Odometer Fix/Cluster upgrade

[debbiej]

I need to add that mine is now working. the extra gear I found didn't go in the speedometer/odometer. still don't know where it belongs. but I did move all the gears and wheels around on the shafts, made sure everything was meshing, tapped out the shaft to release the super-glue hold and put it back in. it is working, even accurate on the mile markers on the road. since it always worked until I pushed the trip meter while moving, and nothing is broken, the shaft just came out of the hole, I'll see how long it works.

[wemfam]

I fixed mine with the epoxy method.....I was worried that when I pushed the shaft through the epoxy 'soaked' gear, that the epoxy the shaft picked up as it passed through, glued it to the frame side.....after letting it dry overnight, I took an x-acto and ran it around the shaft best I could, to free it up.....whatever, it's working for now! Thanks for the fix.

[floggingmolly]

So I have had the same odometer problems as others have had. At first, it seemed that my green gear wheel was not turning, as it had slid out past the white vertical helical gear. So last year I fixed it by pushing it back in, then the paper clip trick, then 10cent’s metal piece fix. After all that it stopped working again. It worked sometimes, but not always. Seemed that in warm temps it didn’t work, but below about 65 or so it did. So I decided to take it all apart and see what I could see. Following the directions in this thread I managed to remove everything (except I broke my speedo needle, they are fragile!) and fixed it, I think for good!

In the first photo I’ve removed it all from the instrument cluster and pulled off the speedo needle (and broke it), then removed the two black screws on either side of the needle pivot point. (I was able to glue the two speedo needle pieces back together.)

The next photo is that of the shaft, looks pretty innocuous, but not so!

I knew there was a problem with the shaft because I could spin the far right gray metal gear on the odometer without spinning the shaft, and I could spin the shaft without the gear spinning, thus the odometer would not turn. When I removed the shaft to the left, from the right I threaded in a toothpick so the numbers wouldn’t go all haywire. Since the numbers were a little loose I was able to spin the 1,000 number up by 4 to reflect an approximate mileage I had driven with the broken odometer, so now it’s roughly accurate.

The next photo is just a side view where you can see I put the toothpick through. Be careful and slow while doing it.

In the next photo you can see a blurry close up of the gray gear that was no longer spinning, on the opposite side of where the green gear and white helical gear are. The shaft goes into that gear (from the opposite side of the speedometer) and when the shaft turns (driven by the white helical gear and green wheel), it turns the gray gear, which then turns the numbers. Pretty cool system I must say.

A less blurry photo.

The last photo is of the axle shaft (a little blurry). What I figured out is that over 200,000 miles or so, the shaft or the gear had gone smooth, so there was no friction between the two, so the shaft could not turn the gray gear. Even though the shaft was turning, the gear was not. So I roughed up the end of the shaft (about a 1/4 inch) with a metal file, and reinserted it in through the numbers and in to the metal gear at the end, all while slowly retracting the toothpick back out. We’ll I thought I really f’d it up cause although I got the shaft easily through the numbers (they turn by gear, not friction) I got the shaft stuck halfway in the gray metal gear. After panic set in, I was able to remove the shaft and smooth it out just a bit. So a word of advice is DON’T SCUFF THE SHAFT TOO MUCH, JUST A LITTLE IS FINE! Once I got the shaft back in, the odometer started working properly right away. I put the metal plate (10cent’s idea) back on just for good measure, doesn’t hurt.

So to me, if your odometer seems to be slipping away from the white helical gear, you may be able to push it back in and keep it there, but it’s symptomatic of what I found which was that the shaft and gear are no longer a tight fit on the right side of the odometer and it’s only a matter of time before they begin slipping. When they do, it won’t matter that you have the shaft kept in the right spot on the left, because the right side will be slipping and not turning the gray metal gear.

This was my experience.

Hope this helps someone.
Scott
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'85 Wolfsburg Weekender

[August978]

[kg0483]

How I fixed the problem is I carefully drilled a hole in the plastic just above the green gear and attached a screw from an old pair of broken sunglasses just deep enough to keep the odometer gear in place but not hinder it's operation. Similar to an earlier post. -Kyle

[Red Beard]

One more: Had the green-gear-not-engaged-with-the-worm-gear problem.

Stole tencent's idea above, but would add that I found what I think to be a pretty good ready-made stop---half a link from a bicycle chain.

Pushed the gear back into place:

Used chain break tool to get requisite piece of steel from old bike chain found in my bike parts pile, and stole a little plastic screw from an old piece of electronic equipment:

Carefully drilled hole in the plastic housing of the speedo cluster:

Secured new guard in place with small screwdriver:

I did add a very slight bend to the link so that it didn't ride on the end of the little axle or touch the green gear.

BOOM. DONE.

[morymob]

.the area where the gear slips, lay the rod on a flat surface and take a flat file,turn it so the corner touches, press down and roll the rod with the file. If pressing hard enuf u can see the small 'raised' places to grip wheel better,similiar to'knurling'in older days.Add a touch of glue also.

