Speedometer gear change help

HammerHead

New member
First off, I have been reading threads for two days and there have been conflicting information. I have been on here, Yotatech, IH8Mud and else where.

I'm not in a position to regear my 1996 4Runner SR5 4x4 at this time. I want to get my speedometer adjusted for my tire size. My speedometer reads about 13 to 15 percent off. Since the speedometer is off so is my mileage.

Tire Size Comparison
Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
185/70-14 5.1in 12.1in 24.2in 76.0in 834 0.0%
255/85-16 8.5in 16.5in 33.1in 103.9in 610 36.7%

Some threads say I need to go from an 18 tooth gear to a 16 tooth gear. Other threads say there isn't a 16 tooth gear and only a 15, 17, 18 or 19.

Is there anyone who has gone this route recently? Any info would be appreciated.
 
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First off, I have been reading threads for two days and there have been conflicting information. I have been on here, Yotatech, IH8Mud and else where.

I'm not in a position to regear my 1996 4Runner SR5 4x4 at this time. I want to get my speedometer adjusted for my tire size. My speedometer reads about 13 to 15 percent off. Since the speedometer is off so is my mileage. ��

Tire Size Comparison
Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
185/70-14 5.1in 12.1in 24.2in 76.0in 834 0.0%
255/85-16 8.5in 16.5in 33.1in 103.9in 610 36.7%

Some threads say I need to go from an 18 tooth gear to a 16 tooth gear. Other threads say there isn't a 16 tooth gear and only a 15, 17, 18 or 19.

Is there anyone who has gone this route recently? Any info would be appreciated.

While I haven't gone that route, and I honestly don't know many people who have on 4Runners, I DID go this route, and it works beautifully. You don't have to change anything, just get a speedo sensor that goes on the back of the t-case, from a Tacoma, some wiring, and this nifty device, and you'll be all set.

This allows you to change your speedo according to what gear/tire size you have, so you don't have to worry about changing a speedo gear each time you change gears or tire sizes.

Universal Speedometer Signal Interface

And my write up of how I did it....

Here's another write up for you guys.

This is the Speedo Mod.

Basically, what Toyota did, and don't ask me why, was to run the speedo sensor through the ABS. How it works, I really don't know, but I do know it has something to do with the pulses of the ABS ring. And that's all I care to know, honestly.

When I did my Manual Hub Swap, and my 8.4" in the back, I completely lost my ABS, so there went my speedo. Drove around for a while with no speedo, using an app on my iPhone, and the RPMs of the truck to gauge how fast I was going.

Finally, I found the parts I needed from a guy who was willing to them off of a wrecked Taco.

When I did this mod the first time, I didn't realize what a half-assed job I did, until I got under the truck today to replace my wiring harness. (Special thanks to [MENTION=78895]DeathCougar[/MENTION] for having the right harness, and his timely delivery of it!) Hopefully that will fix my CEL that I've been having a problem getting rid of. :shrug:

Here we go:

Parts needed:

Speedo sensor out of a Tacoma. Any year will do. If you're running different gears like I am, then you don't really need to worry if the gear is right. My speedo is 16% off because of the 4.88s that I'm running. If you're running stock gears, see if you can get one from a Taco with your gearing. That should keep your speedo pretty damn accurate.

18ga Wire, a lot of it. You can use one color, or you can use three seprate colors. The choice is yours.

Wire cutters/strippers. :girl:

Butt-Connectors or Soldering Iron and solder.

Shrink Wrap- again, lots of it.

Now, first thing you want to do is to take your gauge cluster out. If you don't know how to do that, then I'm sorry. I didn't take Pics of taking all the crap off.

Once your Gauge cluster is out, you'll have your plugs resting on the steering wheel. You can see here how I already had this done, just a craptastic job, so I re-did it.

img1698d.jpg


The wires you're going to need from the gauge cluster are going to be on the small blue connector, and the brown connector. They are the Blue and Grey wire on the Blue Connector, and the Black and Yellow Wire on the Brown connector. These need to be cut so you can splice your Speedo Sensor into them.

On your speedo sensor, there should be a Green wire with a Red stripe, a Blue wire, and a Pink wire. On mine, the Pink wire is the Position One wire, the Blue wire is the Position Two wire, and the Green w/ Red stripe is the Position Three Wire.

