GoWesty Speedometer installation - '90 Westy

[RBEmerson]

Our Westy has 16" rims (big brakes!), which means the speedo lies. I finally got around to doing the data reduction on our last trip's gas consumption, and there's no question the speedo, compared to GPS data, lies. Ever anxious to feed GW more money, I ordered their speedo replacement.

Before rushing off to order the kit, read the info about dealing with the oil pressure idiot light - the existing blue plastic foil wiring is an issue depending on your Vanagon's model year. I've already replaced the blue foil wiring with the GW "real wires" kit.

Removing the OEM speedo also means losing the VSS either supplied with OEM cruise control, or added for after-market cruise controls, or the ScanGauge instrument. I specifically asked about whether removing the VSS adversely effects the GW fuel injection - it does not. GW is working on a replacement VSS. It's probably going to be sometime in the fall/winter before it's released. I've asked to be added as a beta tester - no news one way or the other.

The OEM mechanical speedo can't be corrected for any changes in rim and tire size. IIRC, there is/was some sort of gear train kit that can/could get Syncro speedos close to accurate, but it won't work on 2WD speedos. If there's a shop anywhere near me that will do whatever magic to calibrate my speedo, I haven't found them. "We used to do that a long time ago..."

When GPS works, it's the greatest thing since [insert standard here]. GPS receivers tend to have a bad time with being in tunnels, urban settings, and Coronal Mass Ejection-induced geo-magnetic storms.

Nonetheless, having lived for eleven years, about 40K miles indicated with the speedo, and having lived with GPS since the Pres. Wm. J. Clinton administration, I'll go with the GPS speedo, thanks.

The very basic process is yank the dash cluster, remove the speedo, put in the GW speedo, hook up wires, and call it good.

Yes, this is a chance to set an odometer back to the mileage of your choice. It's illegal, it's immoral, and you're fooling with your karma. That said, yes, the new speedo odo display can be set to pick up with what the old odo shows.

There are four parts to the speedo kit - display (LCD where the rolling numbers go), GPS receiver (small white box), GPS antenna (small black lump and thin wire), and a wiring harness.

GW uses crimp-on blade connectors that IMHO are massively over-sized. There's much too much extra wire in the harness. I'll probably clean up the wiring (shorten, and better connectors) during installation.

GW says the GPS stuff can go anywhere, including under the dash. The white receiver box won't care, but burying the antenna in the dash, with the wiring, and sheet metal around it? No way!!

I have an old Sirius XM receiver,, with its patch antenna sitting on the roof under the cargo carrier. The GPS patch antenna will also go under the carrier, but not near the Sirius XM antenna. Long story short, putting antennas near each other, even when only serving receivers, can adversely impact antenna performance. :[

The wires will run down the front edge of the driver door opening, and enter the cabin at about the height of the top of the dash. This works for the Sirius XM antenna wire. Adding the second, GPS, wire shouldn't cause a problem (crushed wire, or water leak at the door seal). Our Westy is silver, so strips of duct tape hold the wire in place, and effectively out of sight.

Enough about electronics. With the GPS speed, the speedo cable becomes redundant. After I lived with the GW speedo for a while, I'll yank the speedo cable (as per GW instructions). No point in yanking the cable and then finding out GW let me down...

More news as I make progress. He said ever so optimistically. ;D
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[clamay]

You do know that you can adjust the Scan Gauge to compensate for tire size? Of course your main ODO will be off by some factor but your trip ODO and mph will be accurate on your Scan Gauge.
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91 Carat, automatic, GW 2.2, GW EFI, Peloquin TBD

When you come to a fork in the road, take it. --Yogi Berra

[RBEmerson]

Very true. Went there, did that. NTL, it's not the official accounting of total mileage. :)

Even with GW's v. cool SG mounting clip putting the display in Just The Right Place, it's still just far enough off center, when going through places where "Smokey" hides out, I'd just as soon have the needle in the right place.

