Date:         Tue, 5 Aug 1997 22:57:25 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Linda Bartnik" <lbart@preferred.com>
Subject:      odometer success?

I feel like I'm gonna jinx myself by posting this, but...

Thanks to the kindness of a fellow listmember, I was able to obtain a new
odometer drive gear for the '81, after the old one cracked and rendered the
odometer useless.

I will not reveal the listmember's name as of yet, but he has a speedometer
repair shop nearby and got the gear there, and sent it to me.  I believe he
is in the process of ordering more gears from this shop so he can help out
other listmembers who have this common problem.  

Anyway, I was able to install the new gear without too many problems.  The
first thing I found out was that it was a lot harder to get the new gear on
the shaft than it was to get the old cracked gear off.  it really has to be
pressed on, but you can fake it with a correctly sized c-clamp, and then a
couple small sockets and strong thumbs.

Once I got the gear replaced, I noticed that the odometer would stop every
time two numbers were to come up on the trip odometer.  I took it back out
(I got really good at removing the speedometer, I can do it now without
completely removing the instrument cluster, takes about 5 minutes) and
found that there is a metal gear next to the previously cracked gear which
was slipping on the shaft and consequently when the extra load of turning
two numbers rather than just one came up, the gear slipped on teh shaft
rather than turn the numbers.  

so, off came the new gear, I drove the shaft back a little bit so I could
get off the metal gear (I was getting worried, hoping to God I didn't break
anything), pulled the metal gear out of there (just barely fits, BTW), put
a dab of super glue in the center of the gear, then quick like a bunny put
it back and slid the shaft through, then re-installed the new gear.

I let it dry for a while, then tested it with the drill.

Seemed to work OK (BTW, I omitted a few mistakes I made, so no, it wasn't
really that easy).  Re-installed it, then found out that the thing would
bind up when two numbers were to turn over on the regular odometer rather
than the trip odometer.  Got really pissed, pulled it out again, setting a
new speed record in the processs (glad the Vanagon speedometer is so easy
to get to).  Apparently my super glue-ing had gummed up part of the works. 
Oops!   I gave it a little prying and nudging with a screwdriver, then ran
it on the drill for about 30 miles to test, at about 60 mph.  I had to help
it along at first but then it started turning over those two-numbers with
no problem.  coincidentally, it was going from 790 to 800 so I let it turn
over three numbers just to see if it would work, it did.  So I put it back
in the van and it's been working  fine since then, and I've driven it about
30 or so miles since then.  

Looking at the mechanism while running it with the drill, I was impressed
with how cleverly it was designed.  Too bad it breaks so damn often! :-)

it would be very difficult for me to describe how it works, what with the
number changing, but you can see if you study the insides while it's in
motion.  It's almost worth pulling it out just to see :-)

so, what I've learned here:  
1) it's very nice to have a new gear rather than trying to repair the old
one.
2) Don't reset the trip odometer while the vehicle is in motion -- save
yourself all this aggravation.
3) Don't attempt to spin that metal gear, it's not supposed to spin on the
shaft!!  DOH!
4) Remember to hook up the speedometer cable before the test drive.  DOH!
5) Make sure you push that multi-pin connector to the instrument panel back
in all the way or your dash will act funky.
6) Don't post your supposed success to the list!  The van will see and the
odometer will break again.


Soon I suppose I will have to write this up as a procedure and add it to
the tech page on my website (which hasn't been updated in ages, BTW).  It's
really not too complex and the speedometer is very easy to remove and take
apart.

Thanks for reading, sorry it was so long.

Sean