Notr sure what year the? van is but my 90 has problems with the spindle that rotates the numbers slipping out of place and stopping time (your van may like this idea). I have found that gluing a small round piece of plastic to the end of the spindle (from a Bic pen) fixes it for a while. Be very careful with those 4 screws as the plastic cover they hold on and the threads they go into are likely very brittle. This area of my odometer has almost completely disintegrated (little strips of duct tape hold 3 sides on). Good luck with you repair.
?
David Clarkson
90 Westy (284K)

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Sat, Jul 24, 2010 9:38 am
Subject: Re: Need info on dismantling speedometer

Don't know how far you intend to disassemble yours or for what reason, but I  
only needed to get to the gears so that I could fix the odometer.? Once I  
removed the needle and face I unscrewed the four screws that hold the clear  
plastic gear holder to the black plastic base and could pull it out just far  
enough (outward travel stopped by the spiral spring on its shaft) to gain access  
to the gears by a little additional persuasion.?  
? 
I never took apart the back part where the speedo cable enters the mechanism. 
? 
I had a link to some pix that I now can't find, but there are numerous helpful  
threads on Samba if you search "odometer." 
? 
Stephen 
 
--- On Fri, 7/23/10, BenT Syncro <syncro@GMAIL.COM> wrote: 
 
 
From: BenT Syncro <syncro@GMAIL.COM> 
Subject: Need info on dismantling speedometer 
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
Date: Friday, July 23, 2010, 10:35 PM 
 
 
Hi All, 
 
I'm trying to take apart a Vanagon speedometer. Need some advice before my 
experiment turns into an unmitigated disaster.The speedo is now out of the 
cluster. The needle and faceplate is off. Four screws and seven years ago... 
I mean, four screws taken out. Questions: 
 
1) What is holding it together? There's a brass fitting of some sort holding 
it on the pin for the needle. Looks scary to remove because getting the 
right tension will be a challenge. 
 
2) How is that white nylon tail piece attached? It's the part where the 
cable goes in. It looks like it might spin off because there are three slots 
for maybe a special tool? Or does it just pop off somehow. 
 
That's it for now. 
 
 
TIA, 
 
BenT