But, hey, I'm all about throwing money at GW, and this is as good an excuse as any. LOL
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[RBEmerson]

Update:

I've given up on removing the cargo carrier (clean up the roof before mounting the GPS antenna). It's easy enough to raise the leading edge of the carrier to reach underneath, and place the antenna on the roof.

The antenna has an adhesive pad (vs. using a magnet). Clean the roof, peel the backing, place the antenna, and done. As a general rule of thumb, placing antennas close together isn't a good idea (discussion about why is way outside of the scope of the forum). Since I have a Sirius XM patch antenna under the carrier, made sure they aren't close together.

I use one of the four carrier mounting struts to carry the GPS antenna cable off the roof (won't rub, won't trap crud). When handling the cable, don't kink or crush it! GPS signals are way up in the RF spectrum, to the point where kinks or crushes that won't bother an AM/FM antenna cable could seriously hurt a GPS cable.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[mtnhome]

I'll be interested to see how you like the GoWesty GPS speedo.
Interestingly, I installed an '84 Wolfsburg cluster w/tach and am running 215/65/16 BFG TAKO's. My speedometer reads fast. I've checked it using the Waze app and when speedo reads 80, Waze say just over 70. Seems to read faster than actual as speed increases. I have a 1pc cable and the speedometer needle is steady and does not bounce around.
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'84 Westy, '93 Subaru ej22 and Subarugears 5speed
Build thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=763098&highlight=

[RBEmerson]

Update:

Swapping the dial is very simple. Mostly. Disconnect the gauge cluster completely. Forget trying to install the speedo gauge while leaning over the steering wheel. It's more trouble than it's worth.

Pulling all of the cables is irksome, but manageable. If all you have is the blue foil wiring, stop here, and install the GW foil replacement kit (not a joke - read their info!).

Wear gloves to avoid fingerprints!!!

The speedo is held in place with four Philips-head self-tapping screws. Back them out, and the speedo lifts out. With the speedo out, it's easy to clean up dust and crud inside the clear cover.

I used a spray can to blow out loose stuff, and followed up with my default cleaning fluid(*) on a cotton swab. Keep in mind that fingerprint grease is never, ever going to come off. Wear gloves! Pulling the tach, to clean the interior, is only slightly different than cleaning out the speedo; there's wiring which means the tach can't be completely taken away from the gauge housing.

Once I put the gauges back in place, I ran strips of electrical tape around the edge where the gauge back, and the housing sides meet. Maybe that'll keep out contamination, maybe I'm fooling myself into wasted work and tape. At least I'll think I got something done. ;D

When the old speedo is removed, the opening where the mechanical trip odo reset button comes out will be left open. GW didn't supply a plug for the hole. >:{

I used a clear plastic pad about 5/16" in diameter to cover the opening. The pads are sold as bumpers for cabinets, drawers, etc. They should be available at most hardware stores.

(*) Default cleaning fluid = 50% distilled water (if possible), 50% isopropyl alcohol - 91%, and a very small amount of Dawn as a surfactant "kicker". Do not, not, not, not use rubbing alcohol! It has oils and Bad Stuff that makes it useless as a cleaner. Add Dawn depending on the size of the batch, but don't use much. Foaming and soap bubbles aren't good news here. Using distilled water limits possibly leaving mineral deposits.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[RBEmerson]

The PO somehow trashed the gauge cluster housing. He did a lot of fiberglass patching which, so far, is holding up. At some point, though, I really should just look for a housing. The tach, water temp, and gas module is fine, and the original speedo's only problem is it can't be calibrated. So just replacing the housing would get the job done. I'm saving that job for an "over the winter" project.

When/if I find a clean housing, the change should be almost easy-peasy. The only McGuffin is the clock. The GW wiring harness makes connecting to the clock almost shooting in the dark; no easy way to keep pins and the socket aligned.

BTW, since replacing the blue foil "wiring" harness is almost required, here's the link to the replacement harness.

I replaced the blue foil 2-3 years ago, and I'm glad I did. If something goes sour with the foil, it's almost impossible to fix a break in a wire trace. The job's moderately complex, and the clock part is annoying, but the results are worth the effort. If something shakes loose, or wears through, repairs are trivial compared to the alternative.