These wires are going to be extended, and then spliced into the gauge cluster.

The Position One wire(Pink, in my case), goes into the Black and yellow wire.

The Position Two wire(Blue) goes into a blank space in the Blue connector.

The Position Three wire(Green w/ Red Stripe) goes into the Grey wire with a Blue stripe.

I used some "weather Proof" butt connectors from the speedo sensor to my extension wire. These things are pretty nifty. They're basically butt connectors, that are convered in shrink wrap, with a glue in them to seal the wires off.

img1699k.jpg



A closer shot of the glue in there.

img1701zk.jpg



Then, to keep the wires all together, I shrink wrapped them all together. This was a PITA. I basically had to cut a section of shrink wrap about 18-24" long, and feed the wires through it one by one. Now, I had only one color wire at the house, and really didn't feel like going to the store to get more, so I just tied knots on the end of them, to remember which one was where. One knot for the Green w/red, two knots for the blue, and three for the pink. Here's a Pic:

img1703wkt.jpg


The shrink wrap wouldn't go over all three butt connectors, but, like I said, they're weather proof, so I'm not too worried about it.

The Speedo sensor needs to go on the transfer case, at the back. ON the 4Runner, there is a plug where it needs to go. A Pic for reference. That one bolt is all that holds it onto the t-case.

photomar17155652.jpg



I plugged mine in, and ran the wires over the transmission along the wiring harness to keep them out of the way. Then I ran them into the grommet where the body ECU somes out at the fire wall. Then up behing the dash, just by feeding them up, and pulled them through where the gauge cluster sits.

Now, remember how I said the Blue wire needs to get put into an empty slot in the blue connector? Yeah. It's this one. It's right next to a solid green wire. You can also see the grey wire with a blue stripe that I cut.

img1707lr.jpg


Now, all that's left, is to splice the wires together. I took my extension wires, and twisted them to the wires that were NOT on the connector. Then, I put a normal butt connector on them, and crimped it down.

For the Blue wire in the empty space, I just stripped it, fed it through the slot, and bent the wires up so they wouldn't fall out.

Here's a Pic of all the wires connected. You can see what I did with the butt connectors.

img1709r.jpg



After that, All you have to do is plug it in, and you're all set.

Keep in mind, that if you're running aftermarket gears, you're speedo is gonna be off. If you didn't get a speed sensor from a Taco with your same gear ratio, your speedo is gonna be off.

Buy this, and it'll take care of that. I'm about to buy one so I can adjust my speedo.

Universal Speedometer Signal Interface

That's all there is to it, guys. Any Questions, feel free to ask.










Just realized I didn't update that as far as adding the speedometer adjuster in there.

It's really self explanatory, but give me until tomorrow night and I'll type more out in here for ya.
 
Last edited:
Mechanical not electrical

Since I have a 96, it is mechanical and not electrical unfortunately. Below is a pic of the type of gears that need to be swapped out.

I do appreciate you taking the time to reply.
 

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Since I have a 96, it is mechanical and not electrical unfortunately. Below is a pic of the type of gears that need to be swapped out.



I do appreciate you taking the time to reply.




So you have a cable in there that goes to the speedo? Or do you have something like this:

6f94f3dbed481f1cf91454dd29b264ab.jpg
 
Confused more

Crawled under and this is what I see. This is where it's supposed to be right?
 

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On a Tacoma, yes.

Ours are on the side of the transmission, but later gens used the pulses from the ABS for the speedo. (Not sure if the 96-98 did the same.)

You're going to want to follow my write up. You'll need a speed sensor from a Tacoma, and about a foot of the harness, unless you want to make your own.
 
My 96 sr5 (m/t, built 12/95) got the signals from the abs. When I switched to manual hubs I used the Taco sender wired to my speedometer. 33s w/430s has the speedo reading 4% slower than actual speed, according to my GPS. It was easy to do, but not adjustable for more accurate reading like Doc's deal is. Luckily I was able to get that sender from a mightymouse over on Yotatech.

I believe it's the 2nd gens that are gear driven rather than abs...though iirc we can't use the 2nd gen 4Runner sender (feel free to correct me on any of that)

Neat little gadget and write-up [MENTION=76419]Doc2012[/MENTION]
 


Thanks man. Maybe you can help him out with the wiring for a 96. Mines a 99. *shrug*

Literally, all you have to do for the SGI-5 is take the input wire, insert it into the input port, add a power and ground(can be the same ones from the sender), then put an output wire to the gauge cluster.


