Odometer gear replacement

Hello, took my instrument panel apart today to work out why my odometer wasn't working. Turns out the tricky red gear had fallen off the shaft, on closer look it's got a crack in it and is missing a tooth.

So pretty sure even with glue it's not gonna work as expected. Anyone know where I can get an identical gear, or at least very similar to replace it with?

I have the very same issue, I would like some guidance as well.

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Well you will find out that you need to count the teeth on the gear, then go to a place like Odometer Gears - Volkswagen - Mechanical Speedometer

To get the correct gear then you have to take the sace plate off probably.  

The needle will have to be removed, and you pry it off equally on both sides of the shaft, the needle is very small and the needle is about 1/2 inch wide and you pry it from the middle up.

Going back you place the needle on the pin on the back side of the stop then move it over the stop. If you place the needle on the speed side of the stop you will be about 10MPH off.

Briano1234 said

Well you will find out that you need to count the teeth on the gear, then go to a place like Odometer Gears - Volkswagen - Mechanical Speedometer

To get the correct gear then you have to take the sace plate off probably.  

The needle will have to be removed, and you pry it off equally on both sides of the shaft, the needle is very small and the needle is about 1/2 inch wide and you pry it from the middle up.

Going back you place the needle on the pin on the back side of the stop then move it over the stop. If you place the needle on the speed side of the stop you will be about 10MPH off.

Oof $25 for a gear plus shipping? That's ridiculously high

Decided I didn't fancy paying for a small plastic gear, so spent the weekend designing and 3d printing one. It's pretty close to the original, and it works - now just to see how long it lasts!

Nice Job looks good.

A tip, use a small drop of Super glue to affix it to the shaft.

Never push the trip button when the car is in motion.

Really! , I have been doing that all the time, particularly when leaving a garage after a refill. Not just the Mk1, all my cars since I started driving 60 years ago. You learn something new everyday.

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I did it Once,, on a 2005 Ford Crown Vic police interceptor…. the gear was 45 USD, took almost a day to change it… most of the dash had to come out.

I too for many a year on my British Leylands pushed it when ever, and a couple of toyotas too, but after the crown vic never again.

The MotoMeter speedo is more robust, and I have gotten away with it, but I have heard too many stories about folks doing it on the VDO and well it didn't go well.

Motometer metal gear.


VDO and the plastic

So looking at your VDO picture, which is the gear that fails, is it the red one?
My dash has a VDO dash, I have a spare which I believe is motometer. Are the gears interchangeable?

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Just realised what I said. Maybe it's not the red one.
My fault is that the speedo is working, but the mileometer is not working, not counting the mileage. The trip reset is reading zero.
Thinking about it now maybe it is the red one and there is nothing wrong with the trip.

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Yes the red gear is the issue, it can loose teeth or get loose on the shaft.  The motometer isn't compatible.

The red gear drives both.

Very informative, thanks.

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OK, having googled like mad at this site an on youtube I had a go at my speedo odometer not counting mileage over the last couple of days.

I did not realise that the spare cluster I had was a VDO variant with a 1540 speedo, not a motometer.

Before addressing the speedo in the Golf I decided to have a look at the spare cluster to educate myself on how it worked. I discovered that the odometer was functional but the mileage shown was 58K which is less than the  70+K of my own.

So I carried out rubjonnys' solution of using implements to separate the gears from the individual numbers :

View topic: How do I reset my odometer (mileage) - The Mk1 Golf Owners Club

I felt that I have to remove the needle and dial to see what I was doing.  Removing the needle is precarious at it flies off at a great rate of knots. I used cardboard to protect the dial and two screwdrivers either side to remove it.

This did work, but it is a also precarious trying to line the gears up on each numbered wheel to change the mileage, particularly the left 100K wheel and the right single number wheel.

If the little gearwheel bar remains bent, the numbers do not sit parallel to each other when displayed.

As my own car odometer failed before my last MOT in Jul 2021, my odometer was still reading 70675 miles at that MOT.

I decided at add a few hundred to reflect the use of the car only having driven the 65 miles relocating from Hampshire to West Sussex plus a few runs around Worthing / Angmering.



So to the defective speedo,

I dismantled the cluster removing the screws for the speedo and centre display. You have to carefully remove the printed circuit nuts and washers and instrument lights to get at the speedo. I removed the whole lot to give the cluster a good clean .



On removal of the speedo from the dash cluster I removed the long white gear connecting the speedo input to the odometer.



I discovered that the red wheel was still gripping the shaft but the grey metal wheel was spinning.

There was some evidence that the red wheel might have been repaired before or was of a different type as there was no hole all the way through the gear for the shaft like the spare speedo. Also the red wheel did not line up very well with long white gear. See the difference between each speedo.

Spare speedo:



The defective speedo:



So I followed the following procedure shown on Youtube. Though for a mk2 odometer repair the principal is the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBcN6dXjtw.

You have to remove the Grey Metal Wheel and hit it with a hammer and punch to make the hole smaller to grip the shaft.



On assembly, I cleaned /de-greased the shaft / gear contact surfaces and used some super-glue on the red gear.

Well it has all worked to the stage shown in the video. With the white long gear out, you can spin the red wheel and  the dial readings count up or back as required.

Fitting the needle the position is in line with the white mark below the bottom stop. When done the needle is lifted over the stop to rest on it.



I now have two working speedos. I wanted to fit my original speedo that came with the Golf.

The second speedo needle was a disgusting yellowing colour and wouldn't match the rev counter.

I have fully assembled the dash console, I have yet to fit it in the car.



Hope this helps those in a similar situation.

Great write up Malcolm, I'm sure it will help a lot of people.  

Just a footnote to my previous entry.

Finally installed the the repaired speedo into my car.

It worked! ………………………………… for 2.7 miles only.

On investigation, took it all out again!, the red gear had fallen off despite using super glue to fit it.

The issue was that there wasn't enough shaft in the red gear. Looking at the grey gear, the shaft was too much through it and its case side support.  

So a re-jig of the shaft knocking it back a little bit through the grey gear and again using super glue for the red gear.

The speedo has been refitted and at least a 100 miles done it working, just in time for MOT next month.

I recently picked up a MK1 Caddy and also have this issue!

It supposedly was working before I picked it up but no longer does!

I have watched that video but this write up will help me massively as well.

Am I right it saying the smaller gear just does the speed and the metal gear is the one for the mileage? But does the smaller gear effect the speedo needle as it shakes/rattles a lot or is that normal?

Also any tips on getting the cluster out the dash?

Thanks