Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 10:43:20 -0700
Reply-To: '80 Westy Pokey <pokey@VANAGON.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: '80 Westy Pokey <pokey@VANAGON.ORG>
Subject: Re: odometer and trip-odometer stopped
Content-Type: text/plain
This can happen if you reset your trip meter while the vehicle is in motion. This post may help you:
Thanks,
Chris
----- 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
------------------------------------------------------
On Tue, 10 July 2001, Dave Martin wrote:
>
> Hi list,
> I wanted to thank everyone for the help on the flashing coolant light. I got
> that one solved. This weekend the trip meter stopped rolling up miles. After
> watching it for a while I came to realize that the odometer stopped also.
> This just happened and I still have a working speedo and tach. Any ideas on
> this problem?? I have an `87 full Westy.
> Thanks
> -Dave
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________________
> Send a cool gift with your E-Card
> http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/
Thanks,
Chris Gronski
'80 Westy "Pokey" - SLOPOKEY
'87 Chevrolet Sprint - Ice Racer
'91 Pontiac Firefly - Convertable
www.vanagon.org & .ca
www.gronski.com, .org, & .ca
www.nineeleven.org & .ca
