Mark Hubley

Yesterday a sticker fell out of my odometer into my instrument cluster. It is stuck on top of the speedometer needle. Soon I will want to remove the thing!

I know how to pull the cluster out of the car, but I have never tried to get inside. Before I pull the cluster, can someone clue me in on what I will need to do to get the clear plastic cover off? If it is simply a matter of a couple of screws, then I may try after work today. If it is much more complicated, then I'll wait until the weekend.

Thanks,

Mark

inactiveuser92616

its easy, phillips screwdriver is all you need. There are some octogon shaped philips head gold screws on the back of the cluster you have to remove.

schwank

That's pretty funny... the 944 I bought recently has a sticker that has fallen down right across the Odometer! I can only read the 100000's position and the 1's position. I need to od this exact same thing one of these days... I guess the life of VAG glue is about 20 years

You can kind of see it here:

Mark Hubley

I've pulled the cluster a few times recently to replace a light bulb and to do the 9xauto illumination repair kit (which worked quite well). So, I can pull the cluster and replace it in about ten minutes. Thanks to Pat's advice, I tried it after work today. Opening the cluster added only about five minutes to the total time. So, the job was completed in about fifteen minutes!

So, Schwank, find yourself a free half hour, and get it done! Have you ever done this before? If not, the trickiest part might be finding a socket of the right size and an extension to pull your steering wheel. Removing the wheel will make the rest of the job a lot easier. Give me an E-mail if you need any advice.

Cheers,

Mark

schwank

I hope to do it this weekend... I have a few new parts courtesy of Rennbay and hope to spend a few quality hours getting things on the car.

Also plan on doing the shift boot kit...in the same pic above you can see it's just worn out.

Maybe I'll order a new steering wheel this week and just leave that old wood Momo in the garage...

panzer grey

"do the 9xauto illumination repair kit "

I started to do the 9x repair but I wasn't wild about the idea of some mylar stuck over the original reflectors...and for only $80 bucks I could buy a whole new housing that would also give me the new plexi front to replace mine which showed scratch marks / wear from years of cleaning it.

...and I didn't have to mess with cutting little sections of mylar, gluing, or any of that.

Why is it that more owners don't simply replace the whole housing instead of doing the mylar 'patch'? The price? Doesn't seem that $80 is that much considering you also gain a perfect plexi face.

I'm thinking of doing the odometer gear replacement myself but many have said that it's too 'dangerous' for shadetree mechanics as the instrument cluster is $1500 to replace if you screw it up...my local Porsche mechanic said that he won't mess with them and that he sends them out to a speedo specialist.

I have all the instructions and the necessary parts, but should I attempt it myself?

Mark Hubley

I had no idea you could get the "housing" for $80. If I did, then I would have gone that route instead. Where did you get it from?

By the way, who is the nut who engineered that lighting system. Light bulbs in the back and tunnels to carry the light to the front. It seems completely retarded to me.

panzer grey

i got the housing from Auto Atlanta.

Price has gone up a bit since I purchased mine.

Part Number: G94464194101

http://www.autoatlanta.net/record_detail.lasso?-database=AAdatabase&-UserName='public'&-Password='public'&-layout=Items&-KeyField=__Record_ID__&PartNumber=G94464194101&-Session=ShopCart:440B437C076c61B421vil3242275&-Search

But still, at around $110 including shipping you get all NEW reflectors and an unscratched plexi front cover...and the installation of a new housing is MUCH simpler than the mylar patch-job.

CHEERS944

I didn't know you could get the whole thing either. My odo gear needed replacement & I did it by myself...being VERY careful with all the interior workings, but I am in no way a mechanic, so if I could do it......
"While I was in there" I also wanted to brighten the panel lights, so I took off the old, cracking silver stuff & taped on pieces of aluminum foil. The difference is amazing!

panzer grey

Here is a picture of what you get when you order a new housing-

http://www.944online.com/cgi-local/A...9442+body-9442

For me it was worth the price as the plexi covering over the instruments on my car was dulled and swirl-marked from years of cleaning it.

I figured I'd remedy the plexi and the reflectors all at once.

Aluminium foil, eh? Very industrious of you!

In my case it would have always bugged me to know that at patch job had been done on the reflectors even though no one would ever see them...but I'm doing a concours level restroration so my standards are a bit extreme...some would say obsessive.

In fact, sometimes doing an accurate restoration is more difficult than modding, albeit more restrictive and less expressive. There actually are decisions to be made- is replacing the water pump with the later upgraded pump a violation of the exercise? Does it make the car 'less' original?

It's undesireable to completely replace some parts as you don't want the car to be an obvious hodgepodge of old and new. Finding a paint shop that can use the original materials and methods is not easy. And anyone got an unused set of vintage Dunlop SP's circa 1985?