My battery was dead for about 6mos, swapped a new motor, now speedo doesnt work.

Are there any trouble codes?

Which engine do you have?

Well, I'm not sure if any trouble codes come up. I don't think any do. It's the 4cyl motor.

When using the scanner, you did not check for trouble codes? It could be a faulty meter which has comuter chips inside it. You should be checking for body control faults.

Well, the shop that swapped the engine checked everything with the scanner. Ill check with them to see if there were any codes. what do you mean by body control faults? and what is the meter?

Meter cluster is what I meant. Body control modules are various computers within the vehicle that are interlinked, eg between engine, gauges, alarm etc. If there are any faults, some of the control modules cannot communicate with each other.

ok, so when you say Meter cluster, do you mean the instrument cluster? when i got in it yesterday, it worked for about a mile, then when to zero and stayed there. Could it be wiring?

Yes, instrument cluster it is. It could be faulty or a loose wiring somewhere. It could also be due to a loose ground circuit connection. A scan tool would help to diagnose such problems if it has functions to test the instrument cluster.