[blaze80]

Hello everyone-
just wanted to share how I fixed the non-working odometer on my '90 Carat.
I've read many of the other threads on how to go about it- many of them drilled into some plastic (which I was afraid to do- cracking something and being screwed). I did see the paper clip fix one member posted and was going to give it a shot but worried about the small diameter and that it would give over time and sag down- so came up with the following fix which was very non-invasive.
I found some old feeler gauges in the garage from my time as a tool-and-die maker. I specifically used a .008" thick guage- tried the .012" thickness first but it cracked and it seemed that .006" was too flimsy and would probably give as the gear pushed its way out.
I basically bent the top part to loop around the plastic screw hole and pushed the bottom portion behind the lower screw hole. The width was a perfect match in size that once I tightened the top plastic face back down- it secured the guage in place and I now have a sturdy stopper for the axle and did not have to drill into any of the original plastic and the fact that the width of the feeler guage is the width of the space between top plastic (clear piece) and circuit board- it does not interfere with the worm gear.! I tested it out- works great!

Hope it helps someone out- I know I've gotten a lot of great info here!

I bent the top 1/4" or so into a "hook" shape and forced it around the top screw mount post.

Bottom 1/8" or so gets tucked behind the bottom screw mount post.

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/// '89 Syncro Sport Joker, Reimo Hightop, mTDI
/// '90 Carat (SOLD)
/// '06 Audi A4 Avant S-line (SOLD)
/// '92 mk2 Jetta GL 8v (SOLD)
/// '89 'Bluestar' (SOLD)
/// '04 Audi S4 (SOLD)
/// '99 Jetta GLX VR6 (SOLD)
/// '84 Vanagon GL (SOLD)

[chachi]

a #1 square bit on a drill works to simulate the speedo cable.
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'74 transporter panel
'91 vanagon carat NAHT

[halimjimmy]

I have a question. I had a cracked gear , after fixing it ,The usual 3 miles trip measured many times as 3 miles with digital speedometer now after fixing the gear the same distant read 3.5 miles.
Whay there is variance?

[Ibuprofen]

[Moderator edit: See this post's update at https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9104641#9104641 ].


Here is the technique I used. Two washers JB Welded on the end opposite of the spur gear to prevent it from coming out. The only problem I forsee is if the spur gear were to be pulled off of the shaft. Although if that is a worry you could put a dab over on that end too. The nice thing about this is that it isn't intrusive or require drilling or removing the blue wiring ribbon.

3mm ID and 2.5mm ID washers, $0.08 each and a dab of JB Weld. Be careful with the JB weld.... sticky stuff.

3MM ID washer:

Now the 2.5MM ID washer:

Careful not to JB Weld to the plastic.

Let it sit overnight and then double check that the JB weld didn't accidentally touch the plastic housing. Reinstall whilst breaking brittle plastic and hope that you don't have to remove the cluster again for a while!
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Filbert: 85 Westy, 1.9 AHU mTDI, LR 300 pump stock fueling, 520 nozzles.

[goffoz]

Just FYI I didn't see it mentioned anywhere, so be aware
I just re-fixed my odo, but in the course of dissasembly I dropped all the odo gears sheesh
So after reassembling the gear train and testing it, maybe 5 times
I found it is possible to assemble the odo so that it will trip the mile dial at any ratio of the tenth scale on the trip. 5 tries to get it right

ie: when the tenths scale hits 5 the mile dial on the odo roles over.

So be careful... use the tooth pick, if you want the odo to role at the 9 on the tenths scale

[Ibuprofen]

Posting an update to my particular fix. The worm gear and the shaft that it is on looks like it is holding up, something else isn't though. The tripometer stops turning at somewhere around mile 5. :/

I didn't see what the problem was after a quick inspection yesterday. If I get around to really digging in (likely in the fall) I'll post any findings.
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Filbert: 85 Westy, 1.9 AHU mTDI, LR 300 pump stock fueling, 520 nozzles.

[Mellow Yellow 74]

Here is a 3D printed solution that has been posted online - thanks Mr Concept!

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2104416

I also like the simple push washer solution, but am not sure how only having the gear sitting 3/4 on is going to go in the long run:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=674393
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1962 Karmann Ghia
1974 Deluxe Microbus
1985 Caravelle (Vanagon)

[Butcher]

The reason the shaft falls out is because the aluminum gear is not holding on the shaft. Once the shaft is peened, the gear no longer will slip and therefore the shaft will not come out.

The shaft coming out is a secondary issue. Fix the primary issue and that will solve the problem.

Gluing washer, adding printed components, etc are all a waste of time.

[floggingmolly]

[victorsbus]

Could you elaborate on the peened shaft fix?

[Butcher]

The aluminum gear suppose to be pressed on the shaft. That gear should not spin on the shaft. When the gear turns, the shaft does too.

For some reason, the gear starts to slip. When it does, the shaft will slide out due to the drive gears on the other side. So all you need to do is to stop the aluminum gear from slipping on the shaft.

How do you do this? You either shrink the hole on the gear or enlarge the shaft. I've tried both ways but when you take a pair of cutters and make some cuts into the shaft, they allow the gear to hold. With the marks, I believe they allow for a good 'bite' and will not ever slip again.

There is a draw back. If you mark the shaft too deeply, the shaft is difficult to slide back [hangs up on the plastic number gears]. If you mark the shaft in the wrong position it will not hold the gear properly [and may hang up the number gears].

It may sound difficult, but it's really not. A good tool that I used is the top end of a metal Hirschman power antenna mast. Whatever that metal is, is pretty strong and hard to bend. Use that to tap the shaft out and all the gears stay in place. Modify the shaft and push the shaft back in. As long as the Hirschman antenna does not fall out, the job is simple easy.

[floggingmolly]

Follow my instructions and rough the end of the shaft with a file, just a little bit. Its been good for 50,000 miles. No peening needed.
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'85 Wolfsburg Weekender

[Mellow Yellow 74]