(tech) More odometer questions... (Tips)

[roccit_53 at hotmail.com (C Boyko)]

Writing from my new address. Anyway, mine too was the metal gear.
And it was lights, not LEDs that I replaced.

Tips? Well, it went easily and without incident for me (yeah, right...) I 
was lucky, I had a spare cluster to practice with, so I've actually done 
everything at least twice. I figure a 260 km/ MFA cluster is a bit harder to 
replace than a plain jane Jetta one.

As for getting it out of the dash, I tried the wiggle/rotate/reposition 
method, but ended up removing the metal brace in behind the headlight switch 
to get more space, three phillips screws I can deal with.


Before you do it, I'd remove the steering wheel, it's not so tough, and you 
need to get a marker to mark its position before you yank it off the 
splines. Oh. and disconnect the battery.


And for Pete's sakes, treat the guage needles like glass, they are super 
brittle, I didn't break any but have seen the son break a few. Just don't 
touch the white part, pry evenly under the black hub from both sides.

I somehow managed to put the bulbs in wrong, the original ones (wording 
carefully chosen) had the leads on the outside of the little metal clips, 
like you'd do twinkle lights, so I did that, and only one lit up. No 
problem, I tipped the cluster down, put the offender in correctly, and lo 
and behold, the one that had been working now wasn't, so I tried to repeat 
it, and managed to drop the bulb down inside the cluster, so I had to remove 
and dissassemble it all over again. This was especially interesting since I 
had minor cosmetic surgery on my back immediately proir to the second 
installation. If you've done this, you know the gymnastics involved. (Larry, 
stop fantasizing...)

But it's all good, turned over 300 000 kms on the way to Waterfest, and got 
about 30 miles to the gallon (US), except for the tank with the quarter 
miles on it, that knocked it down to 25 mpg, still better than most of the 
stuff on the road.

Oh, another thing that can get screwed up is the buttons on the clock, 
there's a piece of plastic on the edge orf the speedo part that can stop you 
from setting the time if it jams into the wee pins to set the clock, that's 
how mine was before the repair. It works now.

That's my tips. If I can do it, again, anyone can. Heck, I didn't even break 
anything. I put about 800 miles (1280 kms?) on the cluster since I did it 
Thursday night, so I think it's good enough!
Cathy

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