Thanks all :-)  I figured it was something like that - just didn't
know if it was terminal or not.  I usually don't have problems with
finger room - it's seeing the little parts thats become the issue for
me!

Dan
L.A. Ca
pre-Vanagon owner

On Apr 18, 2011, at 3:24 AM, Stephen Grisanti wrote:

> The failure is a "moving apart" of some of the moving parts.  One
> of the driven gears has a habit of slipping away from its driving
> gear.  Lots of info on fixing this available here and on some
> threads (with pictures) on thesamba.com.  It happened to the odo on
> my '87 Westy and after a couple of tries I was able to get it
> working again.
>
> The instrument cluster comes out and apart pretty easily.  The
> toughest part is the lack of finger room when actually working on
> the odo.
>
> Stephen
>
> --- On Mon, 4/18/11, Daniel Rotblatt <d.rotblatt@VERIZON.NET> wrote:
>
> From: Daniel Rotblatt <d.rotblatt@VERIZON.NET>
> Subject: Broken Odometer
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Date: Monday, April 18, 2011, 12:50 AM
>
> I'm looking at buying a westy.  Two out of four of the vans I am
> looking at (or going to look at) have broken odometers (1982-86
> vanagons), and a couple of others in that year range had broken
> odometers.  Obviously, there is some common part that fails in them.
> I was wondering what this was, and if it was an easy fix.
>
> Dan
> L.A., CA
> Soon to be a Westy owner