Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 13:56:02 -0500
Reply-To: "1980 VW Westfalia \"Pokey\"" <pokey@VANAGON.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "1980 VW Westfalia \"Pokey\"" <pokey@VANAGON.ORG>
Subject: Re: Speedometer/odometer problem
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
The spedo and the odometer are more or less independent, what I mean is your
odometer can be broken and your spedo be working fine. I can't help you with
your spedometer problem but as for the odometer they tend to break if you
reset the trip meter while the vehicle is in motion.
Here is a recent post from the Vanagon list that may help you...
Thanks,
Chris Gronski
Toronto, Ontario,
'80 Westy "Pokey"
'87 Chevrolet Sprint (Ice Racer)
'91 Pontiac Firefly Convertible
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Oldenburg" <ELEVENHALF@aol.com>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2000 12:50 PM
Subject: Odometer doesn't work; speedometer does?
Hey Folks-- I just ran up against this problem in my '87 Jetta GL and wanted
to report that there is indeed a do-it-yourself fix for it that requires
little more than time and lots of patience. A previous kind contributor to
this news group directed sufferers if this relatively common VW ailment to
the Pelican Parts website
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Mult_gauge_repair/mult_gauge_repair
.htm
that provides an excellent description of how to fix this problem in similar
Porsche speedometers. Following those recommendations, and with a little
trial and error and adjusting to my VDO speedometer, I managed to repair
mine. Hope what I learned from the process helps any of you:
1. Typically, if your odometer doesn't work and your speedometer does, the
problem is caused by resetting the trip mileage counter while driving down
the road instead of while the car is stopped. Doing this time after time
apparently takes its toll on the fit of the odometer "pot-metal gear" on the
odometer drive shaft. No longer snug, it doesn't turn the odometer gears
(though mine actually worked in the cold of last winter but stopped working
soon as it got warmer this spring).
2. First step: Disconnect the negative ground of your battery. Then remove
the speedometer. My Jetta has a speedometer cluster that required me to
first pull out all of the dashboard switches and knobs, etc--emergency
blinker button, radio, heater button, etc. All of them snap out or pull out
relatively easily). Then, I removed the dashboard face plate (take out a
bunch of screws and pull out), tipped the speedometer cluster forward,
reached behind it and detached the speedometer cable and the two electrical
connections at the right and left base of the cluster, and by maneuvering
the steering wheel a bit eased the cluster out. This may differ in Vanagons
and other models, but in the Jetta, pulling the speedometer head from the
cluster was mostly a matter of logic, common sense and luck: Start with the
obvious screws on the back of the cluster, then remove the push-and-turn
lock light bulbs, then carefully release the plastic sheet of circuitry
until you can ease the speedometer out.
3. The Porsche site mentions not removing the speedometer needle and gauge
face, but in my Jetta VDO speedometer model, there was no backdoor to the
insides and the needle and gauge face had to come off. It's easy to do, just
that you might get into recalibration issues later. But I had no choice.
4. Once you're looking at the insides of the speedometer, put scotch tap
across the bare mileage numbers to hold them together during the repair. I
taped them back and front to be sure. Then remove the four screws that hold
the guts to the back of the speedometer unit and pull the insides.
5. By now, playing with the gears should give you an idea of how this thing
works. The shaft that runs through the main odometer mileage numbers needs
to be gently tugged out using, in my model, the small red gear on the left
side (front facing you) until the shaft eased out enough to free the
pot-metal gear on the opposite side. That greyish gear should be the
problem. Turning the red gear on the left (the one turned by the gears
coming off the speedometer cable connection and mechanism) doesn't always or
perhaps never turns to pot-metal gear on the right. That's because its
fitting too loose on the shaft. So after removing that metal gear, I
scrapped it some inside the hole that the shaft pushes onto, smoothed some
super glue gel with a toothpick around the inside of the hole and let it
dry. (Gluing the gear directly to the shaft isn't advisable 'cause if any of
the super glue smears elsewhere on the shaft in reassembling, you've just
locked up your odometer.) In order to fit it on the shaft again, I actually
had to scrap some of the dried glue out. But when I did fit it, it went on
with reassuring difficulty and was real snug. I tested ad retested and there
no longer seemed to be a problem.
6. Reassemble the shaft and gear into the speedometer mechanism. Remove the
tape from the odometer numbers and make sure they're all lined up. Position
the speedometer face in place to make sure the number sit in the windows
correctly. If they're not in line, adjust them gently by messing with the
little gear lock for the number that needs adjusting).
7. Last thing before putting it all back together: Turn the red or lefthand
gear on the odometer shaft with your finger and watch the trip mileage
counter operate as it turns the next mile on the odometer above it. If it's
not flipping the next mile on the odometer at about the 9-tenths going on 0
marker, you'll need to carefully and gently pop out the tiny little
connecting gear that drives the pot-metal gear you repaired simultaneously
with the main trip mileage counter gear directly below it. Then adjust both
of those bigger gears so that it's working the right way and snap the tiny
connector gear back in. You may have to do this several times because it's
really more luck than skill. Every time you snap the tiny gear back in, it
move the position of both gears it connects to and slightly alters how they
correspond in the number count.
8. When done, reverse the order of disassembly and put it all back together.
Reconnect the speedometer cable and all of the electrical connections behind
the speedometer (or cluster) and the dash connections, reconnect your
battery cable, and it should work just fine. If, when you turn the key and
test drive, you notice the annoying OXY warning light is lit up on your dash
(mine was), go to the EDS/OXY sensor box that the speedometer cable connects
through (in some models) and push the Oxy button in with a phillips
screwdriver and that will turn off the warning light. Sorry for the long
winded description. Had to get it down before I forgot anything. Hope this
helps someone.
Later--
Don in Virginia
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Talevich" <ttalevich@COSTCO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 1:27 PM
Subject: Speedometer/odometer problem
> Hello all:
>
> Question #2 for my new 88 Vanagon Westy:
>
> The odometer stopped working awhile back. Then, the speedometer started
> making a whining noise. I fiddled with the cable entering into the
> speedo/odo box, taking it out, then pushing it back in a few times,
wiggling
> it while driving, etc. Nothing worked. So, the question is: How does one
> repair this equipment? Is it worthwhile taking out the speedo and
tinkering
> with the gears? Or is it unfixable, and I must get a new speedo? I'd
prefer
> not to do this, of course, because I'd like to keep the odometer reading
> accurate (and not spend a lot of money).
>
> Suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tim T.
>