[T3] Type 3 speedos

Jim Adney jadney at vwtype3.org
Sun Jul 1 18:12:49 PDT 2012


After Bobnotch's Type 34 speedo died on the way to Co. Springs, 
someone gave him a Beetle speedo of the same vintage in the hope that 
parts from it could be used to repair Wolfie's speedo. The input 
shaft from that Beetle speedo turned out to be a perfect replacement, 
but I was surprised to find that it was quite different from the ones 
from '71 and later that I usually deal with.

Today, while trying to clean things up around here a bit, I parted 
out a '70 speedo and found that it also had the same early style of 
input shaft. This was a very late '70, actually dated 9/70, but it 
didn't have the trip odometer, so it was actually a '70 and not a 
'71, in spite of the date.

In the process of saving what I could out of it, I discovered that it 
had some features that were different from the '71 and later versions 
that I often repair. I'd never been asked to repair one of the early 
ones and now I know why: They are much better made than the later 
ones. When VDO added the trip odometer in '71 they also cheapened up 
part of the odometer drive. The result of this is that the late 
design often fails and I get to fix it. If VDO had stuck with the 
heavier duty part the later odometers would never fail. 

I had always assumed that the design I was used to seeing had been in 
use for a long time. Turns out that it was just a cheapening of the 
product introduced in '71.

That's sort of a disappointment, but at least I have a good way to 
fix them.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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