Date:         Mon, 1 Feb 2010 14:06:36 -0800
Reply-To:     Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      '86 odo fix mit pix (long)
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I apologize in advance for the length of this post but it is necessary for the detail and I hope someone will be able to benefit from it. 
  
NOTE ON PIX: Will have to post these later; encountered technical difficulties.  Can PM for those who absolutely must have them (if your plastic odometer is apart in front of you).  
  
When it comes to working on the Vanagon odometer/speedometer there is one document that stands above the others for detail, clarity and helpfulness and that is: 
  
http://www.twistedlimbpaper.com/brian/vanagon/Odometer.htm   
  
Props to Brian for this piece of work.  However, he states in the title this is for the ’84 and if you attempt this repair on your ’86 or later (I don’t know about the ’85 so you’re on your own there) you will soon discover the two mechanisms are substantially different in two ways. 1) The early odo has a metal framework containing and supporting the gears and shafts while the late version uses plastic, and 2. There are thick pedestals supporting the clear plastic gear holder on the later plastic unit, different from the cage design on the early metal unit.  If you follow Brian’s instructions for the metal unit you will become frustrated working on the plastic one.  Some things simply do not apply. 
  
DISCLAIMER: This is NOT to instruct you on how to set your odometer back; it documents the steps I took to make my replacement odometer suitable for my own application.  DISCLAIMER #2: If you undertake this task you are responsible for the outcome.  The parts involved are small, numerous and most are plastic.  If something breaks or jumps off the bench and disappears in your messy basement, don’t blame me. YM literally, in this case MV. 
  
REFERENCE NOTE: Consider the odometer displaying 123,456 miles.  I will refer to the 1 end  (left)of things and the 6 end (right) of things in my procedure.  
  
For most of the procedure follow Brian’s instructions.  They’ll get you where you need to go and are the model for other how-to pages.  When you get to the part about removing the shaft holding the Small Plastic Gears is where you will hit a wall.  He advises you to un-pinch the 6 end of the shaft holding these gears so that the shaft is again a round cross section, and slip it out the 1 end of the holder.  This might work fine on the metal setup but with the plastic framework the 6 end is barely accessible to un-pinch and once done you can’t push it out the 1 end of the holder because the pedestal at that end is in the way. 
  
The real complication arises because of the little brass coil return spring and its mount on the speedometer needle’s shaft.  I could not get the brass parts to come loose or slip farther out (in the driver’s direction), so I could not move the clear plastic gear carrier far enough from the base to give me adequate space to play with the Small Plastic Gears and their shaft. 
  
Time to tear into stuff.  The clear plastic carrier has two plastic locating pins; one above the numbers on the 1 end and the other below the numbers on the 6 end and they protrude about 2mm above the surface of the clear plastic.  Believe it or not you’ll need that 2mm so grind or file the pins down flush so that when you pull the clear part away you’ll have a teensy bit more room.  Now, look at the 1 end of the Small Plastic Gears shaft and you’ll see that, due to the pedestal, even if you un-pinch the 6 end there’s no way for the 1 end of the shaft to slip out far enough to remove the gears. 
  
Here’s my fix.  Un-pinch the 6 end anyway.  I used needle-nose Vise-Grips to do some of it and a Dremel to clean things up so that the shaft’s cross section is round-ish again.  At this point you grasp the black case with one hand and the clear plastic carrier with the other and gently tug them until the clear part comes off the two pins.  The devilish brass parts prevent further outward movement. Rotate the clear part a couple of degrees clockwise.  That’s all you’ll get but it’s all you need.  Looking from above you can see where the 1 end of the Small Plastic Gears shaft is aimed, at a point on the pedestal.  Drill a hole in the pedestal at that spot so the shaft can slip out through that hole, allowing the Small Plastic Gears to slip off the shaft. One interesting benefit here is that when the carrier is back in position the 1 end of the shaft is aimed at a different spot on the pedestal, not at the hole, and the shaft does not to be
 re-crimped on the 6 end because it can’t go anywhere. 
  
Alternatively, at the start you could probably Dremel a notch in the pedestal so the shaft can slip straight out the 1 end with the clear piece still in its normal position but then you’d need to re-pinch the 6 end or use a dab of JB Weld to prevent later unwanted shaft movement.  Also, my method gives a little more space that is essential during reassembly of the Small Plastic Gears cluster.  I’m warning you now that this last part is a total PITA since you’ll need to keep the Number Gears aligned with each other and with their final position while getting each of the Small Plastic Gears on their shaft and properly oriented to the Number Gears.  This will make sense when you get there.  Just don’t give up; it really does go back together but it can go together well enough to work, and still have alignment issues.  Expect to do some of the reassembly over. 
  
If you are doing the Metal Gear fix detailed in Brian’s instructions you can do it at this point. Once the Number Gears were reset I reassembled everything and took the precaution of adding a drop of Loctite to both the Worm Driven Gear on the 1 end and the Metal Gear on the 6 end to prevent the slipping problem.  Thanks for reading.  Good luck with your fix! 
  
Stephen