'91 VW Jetta Odometer Inoperative

[VWAL]

The odometer on my '91 Jetta diesel quit working recently. Actually, it quit then worked a very little bit then quit again. Speedometer works fine, but odometer and trip odometer don't work. Any ideas? Can I fix this myself or is it time to look for another cluster? I'd like to keep the miles accurate if I can. Thanks!

[TDCTDI]

It's the little plastic gear that drives the shaft with the numbers on it, it's amazing that it's lasted this long. Some people have been able to slide the gear out a little, use a dab of super glue & slide it back in place. If you do have any luck with it, don't reset the trip odometer.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[glutamodo]

Personally, I would not use any "glue" . Rather, if the gear is NOT cracked, slide it off and "score" the metal shaft where it sits, with a couple of angled "bites" from some diagonal pliers. That will totally be enough to keep the gear in place. Personal example: I did this on my 85 Golf when I bought the car 16 years ago. Guess what? It is still going strong and has spun around over an additional 220,000 miles.

Now, if the gear is cracked, that's different: "Just Say No To Crack"... and you'll need to replace it, if it looks anything like this:

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Andy T.


IMAGE NOTE: It has been noted that Chrome based browsers may have issues in displaying my vast image library, which use non-secure links and are on an FTP server. Images should still be viewable if the link is clicked though.
I do not know how to fix this. All I can say is it all works fine for me with what I use, Firefox.

[ps2375]

FYI, car w/o a trip-odometer don't seem to have this issue. My 1980 Rabbit turned the odometer about 5 or 6 times and never had a problem.

[glutamodo]

Well, the 85 Golf I mentioned above, certainly DOES have a trip meter, and it definitely had a bad odometer drive gear when I bought it in 2001, with an uncracked gear that was running a bit "loose" on the shaft.
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Andy T.


IMAGE NOTE: It has been noted that Chrome based browsers may have issues in displaying my vast image library, which use non-secure links and are on an FTP server. Images should still be viewable if the link is clicked though.
I do not know how to fix this. All I can say is it all works fine for me with what I use, Firefox.

[VWAL]

Thank you. I guess I'll have to dig into it one of these days. Are you saying that after I get this corrected there's a better chance of it staying fixed if I don't use the trip odometer?

[TDCTDI]

Resetting the trip odometer definitely caused the issue.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[crsmp5]

http://www.odometergears.com/

to buy new gears... remember by law you are tampering with it to fix it.. why im impressed those people still offer the gears... you will not buy them anywhere else... i remember the days when you could buy new ones from vdo.. till it was breaking the law...
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[url=http://cdn2.driiive.com/7037.jpg]Click to view image[/url]

[bvolks]

[Butcher]

[VWAL]

Thanks again. We've been using the trip odometer to check fuel mileage thus resetting it every tank full. Now I know that's a bad idea, and I'll stop doing it.

[glutamodo]

I've held off on replying to the trip meter stuff, but my take on it, that thing rotates NO MATTER if you push the reset button or not. I totally fail to see how resetting it would cause issues. Also, I've pushed mine at least 650 times since I did the fix I mentioned above... and you'll never guess, it still works just fine and has never had any issues. I do not plan to stop using it.
_________________
Andy T.


IMAGE NOTE: It has been noted that Chrome based browsers may have issues in displaying my vast image library, which use non-secure links and are on an FTP server. Images should still be viewable if the link is clicked though.
I do not know how to fix this. All I can say is it all works fine for me with what I use, Firefox.

[TDCTDI]

I suspect the problem arises when the trip odometer is reset while the car is in motion. Some of the cars have a plastic gear & others have a metal gear. I'm sure the longer hot summers may play a role too. I probably replaced 200 of the units before they were discontinued & before the gears were available
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[TDCTDI]

[Butcher]

A couple burr on the shaft holds the gear on.

Many German cars [Mercedes/BMW/VW, etc] had the same issue and I've fixed them at the dealership since the 80's. The parts manager would hate me because I never sold a speedo, but I always looked at it that I could fix the customers complaint that day and it was cheaper for them.

Of course, I made a couple more bucks too.

[vwwestyman]

[VWAL]

I FINALLY got around to working on this. Found the little red plastic gear to be split. I used a 1/8" twist drill and while holding the gear gently with pliers to kind of keep it from spreading at the crack, ran the drill through it a couple times to remove enough material so that the crack would be pretty much closed up when pushed onto shaft. I thought if I didn't do that, the mesh of the gears might be messed up at that point. Then after cleaning things with alcohol, I applied super glue carefully and sparingly, pushed gear on, and let set overnight. It's been working fine since then.

Oh, guess what! Now my '84 Jetta has the same problem. I presume the fix is about the same. Am I right?

Thanks, guys, for the help.