Power is spliced(black and yellow on brown plug on my '99) for the power of the sender and the SGI-5.

Input is the green wire, (green and red on the sender). Goes STRAIGHT FROM THE SENDER TO THE UNIT.

Output wire goes from the unit to the "input" of the plug, which in my case is the blue and grey wire.

The sender gets grounded into the unit, and the unit is grounded into the plug the sender was grounded to.

Turn it on, and adjust.

Good idea to have a GPS to keep track of the speed though. ;)
 
[MENTION=76419]Doc2012[/MENTION] it looks like your write-up will work with the 96 fine- same wire colors....though both my blue/grey and black/yellow wires are on the same brown connector and my cluster only has the 3 connectors.

from my write-up connecting speed sensor to speedo without cool gadget (can see how it can easily be adapted)

habanero's 1996 4Runner Build-Up Thread - Page 97 - YotaTech Forums

Many girls smell like sugar and spice and everything nice.
I smell like gear oil.

Making a VSS work with a 96 originally ABS equipped 4Runner:

Get the gauge cluster out:
Unbolt the 4 bolts that hold the bottom panel on (under the steering wheel, houses the fuse access panel).
The trim around the ignition carefully pops loose.
Unscrew the 4 screws that hold the rest of the trim around the instrument cluster. Two in front and above the cluster and one at the bottom of the trim on each side.
Unscrew the 4 screws that holds the cluster in.
Undo the 3 plugs on the back, pushing in the tabs to release each of them.

Pull out the brown connector.
We are looking for the
grey w/blue stripe wire for the speedo (2nd pin) and the
Black w/yellow stripe 12v switched wire (7th pin)
P6052642_zps898d414d.jpg~original


Cut the grey/blue wire (I taped the end I won't be using anymore) and connect the signal wire from the VSS for the speedo, leave the ABS signal out of the picture all together.
Splice the VSS 12v wire to the black/yellow wire.

You don't have to, but for better access I removed the pins I was working on by carefully taking out the two white keepers on the connector and simply pulling out the pins.
P6052643_zps9e08ae58.jpg~original


Put it all back together and now pin2 grey/blue goes to the VSS signal wire and pin7 black/yellow has the VSS 12v wire spliced in.

Next I chose to run the wiring between and through the shifter gaskets. I stuck a couple o' pieces of electrical tape on the metal part because it's sharp (watch your fingers), even though it's not coming in contact with the wires.
P6052650_zpsc1f9c6d4.jpg~original


So the connector is wired up like so:
P6052652_zpsf11e1f48.jpg~original

It's not the connector that came with the VSS, but it's 3 wire and clips in so all I needed was to wire it up.

Then find this plug on the right side of the output shaft. Unscrew the bolt and pry it out. Gear oil will come out and if you're me it will run along the skid plate and drip on your head, making you smell bad and face you with a future 3 shampoo shower.
P6052659_zpse7dc608f.jpg~original


And replace with the sensor. It's the electronic and not the cable driven one with the shorter shaft than the cable drive version and it has 3 wires. This particular one came out of a 96 non-abs Toyota Tacoma. Several years had them, this one fit just right gear and all.
P6052661_zps9c05ad21.jpg~original

route the goofy blue wire holder out of the way (zip tied to the same holder as the o2 sensor but otherwise not finished in this pic)
And there you go.
 
[MENTION=76419]Doc2012[/MENTION] it looks like your write-up will work with the 96 fine- same wire colors....though both my blue/grey and black/yellow wires are on the same brown connector and my cluster only has the 3 connectors.

That's whaty I was talking about.

I know the '99-00 Limited has the 5 plugs in the back, maybe the SR5s as well, but I wasn't sure about the 96-98.
 
Speedometer Help

I all,
I have just solid axled a 2000 SR5 4runner auto. I followed the above steps and have not been able to get a working speedo. I have wired it exactly as outlined above and then tried a few other ways found on Pirate4x4 and TTORA. Has anyone else run into issues? What am I missing. VSS is a new one from Toyota. Is it possible to have switched the signal wire and 12v wire at the plug? I am reading good voltage for both. I'm stumped, any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
 

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