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Thu Mar 27, 2014 8:13 am

I followed the tutorial and before I put my speedo back together, just one question about the needle position.
How do I put the needle in the right position to be sure that the speed indication is correct when driving?

Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:46 pm

Herrbern wrote: I followed the tutorial and before I put my speedo back together, just one question about the needle position.
How do I put the needle in the right position to be sure that the speed indication is correct when driving? If you have a late model speedometer, there is a white calibration line on the faceplate along the outside edge. You'd have to lightly put the needle on below the stop pin where it lines up with this line, then gently bend it up over the pin before securing it completely.

If you have an early model, there is no calibration mark in the face. I always add one on the backside before removing the needle from the gauge. It's the only way to make it as accurate as it was prior. Without that reference, you'd basically have to take a guess at it by looking at some of the pictures that have been provided here by members before their needles were removed.

Edit: Andy has a picture on page one of this thread that shows the position of the needle where it should rest before slipping it over the stop pin.

Fri Mar 28, 2014 6:47 am

The other thing that I've done is another "prior to removal" - and that is to run it on a drill you can depend on its speed being constant ( like a corded drill) and spin a cable with it on the speedometer in reverse at the drill's top speed, and note the speedometer reading. Then you'll have another reference point to check once you've put it back together.

-Andy

Fri Mar 28, 2014 7:18 am

glutamodo wrote: The other thing that I've done is another "prior to removal" - and that is to run it on a drill you can depend on its speed being constant ( like a corded drill) and spin a cable with it on the speedometer in reverse at the drill's top speed, and note the speedometer reading. Then you'll have another reference point to check once you've put it back together.

-Andy That's a fine idea just so long as we stress that it has to be a corded drill. Cordless drills aren't consistent enough. For that matter, even some corded drills have far too much torque and will max out the speedometer before reaching a top speed. I bought an adjustable speed corded drill from Harbor Freight specifically for testing speedometers. It was a worthwhile $15.

Mon May 19, 2014 6:09 pm

I wanted to thank Andy for the great writeup on the disassembling, cleaning, and restoration of the speedometer. The one in our buggy died on Saturday on the way to a cruise, so we had to use the GPS as a backup. Thanks to this great posting, I took it out, apart, cleaned and repaired and reinstalled in a couple of hours. Outstanding job! =D>

If you come out to Big Bear in July, the round is on me! :lol:

Thanks again, Andy!

Sun Nov 16, 2014 7:26 pm

I followed these instructions to freshen up my speedo last night. Worked great!! I must have missed the part about lining the gears back up. lol It took me about 45 minutes to figure it out. But I came out with a final result of 9 miles. Also, I removed the needle, so that I would put any kind of stress on it, well I dropped it about a foot fall onto a chair. The fall snapped the needle off. So I knew I was going to have to get creative. I searched and couldn't find just a needle. So, with the remaining broken needle remaining on the needle assembly, I took an ink pen tube (empty of course) and fit it to the end of the broken shaft. Then I wittled away the tube on the back side to reduce as much weight as possible, beings as the original needle was virtually weightless. I continued to push the needle up and down to see how the screw would allow it to move. Slowly I wittled away a bit more. when I got a favorable result, I used some acrylic paints I had laying around to get a nice shade of orange. (sorry, that's the color I wanted) I then used a toothpick and painted the inside of the tube, without filling it with paint. Came out looking great! I also replaced the gels with a vitamin d milk lid and an apple juice lid! They look awesome!! I then replaced my speedometer cable. So, now I am patiently waiting for the wife to get home so I can take the refreshed speedo out on its maiden voyage!!

Sun Nov 16, 2014 10:27 pm

edit: Pen tube is way too heavy. I'm going to give an olive sword instead...Hope it works!!

Mon Nov 17, 2014 5:44 am

umphorever wrote: edit: Pen tube is way too heavy. I'm going to give an olive sword instead...Hope it works!!

Would love to see a pic of the end result!

Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:35 pm

Here it is with my fabbed needle that is too heavy. It looked good but is just way too heavy.[img][/img]

Mon Nov 17, 2014 3:56 pm

That's a pretty big needle!

So... a red "gel" for the turn signal arrow? What year? (the last model year to have a red arrow was 1961)

Mon Nov 17, 2014 3:59 pm

The car is a 63...The speedo is from 1/67...I didn't know that about the turn signals!! What color should a 63 be?

EDIT: apparently they're supposed to be green. Well, when i replace the needle, I will replace the "gel"

Mon Nov 17, 2014 11:59 pm

Needles on the samba.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1691249

Mon Jan 19, 2015 10:23 pm

Can't seem to get the body crimped back on. I tryed pushing it down and slipping one side in and running a small scewdriver around it and the othe side pops out, tried to clamp it and it did the same thing. tried it about 10 times. Help

Sun Jan 25, 2015 11:42 pm

Sorry I missed this question when you posted it. I've never had one not want to pop on there again, but I only pry them out "just enough" so that I can slip them off. They may not be extremely tight fitting, but they hold OK, more than enough to install into the car.

-Andy

Sat May 16, 2015 8:13 pm

Thanks for the information, did this to mine today. One issue i wanted to bring up was, if you are going to use multi layers of dividers and using super glue they do not turn out perfectly. Im not sure what a better method would be but just wanted to give my input. Also wondering what people did on the chrome ring on the outside case or if you just ordered a new one?

Sat Jul 23, 2016 10:09 pm

thanks Glutamodo used your pics and info to zero out my odometer it works I did have all my gears fly all over though lol thank you

Wed May 03, 2017 5:18 pm

This was a very nice writeup. I was taking apart my speedometer and this reference allowed me to see parts before I took them apart. I removed all my numbers and put grease in between.

If you are going to reset your numbers to 0 this can be quite tricky getting them lined up with the gears. This is probably the most difficult part.

Thu May 04, 2017 7:38 am

This really was a great help in outlining how to disasseble the speedometer, and some of the pitfalls in the process.

I was able to fix my odometer with confidence; the gears had pulled out of the housing enough when the spindle shaft pulled out.

My fix was to spot weld a little material on the end of the shaft to prevent it from dislodging. Odometer works like a charm.

Thanks

Sun Nov 26, 2017 2:06 pm

glutamodo wrote:

I am currently practicing disassembly on a spare speedo.

That black shiny gear in the picture is not exposed in my speedo. There's just a small section on the end where the bushing came off. If the shaft is geared to it, how can I remove either one without swinging up the black gear shaft as Andy wrote?

Sun Nov 26, 2017 3:25 pm

Since it's a spare speedo, i figured what the heck, and kept prying at it. The shaft came out and then I poked the gear out with a jewelers screwdriver.

Whether or not the speedo that is actually in my car is the same as this one or the ones in Andy's photos, I now feel confident enough to take it down to this point, clean and relube it.

Thanks!