How do I take Speedometer out, apart?

[umphorever]

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

[umphorever]

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!!

[RedBaronofRedBud]

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!

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

Thanks again, Andy!
_________________
Or you can call me………Tim

My two pennies…your mileage may vary

I’m not a complete idiot, there are parts missing

['69Custom]

[glutamodo]

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

['69Custom]

[Herrbern]

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?

['69Custom]

[glutamodo]

It's only on the 73-79 Super Beetles that you can't use the older speedometers. True, the ratio for the odometer gearing did change slightly, a couple of times in the 70s, but the fitment was the same on non-Supers all the way back to the oval window era.

[barry cox]

Thanks Eric, I have a 73 Beetle that I have already installed a 66 tank and gauge in. I like the older look on the 68 and earlier, and I wanted to go with an earlier speedo if it is the same size. I know super beetle speedo"s are larger. I just need to know about the standard Beetle speedo.

[fluxcap]

I think they'll fit just fine, they just don't have a gas gauge.
_________________
Eric - 1966 camper bus

"It's like, how much more black could this be, and the answer is none.......none more black."

[barry cox]

Can someone explain to me why a pre 68 speedometer will not work on 68 and later beetles. Is it because they have a smaller radius or mount different?

['69Custom]

I understand that. I'm doing a complete restoration on one right now. No one can complain about your result given what you started with. I haven't seen a clear needle look that good in a long time. It's just too bad you don't have the disc still in its original color to take out shopping with you.
_________________
-Tim

1969 Frankenbug
1965 Ford Mustang
:2gunfire: F-U-M-P!
~"I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken." ~The Boss
Please excuse any typos as my iPhone doesn't speak English very well. 

[thomas.]

Thanks for that Tim. I was heading out and figured I get the paint so that's real cool. I wanted to see what the blue looked like for the signals but I don't care for it.Going back to green although I think the original was red for this year. '59. I 'll probably sell but wanted to make sure it worked . It's off a couple of mph in some places but right on in others so close enough.Got it in a pile of parts I bought.Had rust spots on the face and it wouldn't clean off without mucking it up. Here's the before

['69Custom]

That's a shame. I think that looks pretty nice! I see you went blue for your turn signal indicator also.

I'm not positive, but I believe that Rustoleum's metallic nickel finish is fairly close to the stock color. Years of sunlight and UV exposure do make an impression.
_________________
-Tim

1969 Frankenbug
1965 Ford Mustang
:2gunfire: F-U-M-P!
~"I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken." ~The Boss
Please excuse any typos as my iPhone doesn't speak English very well. 

[thomas.]

Since this thread is active I thought I would ask. Does anyone know the correct color spray paint to paint the inside face of the speedometer. I cleaned this one up the other day and used what was handy. In this case it was a color I use for gas heaters -silver hammertone. I don't like it and want the original. Or close to it.

[KOMBI NIKO]

Might be worth a go, I'll start looking for a pic to scan from.

[glutamodo]

Sounds like you're in the same boat as "propguy" above, with a less-than-perfect face.

A home-printed decal might work OK - not sure how well it would hold up over time. I've painted clear acrylic over inkjet decals (NOT VW related) that I've printed in the past to make them weatherproof and usually they look better for it as well.

-Andy

[KOMBI NIKO]

Just pulled my 60 kombi speedo apart fixed the miles but now I need to repaint the face, any ideas? I thought of using model decal paper to print on using a good quality scan.

['69Custom]