Date:         Tue, 11 Oct 94 12:47:47 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joachim Beek <beekj@smd6.jsc.nasa.gov>
Subject:      RE: Suspended animation

>
>Regarding Matt Rathke's dead odometer on his '73 Bus:
>
>I had a similar problem on the '82 Vanagon - both the regular and trip
>odometers stopped working suddenly - no noises or other early warnings.
>Speedometer was fine.
>
>Looked like a small nylon gear failed.
>
>Tried the local VW dealers for a replacement.  It is to laugh.
>
>Tried a local speedometer rebuild shop - he had tons of the gears - he
>said it is a chronic problem with VW/Audi odometers.
>
>So, can I buy one?  Nope.  "It would be a violation of the federal
>odometer-tampering laws for me to sell you one, you obvious criminal type,
>but _I_ can rebuild your odometer for you."
>
>So, he rebuilt it, for about $60 in 1988 dollars.  And it has worked
>happily ever after.
>

...sorry, I missed the beginning of this thread, but something similar
happened to my '78 Scirocco a while back at about 110,000 mi.  I took
the odometer apart myself and *carefully* applied some superglue to the
nylon gear (it had split so that it formed a 'c' instead of an 'o', an
thus no longer followed the odometer axle as it turned.)  That was 3
years and 40,000mi ago and no prob since.

Joachim
beekj@smd6.jsc.nasa.gov
--
I'm not an engineer, but I play one at work.