Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 18:29:49 -0700
Reply-To: Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Subject: Re: Clock repair and another defect
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980827143017.007e38b0@rain.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Most Vanagon speedometers have black electrician's tape holding them
together instead of the grey duct tape. They are all broken like this,
probably, even the ones that were never apart. I have four Vanagons, and
seven instrument clusters, all broken, some worse than others. The most
recent van got an upgrade, but it took bits from three clusters, sawn apart
and glued together with JB weld to get a full cluster. When I installed
the cluster, I found that I either missed a broken place, or it broke on
me already. Regardless, even now *none* of the clusters I have are solid.
None I've ever seen, either.
Makes you feel real good about all the plastic fittings VW used on the cooling
and fuel systems on these things!
Malcolm
At 02:30 PM 8/27/98 -0700, Parkie Parker wrote:
>I read Larry Carter’s article about fixing his clock. The hour was
>constantly recycling. I’ve had the same problem for a couple of years with
>our ’90 Westy, but been afraid to try to fix it. I emailed Larry for more
>details, which he promptly and kindly furnished. With this good help I was
>able to get the instrument panel disengaged and get at the clock. I have
>now stopped it from constantly recycling. And I can now adjust the hours.
>But now the button to adjust the minutes refuses to work! At least it’s
>not constantly recycling! I decided to quit while I was ahead.
>
>But the most interesting result of the job was the discovery I made when I
>removed the instrument panel. Only two of the four screws holding the
>speedometer to the case were functioning. It was obvious that the case had
>been beat up, and glued back together. And I know this area of the vehicle
>has never been worked on. I bought it new, and it only has 31000 miles.
>
>I took the instrument panel down to the local VW dealer I bought the
>vehicle from. They in effect said TS!! I pointed out to them that VW had
>spent thousands of dollars on warranty and campaign repairs on this
>vehicle, and said that it did not surprise me at all to find something else
>wrong. They were not interested, but the service manager did suggest that
>I call the VW customer service 800 number. I did this. The lady I talked
>to found the record of all I’ve had done, but said that they would not pay
>for the repair. She did make a record of my complaint.
>
>Well, fortunately, it really doesn’t matter. I have installed a piece of
>duct tape to hold the speedo tightly in place and hopefully this will be
>the end of it.
>
>
>
>***************************************************************************
> Cheers from Parkie's Paradise in the hills of Santa Barbara California!
> Voice - 805-965-8333 FAX - 805-966-6622
> Amateur Radio callsign - N6XGO
>
>****************************************************************************
>
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