For the record, I only wish I got a commission or bird dog fee from GW!
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[RBEmerson]

Decision point:

The GW odo is controlled by a simple push button, needing 7/16" hole for the switch and two-wire cable. Mounting options are:

1) Lower right corner, switch blanking panel below the 4-Way flasher switch, and defroster switch (if present). The blanking panels are replicable - drill a hole, change your mind, and only be out a new insert.

2) Upper left corner, above the Seat Belt and Brake lights. Drill a hole and it's forever, or replace the housing, or put tape over the hole, or put something else in the hole.

3) Somewhere else. I added an after-market Audiovox CCS-100 cruise control (hard to find now, but worth the effort to find it). The CCS-100's buttons cover the lower right corner. I'm not keen on punching a hole in the cluster, even though it needs to be replaced. I just happen to have a 7/16" under the vent sliders in the dash. The PO put in something that needed a switch (I forget what). I used the hole for the ScanGauge cable (because the hole was already there). I moved the SG display and cable to the GW SG mount, so now I have a spare 7/16" hole. Not the most logical place to put an odo reset button, but "use it, make do, or do without". ;)
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[steve244]

1!

are we voting?

Can I skip to the end to see how well it works?

Why did you decide to put it under the luggage area on the roof? GW says you can put the antenna anywhere in the interior. My phone's GPS seems to agree.

Waiting with baited breath to read your results (yes I had sardines for lunch).
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82 AC vanagon approx 200K miles (3K are mine).
DD is a 2015 Leaf
Road Trip to Hell (FL 2023)
The Vanagon's drivetrain and chassis restomod thread. Best sung to the tune of I Did It My Way...

[kourt]

Sidenote: I put in a Speedhut GPS speedometer in 2018. Its GPS receiver antenna is a small puck magnet type that sits on the metal dash under the windshield. It acquires the satellites within 30 seconds of startup and has worked very well for years.

The Speedhut gauge had the option to be preconfigured with mileage on the odometer from the factory, so I had them set the chassis miles on the odo and that has been nice.

I've enjoyed reading your updates on this thread.

kourt

[RBEmerson]

Update:

1 is the best option, but... with the CCS-100 button pad is where the odo button would go, no luck there.

3 failed because the doggone existing hole was hogged out too much. Grrr... Unfortunately, the threaded shaft on the switch is too short to get really clever and use a washer to get the hole and switch diameters to cooperate. Phooey...

2 got the nod and a visit from a few drill bits. Laying out where to put the button isn't as easy as it should be. Specifically, there's more clear space on the front of the panel than in the back. There's a collar around the idiot light cluster, and that has to be taken into account. FWIW the idiot lights are 1 5/8" wide, or a center line of call it 3/4" heavy.

I taped a washer about the diameter of the switch where I though the switch should go, and eyeballed that along the 3/4" heavy center line. A check for clearance on the edge of the collar (there's some relief in the switch - this makes sense when looking at the parts first hand), and I made the centerpunch mark, drilled a very small starter hole (drill fit in the punch's crater), followed that with an 1/8" bit, and then the 7/16" bit. Yea for starter holes to keep bits from wandering!).

Sigh... the shaft on the switch is somewhere past 7/16", and not 1/2". 100 grit rolled in a tube, rub, test, repeat. The thickness of the panel and the length of the switch shaft means forget using the supplied lock washer. Grrr...

Locating the receiver (the flat white box the antenna connects to) turned out to be dead simple - there's plenty of room to the left of the cluster frame, and right of the cluster cover.

There's a gap near the air vent on top of the dash, where the dash meets the door opening. with a little fishing, bringing the GPS antenna cable under the dash is easy. At least on this particular Westy, there's a gap near the upper left captive nut for the cluster mounting foot. The gap's just big enough to pass the antenna terminal through, and on to the GPS receiver.

Summary: The GPS antenna's under the carrier, and the wire's lead inside. The speedo display's been swapped; the inside of the speedo and tach display boxes were cleaned. The button's in the upper left corner of the dash, and the wires are tied next to the lighting wires for the speedo (as good a place as any to keep the button's wires from flopping around.

