Pete, I wish I knew why I have had to replace this part twice.  It is 
your voltage stabilizer, sometimes refered to as a vibrator which has 
gone bad.  It is a small black rectangle with 3 leads sticking out of one 
end.  You can see illustrations of it in both Haynes and Bentley.  Remove 
the instument panel cover, unsnap all the switches and disconnect the 
speedo.  Lift out as unit, stabilizer on back.  Carefully bend the leads 
of the new stabilizer w/needlenose.  I paid $7.25 for the part.  This is 
a good time to clean the gauges and clear plastic covers.
You could use your odometer for the gas, but that temp gauge is pretty    
important.  For the price, I would buy a new part.  Its too much trouble 
to do again if a scavenged one goes out early.

Charles
'83.5 Westy

On Mon, 5 May 1997, Peter 
Eaton wrote:

> ..at the same moment, for second time in two years.  The last time, I lived 
> with it for the winter, but I don't want to try it going into the summer.  
> Anyway, when I had it fixed, the mechanic said all he did was put in a used 
> relay/whatever/thing that just plug in behind the fuse panel.  Along with 
> working gauges, the van also had a new sound when the door was open with the 
> key in the ignition (sounded like my 88 Jetta used to: an up-and-down tone 
> thing).  I'm wondering if anyone knows whether or not I can just scavenge a 
> replacement from wrecked Jetta or Golf, or whether this item is specific to the 
> Van.  Or is this one of those VW electrical voodoo things where replacing one 
> thing brought something totally unrelated back to life?
> 
> Or should I pretend that I'm in my 73 Thing and just watch the odometer between 
> fill-ups?
> 
> Pete
> 84 GL "The Land Ark"
>