4130 Products - Fixing your odometer

Fixing your odometer

Watercooled VWs are simply wonderful, but like any car that is mass produced, they tend to have common problems. One of these is the famous odometer that only works part of the time, or not at all. My 86 Jetta GLi was a part time worker. I've read a few text files on how to fix it, but I never was sure what to look for. So I opened it up and here is what I learned.

Before we begin, you will need to remove your gauge cluster, click here for a Step-By-Step, and then have some basic skills on opening up your gauge cluster, click here for that info. The second link there will take you to the area on how to install the 4130 Custom Gauge Overlays, in there you will see the steps in opening up the gauge cluster, removing the speedo needle and some more basic info you will need.

The tools you need will be some of the ones you used to remove the gauge cluster and to open it up. Also, I used Super glue to make the fix with my odometer.

Please note that your car may vary from my car, so some things will be a little different, but over all, it is the same for any given VW
There are some steps you will need to take to remove the speedo from the rest of the gauge cluster. Remove the screw that goes into the heat sink on the back side of the speedo.
Remove the 2 screws that keep a sensor in place. Use a little extra care here. Also, when you reinstall it, just get the 2 screws snug, don't tighten them up too much.
Unsnap the circuit board, just start at one end and work your way around. You may need to use a screw driver to help you pry the electrical connection free.

This the part that goes bad and makes your oil pressure light come on and buzz all the time even though you have oil pressure.

And here it is. Now as far as I can tell, there are 2 basic areas that fail. Both involve a shaft that runs though the odometer, there is a plastic gear on one end (the red one in mine), and a metal drive gear at the other end.
Here you can see 3 gears. There is a green one that drives a worm gear (the white shaft), to which in turn drives the red gear. The red gear is pressed onto a shaft in which the number or the odometer turn on.
And here is the metal drive gear at the other end of the shaft, just to the right of the "9". This gear is also pressed onto the shaft. Now then, if the red plastic gear or this metal gear can slip on the shaft, then you've got a nonworking odometer. It is pretty easy to find which one is slipping. Just use your thumb and roll the metal drive gear up. While you do that, look at the shaft where the red gear is. If the shaft turns and the red gear doesn't, then the problem at the red gear. If you turn the metal gear, and the shaft at the red gear doesn't turn, then the problem is at the metal gear. With a good odometer, when you try to roll the metal gear with your thumb, it will not turn. It is the slipping on the shaft causing your problem.

Mine was slipping on the metal drive gear. The way I ended finding this out was I had removed the 4 screws on the clear plastic frame. Once you do that, you can lift it up a little and get the plastic worm gear out. from there I pulled a little on the red gear and the shaft popped right out of the metal gear. I wiggled the metal gear out carefully, cleaned the inside out as best I could, put a drop of Super Glue on the inside of the metal gear and them put it back together real quick. A sloppy pain, but it work.
This is about all I have to say on this. Not so much a Step-by-Step as I wanted, but I'm sure it will help a lot of you out. Before I did this today, I didn't know much other than what I had read in the past. People would write stuff like, "open it up, find the gear that is messed up and fix it". I think what I've done here is a little better.

How the Trip Odometer resets!

Free bonus section!

Now here is a great mystery solved. How did pushing the little button on your gauge reset the trip odometer? Many people died because of the photos you are about to see, and I fear for my life since I'm sharing them with the rest of the world.
What I've done here is take apart the trip odometer and put the white number wheel on the left side so you can see what is going on better. Basically, the number wheels have little cams on them that are off center.
When you push the button on the dash, it makes these "fingers" press up against the cams on the number wheels and rotate them to the "0" position.
And then you release the button and a spring returns the fingers of death back to their original position.

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