are they the same, no.
can one be used, yes......

provided, the speedometer is from a 2WD vanagon, not a syncro
and ......it has the same type of connection at the back of the speedo.

82 diesel vanagons, and all vanagons after that, as far as I know,  have a
clip type speedo cable connection at the back of the speedo.
I would expect an 81 air-cooled vanagon to have the older screw type speedo
cable connection probably.

the shift point marks on various speedometers would be different, say diesel
compared to waterboxer, of course.
82 and 83 DV speedo's read to 85 mph.
I think the 83 waterboxer does too,
and for sure the 84 wbxr speedo reads to 100 mph, and can be used where an
85 mph speedo was.

also, an 81 air-cooled vanagons speedometer doesn't have a trip odometer,
just the main odo with 10ths added, I believe.

I have a box of speedometers and speedometer parts in case someone needs
some little part, or a rebuildable core,
and I might have  a good used one or two not  assigned to a project vanagon.

Scott
www.turbuvans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "BenT Syncro" <syncro@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: do diesel vanagons use the same speedometer as wbx vans??

> On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 8:36 PM, <JordanVw@aol.com> wrote:
>
>> does the US models '81-'82 diesel vanagon use the same speedometer as the
>> waterboxer vanagon?
>>
>
>
> My guess is yes. I installed a WBX cluster in my old 82 Diesel and it
> worked. Can't remember what year WBX cluster it weas though. It's been
> over
> 7-8 years ago.
>
> Except speedo on stock diesel has a peg that stops the van from exceeding
> 50mph.
>
> =)
>
>
> --
> BenT