1987 jetta gl speedometer / odometer not working

[parallel]

hi there, i have a 1987 vw jetta gl in which the speedometer / odometer stopped working about 3 weeks ago. i took apart the dash and noticed the electrical plug that plugs into the dash portion of the speedometer / odometer was disconnected, so i firmly connected it again. this did not solve the problem. i had my mechanic friend pull the cable that connects into the drive terrain and he said the piece of plastic that spins is worn down enough that it's not catching on the other piece of plastic it needs to. he hooked it up to his drill and turned it and sure enough the speedometer worked, however the odometer (total, and trip) still did not work. we have ordered the new plastic piece however we are still not sure why the odometer was not working when he spun the piece with his drill. it appears the speedometer / odometer are directly related so should both not be working when we spin the drill? when we spun the piece the speedometer was just over 80km/hour and we let it spin for a few minutes with neither the total or trip odometer moving. i tried pushing the reset button for the trip odometer and that didn't do anything.. does anyone have any thoughts on this? sorry for my bad mechanic language as obviously i'm just picking this up! thanks for the help.

[buck88]

i have the same problem on my 86, but only the odometer is not working, i have no idea what would be wrong though

[parallel]

i found this link via google, it looks as though it's what we need:

http://mysite.verizon.net/janvdb/vw/Body/speedo_fix.txt

i managed to get my speedometer working, now on to the odometer! wish me luck.