Next step: hooking into the fuse panel (see the GW instructions for who, with which model year, has to do what with). In the past, this has been provided too many opportunities to expend my year's supply of dark and evil oaths in a matter of minutes.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[RBEmerson]

Update, done for the day:

Basically the job's buttoned up, but I'm not ready to drive the Westy(*).

Attaching the wiring to the fuse panel wasn't quite as traumatic as it could have been. Mostly.

I had to shift the receiver slightly to clear the cluster mounts, and the cluster cover. The learning moment was the receiver case tried to pop open. Meh, could be worse.

Finding room on one of the two "on with key on" terminals was complicated because both terminals were occupied by earlier mods (e.g., moving the clock, interiors, radio to the house battery). The odo lighting is tied to the "key on" power, not the "lights on" power. Odd...

Powering up brought the needle back to 0. It had been sitting at about 20. The odo panel defaults to trip mode, and came up with 0.0. No surprise.

Setting the odo was a little odd. First, hold down the odo button before switching on the ignition, then see a parameter name show up - Pulse, then Odo, then Buzzer. I have no idea what Buzzer does.

The Odo setting process is: Push the odo button, turn on the ignition, let go of the button when Odo shows up. The display starts by flashing the single mile digit, then moves to tens, hundreds, etc. Pushing the odo button steps the flashing number, and the digits roll over, 9 followed by 0.

When entering, for example 246127, click up to 7, wait for the tens to blink, step up to 2, etc. After entering 200K miles, just wait, and the digits will stop flashing; the data is stored. Curiously, the trip odo shows the change in distance when updating the odo. Hold down the odo button and the trip odo goes to 0.0.

Managing the excess wire is its own chore. The harness from the receiver is silly too long, so I took time to gather it up, and use a cable tie to keep the coil in place. Ditto for the GPS antenna cable.

The two-wire cable for the odo button uses a ...um... less than adequate set of terminals. Overall, I may decide to replace the the button with something more robust, and less likely to dump its harness for no good reason. Whoever specified the button could have done a better job.

The receiver module has a LED on it. Currently, when switched on, I see a flashing red light. This may mean lack of GPS sync, it may mean a wiring error, it may mean nothing. More on that once I get the Westy out of the garage, and wait for the receiver to find some satellites.

(*)The house battery ground terminal is boogered. I need to re-do it before running the engine, and trying to dump possibly 40A down a rotten ground connection.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[steve244]

Thanks for the details.

I have one in my parts stash waiting for installation. The original speedometer in mine has the broken odometer feature, as well as wobbling and inaccurate. Rather than deal with a speedometer rebuild and cables I felt this was the cost effective solution. And it eliminates tire size speedometer accuracy issues.

On my 82, all lighting is provided by reflected lights in the instrument surround. I'm curious how the GW speedometer is lit. I think its backlighting is on all the time. I might hate that, but not being up with originality I can live with it.
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82 AC vanagon approx 200K miles (3K are mine).
DD is a 2015 Leaf
Road Trip to Hell (FL 2023)
The Vanagon's drivetrain and chassis restomod thread. Best sung to the tune of I Did It My Way...

[RBEmerson]

The dial's lit as before. The needle is lit from the middle (clear pointer, end lighting), and the LCD is lit from behind (lovely earwax orange - yech). The LCD only lights when the ignition is on. I'm not sure what that says about power to the GPS receiver. I'm still investigating the whole GPS side.

Update: The house battery ground has turned into a can of worms. The installer (not me!) tried to create a clever grounding point but boogered the job. I'm stalled until I come up with a better solution, and fix the booger job. Grrr...

As Queen Victoria of England once said, "we are not amused".
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[RBEmerson]

Wrap-up:

All done, the needle moves (when backing up, too), the miles tick over. The displayed speed matches my Tomtom GPS.

I have no idea about how the speedo handles lost GPS fixes, in tunnels, garages, or cities. At a guess, it probably holds the last known speed until it decides the GPS constellation is dead.

