[Bulti]

It's a wonderful place where you can buy cars from the Volkswagen-Audi Group. Don't know over in the States, but here they like to put more than one brand under the same roof, not always, but a lot of the times.

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[AJG]

The three connecters on the back have to be handled reasonably carefully. The two levers that operate the disconnect have a dimple sitting into the connecter body. You need to pull the levers slightly forward before swinging them outwards away from one another. If a lever is broken off then use a flat blade screwdriver to move what remains of it. The speedo can be released after the four screws on the inside of the (whiteish) plastic rear cover which has a plastic pcb over it are removed. Gently pry away the speedo, loosen the wires for the motor from a flat cable then locate and undo the screws holding the motor and prise it away far enough to remove the gears which will then be visible underneath the motor. Change them out and re assemble. The old gear if its blue coloured is 16 teeth. Cheers.



Andy

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[HeroOfSpielburg]

[quote name='tryan' timestamp='1410108566' post='161991']

break my window, merc, VW, etc.....

[/quote]



Ok, I didn't even get this first slang joke. But thanks guys for the tip about checking the contacts. I planned to hit that with some nail polish remover, but since it sounds like a pain in the butt to get back there, might as well have 3 $2 bulbs ready to swap out just in case. It's getting dark in Sweden early, and these lights being out is going to get tougher and tougher in the land of eternal midnight.

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[flash]

do NOT use nail polish remover!!! that is acetone and will melt any plastic it touches.

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[Bulti]

...or buy the non-acetone kind.

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[Lear35A]

or buy proper electrical contact cleaner. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/laugh.png" class="smilie" alt="" />

and I'm guessing (again only a BSChemE here) that unless applied at a very high temperature the nail polish remover would not melt the plastic. However, I'll bet it would dissolve some plastics. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/laugh.png" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[flash]

lol - ok - maybe semantics there. smear it on and the plastic becomes soft and pliable. what is that? to me, it's melting when a solid become more liquid. if you want to test it and really see how it screws up plastic, smear some on your plastic gauge face and see how quickly you get pissed off. i first learned about this when i was a kid. later i made the mistake of using goof-off (also acetone based) and had the same result.



as for the contacts and such, use contact cleaner. it does what it is supposed to do, without leaving anything behind or ruining anything.

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[Bulti]

FWIW, I use this one...

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[HeroOfSpielburg]

Ok, thanks guys! You're right. I have some experience using nail polish remover to clean heat CPU adhesive on motherboards... not exactly the same thing. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.png" class="smilie" alt="" /> Contact spray, check! I assume the point is isopropyl alcohol in a mostly water solution.

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[flash]

i don't know that it's mostly water. it sure evaporates quickly, and is pretty non-conductive



this is the one i use, and i don't any water in it at all



http://www.crcindustries.com/faxdocs/msds/2016.pdf

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[HeroOfSpielburg]

It took about a month to get the proper time and work conditions, but with some local help I got the lighting working again. A previous owner hadn't done his homework and had installed 5 watt blue bulbs. Nothing was blown and going back to Osram/Sylvania 3.3 watts brought the lighting back. I guess the blue ones wanted more current than was provided so were effectively just closing the circuit without any illumination effect.



I'm glad nothing else was broken. While I was in there I used speciality contact cleaner on all the connectors to the cluster.



Thanks to all who helped resolve this.

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[sstman]

VAG =Volkswagen Audi Group

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