Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 13:49:42 -0600
Reply-To: "Frederick M. Wasserstein" <vwvan@CORNHUSKER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Frederick M. Wasserstein" <vwvan@CORNHUSKER.NET>
Subject: Re: Odometer Repair
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
That's the one. Thanks! Now can you tell me how I got to a Porche page. <g>
Fred
1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel "Sammy"
1984 GMC Suburban Diesel 4 X 4 " The Beast"
----- Original Message -----
From: "1980 VW Westfalia "Pokey"" <pokey@VANAGON.ORG>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 9:38 AM
Subject: Re: Odometer Repair
> This one?
>
> Thanks,
> Chris Gronski
> Toronto, Ontario,
> '80 Westy "Pokey" - SLOPOKEY
> '87 Chevrolet Sprint - Ice Racer
> '91 Pontiac Firefly - Convertible
> www.vanagon.org & .ca
> www.gronski.com, .org, & .ca
> www.nineeleven.org & .ca
>
> ----- 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
but
> 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: "Frederick M. Wasserstein" <vwvan@CORNHUSKER.NET>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 9:41 AM
> Subject: Odometer Repair
>
>
> > The other day I was reading about the problem with the odometer breaking
> > when the trip reset was hit while moving. There was a great acticle on
how
> > to repair it, but I can't find it now!
> > Fred
> > 1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel "Sammy"
> > 1984 GMC Suburban Diesel 4 X 4 " The Beast"
> >
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