VW Mk 1 Cabriolet Speedo finding difficulty

Hi

 A couple of years ago I got my mum an all White VW Mk 1 Karmann Cabriolet (K Reg).
The speedo needle was very jumpy and eventually broke off. I want to sell the car soon for her as it hardly gets used and have been trying to find a replacement speedo before I sell it but ive been really struggling.

Theres only 1 on ebay I can find. I'd be interested to know from some of you experts how much I should expect to pay for one, whether I need the whole single plug unit, or any of the mk1 or mk2 speedo clocks can be fitted to the cluster unit and will work.

Any ideas where else I can find one…ASAP. Is there a place that stocks mk1 parts like this?

Thanks very much

I recently got some off ebay the same as in your pic and payed around £80 but I would have gone up to £100, I saw a set the same as the ones pictured this morning and they was around £30 with about a day to go. HTH

I paid 30 quid for the digital clock style cluster.  Check whether you have the screw in or clip on cable and contact crazy quiffs to see what they want for the speedo. I had one not long ago that I sold for 15 quid.  

Mk2 clusters look different.  They have round dials. 

Cheers for the replies.
Actually, that one you saw on ebay is the one I just managed to win on the auction.

So that should be with me in a few days. It does have some differences to the one from my car, see below.



Do you think its best to swap the whole unit over and hope that the plug fits & works, or better to take the speedo part out from the ebay clock and fit it to my existing unit?

I think!!!!!!!!!! (assuming it's a similar set up to early polo's) that the circuit boards need to match each other. If they don't then strange things may occur.

If it's only the speedo bit you want I think I'd try just swapping the speedo bit over.

To make the readings match (which you'll want to do I should think   ) you can do so by taking off the back cover of the speedo. You'll see the numbers are on a spindle.
The spindle is held in with lugs that stop it sliding out. Using some needle nosed pliers, very gently you can squash the sides of the lugs a bit and push the spindle through the lug. It can then be lifted up slightly and the nubers can be spun independantly of each other to 'correct' the mileometer readings.
Once it reads correctly line everything back up and slide the spindle back into position. Use the pliers to flatten out the tab again.

Et voila.

Hope it helps

E

i would swap the whole thing over, firstly to make sure they work if not get a refund! other thing is the lcd for your clock is knackered as well so it cant hurt to just change the lot over. if they are gti clocks the mfa will still work as a digital clock if you dont have the wiring

main thing is check the speedo fitting but afaik they're all the same for this style of clocks it was the early dual pod dash that differed. i may be wrong on that one though!

if the speedo is still jerky then it'll be the cable at fault, if you check in the bay make sure its not cracked, if it is cut away all the damaged sections and clean out oay crud from the slits. give it a spray in the damaged sections with silicone spray and hopefully after a few miles it'll smooth out. once happy clean up the damaged sections of cable then cover in duct tape or similar to seal the cable up and prevent any further dirt getting into it.

if the above doesnt help change the cable, be sure to take care when removing from the box not to catch the gear on the lip, you dont want it to fall in the box! then pull the gear off and then the retaining circlip, give the new cable a spray of silicone lube down both ends and swap the circlip and gear over.

rubjonny said

i would swap the whole thing over, firstly to make sure they work if not get a refund! other thing is the lcd for your clock is knackered as well so it cant hurt to just change the lot over. if they are gti clocks the mfa will still work as a digital clock if you dont have the wiring main thing is check the speedo fitting but afaik they're all the same for this style of clocks it was the early dual pod dash that differed. i may be wrong on that one though!

if the speedo is still jerky then it'll be the cable at fault, if you check in the bay make sure its not cracked, if it is cut away all the damaged sections and clean out oay crud from the slits. give it a spray in the damaged sections with silicone spray and hopefully after a few miles it'll smooth out. once happy clean up the damaged sections of cable then cover in duct tape or similar to seal the cable up and prevent any further dirt getting into it.

if the above doesnt help change the cable, be sure to take care when removing from the box not to catch the gear on the lip, you dont want it to fall in the box! then pull the gear off and then the retaining circlip, give the new cable a spray of silicone lube down both ends and swap the circlip and gear over.

thats a good suggestion to check the whole thing if it works first, i hadnt thought of that actually.

But regarding the jerkiness of the speedo needle in general, I previously did a lot of research on that and I think it is more likely to be the following problem. Some of the speedo cables have a red cog or a clear/white plastic cog where it enters the gearbox. One of these cogs is 15 teeth and the other is 16teeth. The jerkiness is supposedly because the wrong cog is in place and its slipping as it rotates, causing the needle to jump up and down. Ive bought both replacement cogs but my garage isnt brave enough to replace it for fear of dropping the cog down inside the gearbox. Ho Hum.

hmm i dont think the wrong cog causes jerkyness, just incorrect speedo reading. but if you post up the gearbox code in your car we can check what gear it should have

its on the bottom of the bellhousing, 2 or 3 digits followed by a number. eg, 7G, ACD, AUG, 9A etc then xxxxx which is the build date. we only need the box code

Guys Im really getting depressed by this whole situation.

Everything is becoming a struggle to finish this job and its getting me down, i'd really appreciate as much help as possible so i can be rid of this job. Im sure some of you have felt like this before yourselves.

Here's pictures of the broken original unit and the replacement unit. Everything works in the orig unit except the speedo. The new unit also works fine i expect however due to some reason the petrol and oil temp guages did not work when i did a try earlier today.

The circuit board numbering is slightly different. Is this a problem?
I dont know what some of the things are, but Ive numbered them. Perhaps in any answers if you reference the number it will be faster/easier for you to reply

My 2 main questions are, should I,
A) Take the speedo part from the new unit, adjust the mileage and put in the old unit and run that or
B) Adjust the mileage on the new unit and put it in?

The other question is How do I adjust the mileage????
Alternatively, anyone near Amersham in Bucks, i'll happily pay £100 to sort this out for me.

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ORIGINAL UNIT IMAGE

What I would do is removed the speedometer and digital screen from the new unit, and install them into the old unit. 

The circuit boards are obviously different,  but where is the question! 
Follow the tracks from the malfunctioning gauges,  see if they go to the same position on the multi plug with the old and new. 

I would happily help you out, but unfortunately I am in Cornwall! 

1. is the voltage regulator, this is the reason the coolant and fuel gauges aren't working. if you swap the old one over they will probably start working

2 is the plug for the MFA wiring, this isnt present on non-GTI clocks

3 is the speed sensor for the MFA, this isnt present on non-gti clocks

you have VDO and Motormeter clocks there, so certain things such as the pcb and some internal components wont be compatible.

the speedo will swap over, but looking at the position of the snapped needle im not sure the unit is servicable. once the needle is off it should be pointing below the stop. but to remove the needle, check this thread:
http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=electrics_2%2Fspeedo-needle-removal

then once the needle is off you can remove the dial face and get to the screw you pointed out (though you dont actually need to touch it!)

for silage adjustment its pretty simple, no need to even split the clocks. I'll pm you though