The LED on the receiver goes from blinking red to solid green. Probably that means "looking for satellites", going to "found some". Any other blink codes are probably bad news (e.g., dead antenna).

I haven't yanked the speedo cable yet (why pull it, and find I have a dead speedo?), but it will come out after I figure the GW speedo is through its infant mortality phase.

Swapping the speedo head was the easiest part (discounting pulling the cluster). The overall wiring harness is ...um... OK. It's too long, and the crimped connectors are, for 18-20 AWG wire big, bulky, and only crimped (doesn't match what I get with my pro-grade crimping press). I've seen better, I can make better cables than that.

The switch was a problem. The shaft is barely long enough to thread on the mounting nut when mounting on the cluster panel, over the Seat Belt and Brake lights. I have no idea how thick the plastic is on the switch blank panel under the 4-Way and Defroster switches. There was no hope of using the supplied lock washer.

The two-wire bundle for the button was too ready to pop off the switch's terminals. Careful use of small pliers fixed that problem.

Wiring into the fuse panel is only the annoyance of having to pull the fuse panel off the mount by the clutch panel. Consider it penance for sins you wish you'd committed. Or didn't know you did commit.

Did I get my $100 worth out of this project? Considering the OEM speedo was showing signs of being casual about reporting accurately, and the GW speedo has, over the last 15 miles, matched a "real" GPS, yeah, I guess I got what I wanted.

For ScanGauge users: Using the GW speedo means losing speed data, period. The ScanGauge will report anything that does not require vehicle speed (e.g., MPG, GPH). The GW EFI doesn't need to be told there's no VSS.

When removing the speedo with the VSS, the Cat5 cable coming from the ECU can go directly into the SG. The Cat5 extension cable, VSS sensor, and connector assembly can be removed; no switches, etc. need to be changed.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[r39o]

Pictures or it ain't real!

(Standard saying from the Vortex.)

My cheapie head unit is Android. It has GPS. It shows speed.

I had my speedo shop calibrate my speedo for the new diameter when I had them over haul it.

Both work fine.....
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"Use the SEARCH, Luke" But first visit the Vanagon FAQ!

1990 Multivan EJ 22, Rancho trans 0.82 4th, Small Car front AC, CLKs w/ 215/65-16, homemade big brakes 303mm, Konis, Recaros, etc....

Click to see my ads for Cup holders, Subaru clutch fix and CLK wheels (no wheels currently)

[RBEmerson]

Really nothing to see - it's a speedo, except it has a small LCD panel instead of rolling numbers. I wish the LCD panel was slightly larger, and the orange backlighting isn't to my taste (I changed to LED panel lighting a few years ago, and switched to red). Past that...? Meh.

Lucky you for finding a speedo shop to re-calibrate for bigger rims. Whether PA has outlawed calibration, it doesn't pay to do it, or the people who know how to do it are gone, nobody in the Philadelphia area admitted to doing it. That, and the generally wonky mechanical speedo performance, sealed the deal.

I prefer not to be tied to GPS. When it works, it's scary good, but it's not as certain as making a mark on a tire, and counting how many times the mark goes by in a minute. ;D
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[steve244]

We need to see it in the wild. With and without lights on. Please.
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82 AC vanagon approx 200K miles (3K are mine).
DD is a 2015 Leaf
Road Trip to Hell (FL 2023)
The Vanagon's drivetrain and chassis restomod thread. Best sung to the tune of I Did It My Way...

[RBEmerson]

The speedo with dash lighting, and speedo lighting

Lighting turned off

Reset button over Seat Belt and Brake lights

The rectangular panel is a ScanGauge, sitting in GW's ScanGauge mounting clip.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[steve244]

that's rather good. thanks for sharing.

The odometer light is halloweenish, but liveable.

No test drive yet? Not even to roll back through the driveway (I assume it won't know if it's going backwards or forwards...)
_________________
82 AC vanagon approx 200K miles (3K are mine).
DD is a 2015 Leaf
Road Trip to Hell (FL 2023)
The Vanagon's drivetrain and chassis restomod thread. Best sung to the tune of I Did It My Way...