# MK3 stepper motor replacement.



## Cmethvin (Jul 3, 2011)

Hey guy's (and gal's) of Vortex! Just figured I'd write a little DIY walk-through on my adventure in stepper motor replacement. The main reason I went through all this was because I wanted to keep my odometer the same, instead of having almost 40k more miles show than what I actually have (my car has 78K on it, the donor cluster had 113K or something to that extent, and was for an automatic.)

Start by getting either a working stepper motor or a working instrument cluster from the fine folks in the classified section, ebay, craigslist, P&P yards, etc. Now make sure you have alan torque drivers, phillips screw driver, flat screw driver, soldering iron (and remover bulb/apparatus etc) and a bit of patience. I went through this whole process in approximately a week and a half, just due to work, family, help, etc. 


This is what the motor actually looks like. 












First, go here (http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?3798520-mk3-gauge-cluster-removal-walkthru).

Done with that? Good, let's get started.

Turn the cluster over, and get a T10 Torque driver, and remove the 8 torque screws around the back side of the cluster. Be sure to put them somewhere where they won't get lost... They tend to roll alot 












Once the screws are out, there are 2 clips by the connector ports:











The front and the back separate, and there's a nice little breadboard in the middle, with the dials. A breadboard sandwitch (at least there's bread!)












Once you got the whole unit apart, there are 4 screws behind and under each dial on the back. Take the T9 torque screw and remove each of them.











Also, there are 2 tiny silver screws behind each of the motors. Take a T6 torq and remove them.











Now take note of the dials position (speed and tach) and remove them, this will make things a bit easier. I didn't take pic's of this, due to my neighbor being the one who did it for me. Go head and pull off the cluster dials (the only thing really holding them in place now is the temp gauge and the fuel gague, but there are no screws or solder points holding them on.)












Now comes for the soldering. Use the solder removal tool of you choice to get all the solder away from the points behind the motor. 














Go head and replace the motor with you're new one. Don't forget to re-solder the back of it. 

The dial plate should slip back into position relatively easily, and just put the dials for the tach and speed back on (remembering where they were positioned before).











Now just reverse the process, and plug it back into the dash.











I had to take it apart a few times, because I did not take note of the position of the dials! Thankfully, with the help of BSD and my mother's GPS unit, I got it right on the 3rd try :smiley:


First try (was definitely doing more than 35!):










With GPS (3rd try):




















Just wanted to say thanks for BSD for the donor cluster and dials. It works great. :snowcool:


If there's anything I did wrong, or something I miss, (which I'm certain I did) remember, I'm no professional, just a guy who wanted to save a few bucks!


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