Hello,
As a long time owner of older American iron, I'm a newbie to Mazdas. I just picked up a 1988 Mazda 323 at auction the other day. It's a 4-door LX model with the 1.6L and a 5 speed manual. 134,000 miles and no rust to speak of. I'm planning on using it as a gas saver for long trips.

Battery was shot and couldn't hold a charge so I replaced it with a new one. Got it running real good now with a tune up (plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter, oil change, etc). The only thing now I need to deal with is the speedometer. The speedo does not work at all, so I'm guessing the speed sensor must be bad or the wiring may need help.

I called up a few parts stores and NONE of them list a speed sensor in their computers. Is this one of those "dealer only" parts? I hope not, because everytime I am forced to buy something from a dealer I come out wishing I'd brought the KY jelly...

Also the location of the speed sensor... I assume it is the sensor on the front/bottom side of the tranny with 2 wires running out of it? Correct?

Thanks for any insight you guys can provide. This truly is a nice little car for the money I paid ($500) and I intend to keep it as nice as all of my other vehicles. There's a pic of it below.

-Tony

 

We bought our '88 323new. It has nearly the same mileage as yours - about 200 miles to 130k.

The speedometer is cable driven, so the cable might be broken. The sensor you are seeing might be the reverse switch (for backup lights) if it's a 5-speed.

Our speedometer made some terrible noises in the cold and bounced around like crazy until it warmed up. My son liked to tell us he was doing 90 on the way to school. (It seems to have quieted down the last year or two.) I've replaced the cable - the problem is the speedometer itself. I don't know how common this is, but it could be your previous owner had the same noisy speedo and disconnected the drive cable from the back of the speedometer.

Jeff.

 

Wow, a cable driven speedo in a car this late? Mazda must have been behind the times back then! I never would have guessed this thing had a cable speedo. There's no noise, so they must have disconnected the cable from the trans or the speedo. I'll have to check that out. Thanks!

-Tony