Speedo Rebuild

I'm looking at rebuilding my speedo. Well I'm really just wanting to clear the dust out, put the green, turn signal lens back in place and just give it an over all cleaning. Has anyone done it? Can it be done? Easy / hard?

It is pretty easy Scott. I did this a couple of years ago, but I never could figure out how to reset the odometer back to "0". I ended up spinning it with a dremel tool. That took forever. I used the tabs from a filing cabinet folder for the green lens expect I used green and red.

That is very nice. Thanks a million Steve. I was wondering what I could use for a lens.

Take 2000 grit sandpaper to the back of the file folder you are using for a lens that way you can't see the light bulb through it. You can also paint the inside of the rear housing white to brighten up the speedometer You can use white led's for a back light, get them at Advance Auto. I have a white baja
with green accent lighting so I used green led's as a back light. It looks great.

sapp67 wrote:It is pretty easy Scott. I did this a couple of years ago, but I never could figure out how to reset the odometer back to "0". I ended up spinning it with a dremel tool. That took forever. I used the tabs from a filing cabinet folder for the green lens expect I used green and red.

Not sure if that style speedo is the same as mine (74 super), but if it is, when you take the back metal part off, exposing the inner mechanism, you will see a small plastic gear comming off the shaft where the number rollers go. all i did was take that gear off (just slides off, cause its just held on the shaft with friction), and was then able to carefully take a screw driver in between the 10,000 and 1,000 roller, and slowly pry it apart just enough, to get a small gap in between the gears, and roll the 10,000 gear to 0, and then the same between the 1,000 and 100. then from there, i just rolled the 0.1 with my finger to 0 out the 100, 10, 1, and 0.1 to zero. you'll be able to freely roll the 0.1 roller with your finger once you take the small plastic gear off.

The only other way i can see to reset the counter (i just happen to have a speedo taken apart in my hand, lol), is to unscrew the face plate, and bend the whole stamped metal part open till the shafts come out. basically the part holding the rollers and other stuff, is pretty much a piece of sheet metal bend into the shape of a U, and the shafts go thru each side of the U., so the only other way i see, is to bend the U shaped metal open, switch the rollers to 0, and then bend it back, but i wouldn't do that personally (i guess thats chickenshitness on my part ).

thats awsome i was just looking for someting on speedo rebuilding...

pwmcguire wrote:Take 2000 grit sandpaper to the back of the file folder you are using for a lens that way you can't see the light bulb through it. You can also paint the inside of the rear housing white to brighten up the speedometer You can use white led's for a back light, get them at Auto Zone. I have a white baja
with green accent lighting so I used green led's as a back light. It looks great.

what kind of led's did you use?

Bugman114 wrote:
The only other way i can see to reset the counter (i just happen to have a speedo taken apart in my hand, lol), is to unscrew the face plate, and bend the whole stamped metal part open till the shafts come out. basically the part holding the rollers and other stuff, is pretty much a piece of sheet metal bend into the shape of a U, and the shafts go thru each side of the U., so the only other way i see, is to bend the U shaped metal open, switch the rollers to 0, and then bend it back, but i wouldn't do that personally (i guess thats chickenshitness on my part ).

Not sure about the later speedos, but on the early ones, you just pull this pin out and the numbers will roll.
Here is a pic Glutamodo posted on the samba. He also did a very good write-up on rebuilding one here.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3401360#3401360

Thanks for the link Eric. I know what I'll be doing today.

No problem Joe. I ruined two speedo's before finding that link

59suicide wrote:thats awsome i was just looking for someting on speedo rebuilding...

pwmcguire wrote:Take 2000 grit sandpaper to the back of the file folder you are using for a lens that way you can't see the light bulb through it. You can also paint the inside of the rear housing white to brighten up the speedometer You can use white led's for a back light, get them at Auto Zone. I have a white baja
with green accent lighting so I used green led's as a back light. It looks great.

what kind of led's did you use?

I edited my post. I picked them up at advance auto parts, not auto zone, they are 4 in a pack. They are set up for 12 volts already. I know they have white, but I made my green leds. I used my light holder for the vw backlight. I took it all apart. I cut a soft foam ear plug in half and put a hole in it. I put the leads through the ear plug and rolled the ear plug and pushed it into the body of the light holder. I drilled a hole in the black disc where the original electrical connection big enough for the wire leads to come through, put the disc back in the body. Ground one lead and put power to the other. you can also purchase led bulbs that fit the holders but I was not impressed at all with them. They did not work on my 73 beetle's oil and generator light. I think voltage has to be able to flow in both directions and it can't with an led. I have a full set of bulbs if anyone is interested.

Here is the dash

Here is my engine

White led in

This is my green led

This is the holder seperated

A picture of my speedometer, non led oil and gen light,
they are bright enough. The red and green gels are sanded file folder tabs

Leds in my wheel well

Led inserted through the ear plug. Cut the ear plug in half

fluxcap wrote:
Not sure about the later speedos, but on the early ones, you just pull this pin out and the numbers will roll.
Here is a pic Glutamodo posted on the samba. He also did a very good write-up on rebuilding one here.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3401360#3401360

This applies to every mechanical speedo ever made by VDO (and probably other brands too), even ones that aren't VW.

I really like the green led