doesn't. Every book that I look at doesn't even have any mention of the speedometer in them anywhere. So as to finding any fuses listed for the speedo is nill. I have checked all the ones under the hood, there are 2 boxes, one behind and above the battery and one on the passenger side, but neither of them have any thing that says they are associated to the speedo or the cruise control, from what I can see and trace out is also electrically operated. And of course the book doesn't make any mention of these fuses having anything for the speedo. Unfortunatly I think I may end up having to take it to a dealer if I cannot get any help here. That is something that'll have to be saved up for. Thanks for the starting point, but have already checked that part out, those were the first points I looked into. But if you have any other thoughts, I'm willing to look into those, just about at my wits end, like I said, I never was very good with electrical but have always had to deal with it being I was a mechanic for several years, but have had to give it up now, but still do a little. Thanks again and maybe we can brainstorm this thing together and maybe you know some others that may know something about these trucks, this is our first one, it's been great so far, we have already driven it from Florida to Texas and back and it still runs good. Hope to hear from you again.
Dusterman