Re: VW Rabbit "wisdom of experiance" lesson

["Joe Smalley" <joes@worldfront.com>]

There is another way.

I found out today coming back from eastern Washington in my Jetta when my
speedometer was SCREAMING at me over 20 mph for lack of lubrication. If you
do everything the manual says, all you need to do is reach in back of the
speedometer and press the dot on the end of the lever on the coupler while
pulling gently on the instrument cluster. You have to pull it that half inch
so that you can get your fingers on the dot. It won't work unless the
cluster is loose.

I tried to get the center of the speedometer cable out to lubricate it, but,
apparently it is swedged on both ends and the inner part does not come out.
I got a little impatient in the freezing rain so I took the cable loose from
the tranny and fed it up into the cockpit about 18 inches and dribbled about
a teaspoon of 20W-50 in the upper end. I spun the bottom end of the cable
and the lubrication disappeared into the cable housing. It took 5 seconds to
put the end back on the speedometer and about 20 minutes to get the darned
gear back into the tranny so the seal fit properly.

By butt and kidney area still stings from the cold wind and rain .

If you ever take the cable or dash out, lubricate the cable so it won't
scream at you later.

Joe Smalley
Rural Kitsap County WA
Fiesta 48 volts
NEDRA 48 volt street conversion record holder
joes@worldfront.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul G <neong@gte.net>
To: ev@listproc.sjsu.edu <ev@listproc.sjsu.edu>
Date: Wednesday, December 29, 1999 7:51 PM
Subject: VW Rabbit "wisdom of experiance" lesson


>I know that there are many VW Rabbit conversion owners on this list. I know
>that the Robert Bently manual is generally the "god" of how to work for
>many (and generally its good). I would like to point out an error, to avoid
>an hour of trouble and a new unneeded part.
>
>Basicly, the manual says that to remove the dash you take off the lower
>knee bars and the gauge face panel. The you remove the gauges and
>disconnect the speedo cable and wire bundle and pull it free (I got into
>this because I wanted to remove the dash cover for a real paint job).
>Anyway, thats not quite the story. You need to remove the speedo cable from
>the tranny first!! If you do not do so the cluster will only pull about 1/2
>inch toward you without damage, and about 1 inch by damaging the speedo
>cable. Now I will be buying a new speedo cable to finish. I knew something
>was in the way, so I gripped all my fingers around the cluster and pulled
>extra hard so I could see some effect (but not so hard as to damage the
>cluster). I found the effect, the speedo cable needs to be removed from the
>tranny first (unlike indcated in the Robert Bently manual). But it was too
>late for my speedo cable, my pulling and seeing what moved kinked it at the
>speedo head a bit (and to re-use it would mean click, click, click when
>moving).
>
>Just a heads up on this common conversion!
>
>Neon - VW Pickup EV in progress
>
>