Say what?
Hmm that brings up an interesting corrolary question. Do the new Electronic odometers increase in mileage as you go backwards? I’ve never had a Electronic one to test, but it seems to me it should, and it would be possible. Since the odometer is a simple measure of how much work the mechanics of the car have gone through, backwards is everybit as much wear. Otherwise as long as you drove to work backwards all the time you wouldn’t ever have to change your oil. 
IIRC, the odo is connected to the drive wheels. That way, when towing, you lift the drive wheels, and you don’t put miles on the car that it hasn’t run. If the car was rear wheel drive, and the odo was connected to the front wheel, it’s either leave it in neutral to tow it on it’s drive wheels (bad) or tow it on the front wheels and put miles on it it hasn’t driven (undesirable).
On mind, the odo is electric, and plugs in beside the speedo cable.
–Tim
A friend used to plow snow with his late 80’s 1-ton ford. He claims that for every mile driven in reverse, the odometer would only decrease 0.9 miles.
Plow trucks spend a lot of time in reverse.
My years as an auto mechanic ended in the 1970s and I have no experience with electronic speedometers or odometers.
During the years that I did work as an auto mechanic, I never encountered any type of auto that had two connections to the speedometer—disconnecting one cable disabled both the speedometer and odometer.
LouisB, I do not think anyone said that. There was just some explanation as to the the two words refering to two different functions of the same gadget. That’s how I understood it anyway.
No,Sailor, AWB said the odometer was connected to the front wheels. Homer said it was connected to the drive wheels. I maintain that one connection took care of both, with the possible exception of the electronic types.
on some cars it is driven off the front wheel…corvair for instance, on some cars it is driven off the transmision and only off the forward gears, and on some cars it is driven off the output shaft of the transmision and works in forward or reverse. so it would depend on the car.
I cannot believe nobody has mentioned “Ferris Buehler’s Day Off” yet . . . what the hell kind of lifeless, pathetic losers are you who can’t even remember the scene where Ferris and his friend try to run the car backwards and knock the mileage off F’s friend’s dad’s way expensive car? Sheesh!
iam, there were no less than three posts on Ferris before your tirade.
That would be some way to rip people off when selling used cars, to reverse the odometer by putting the car in reverse. Can someone be caught doing this?
Have you learned nothing from Cecil? Don’t always believe everything you see on tv. And if you haven’t seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (which explains the WHOLE thing) then you’ve been terribly deprived.
While on cars [that aren’t relatively old] you can’t drive backwards to turn back the odometer, you can unhook it, turn it back, then wire it up again - this is illegal…so have fun 
Capacitor, I count two, with a possible third being the last post LouisB made. Whatever. I didn’t see it mentioned. Serves me right for skimming, not reading, the thread:)