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Seeking A1 Rabbit speedometer tech

I have a 1982 Caddy with a 1.6 diesel/5 speed. The odometer gear is cracked. This weekend I pulled the instrument cluster from a Rabbit diesel. Not sure if it was an 81 or 82. The cluster was almost the same as mine. Both have the clock with the temp gauge and fuel gauge above and below it.

The junk yard cluster came from a 4 speed car, and the speedo reads fast, like 10 mph.

What are the differences in Rabbit speedos? Is it related to what trans they use? How can I make sure I get the right one from a JY? Can one that reads fast be reset? Any info would be helpful.

I plan to fix the gear on my old one, just wanted something to use in the meantime.

Thanks!

Reply to
Whole Lotta Tom
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Generally a local speedometer shop can fix that up for you. I don't believe it is cheap however.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Unlike most American cars where speedos were all calibrated the same, VW seems to use one drive gear for the speedo cable and all the calibration is done in the speedo head. What you need to do, if this really bothers you, is go back to the boneyard and find a speedo that has the same numbers printed on the face as the original one for your car. That code relates to the revs/mile or revs/KM of the speedo cable. (I think all American speedos are calibrated for 1000 revs/mile or something like that IIRC)

nate

Reply to
N8N

Thanks for the post, however I failed to inform you that I am a cheap bastard. ;-)

Reply to
Whole Lotta Tom

Ahh. Excellent info, something I can take with me. Thanks! If I fix the odometer gear on the original speedo, then life will be good. So far, I have not found anyone who makes a replacement. I understand that they frequently split. Thanks again.

Reply to
Whole Lotta Tom

why not use the odo gear from the boneyard speedo?

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Alas, it's cracked. Still working, but it's not much better than the split one. Since the problem seems to be shrinkage of the gear over time, I think I will just remove some material from the inside of the gear until it will fit on the shaft and secure the pieces with some JB Weld. Not a great solution, but it should work.

Reply to
Whole Lotta Tom

Get a cheap GPS?

Reply to
Tom's VR6

I know where I am, at least most of the time. But I would like to get some fairly accurate fuel mileage info before I run it on veg oil.

Reply to
Whole Lotta Tom

GPS will also display total distance and trip mileages as well as MPH or KPH if you like.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

I figured that already :-)

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Use a good quality plastic rated epoxy and clean the b-jesus out of the plastic with alcohol before you glue it. I have an 81 diesel rabbit that I did this to in 1992... it still works 13 years later.

Reply to
Dave

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