Mine does the same thing...

one of the gears are chipped / missing a tooth within the speedo mechanism.

apparently [?] pushing the odometer reset while the car is moving will cause
this...

tom

        ----------
        From:   Vanagon Mailing List on behalf of Holmes, John
        Reply To:       Holmes, John
        Sent:   Tuesday, April 20, 2004 3:52 PM
        To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
        Subject:        Wacky speedo...

        Speaking of speedo's...

        My '87 speedo at times acts funny. Sometimes when I start driving it
doesn't register at all, then wham, it pops up and begins working. Once it
kicks in it works fine for the duration of the drive. It only does this
about 25% of the time....something loose somewhere?

        Thanks, John in Omaha

        -----Original Message-----
        From: Malcolm Stebbins [mailto:mwstebbins@YAHOO.COM] 
        Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 12:48 PM
        To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
        Subject: Re: Need a speedometer rebuilt....who does this?

        Try:  http://www.speedometer.com/  They fixed my
        speedo.  M

        --- Vanagon Man <vgonman@MSN.COM> wrote:

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