Hi!

I went to a junkyard and said that I wanted a tachometer for my 80' 242DL.
He then gave me the entire speedo with the tach, as he didnt bother to dis-assemble it.

When I then came home and dis-assembled the dashboard, I noticed that the two speedo's where different.
The one I got from the junkyard was "VDO", while the original(?) was "Yakazuka".
I tried retrofitting the tach from the VDO into the Yakazuka speedo, but it doesent fit. I noticed that the light sockets are also different.
Also the VDO speedo doesent fit the "clamp" thingie on the speedo wire.

So.. Can I break off the clamp thingie? Or wont it hold itself in the speedo?

I really want to use the VDO instead, as the colors on the speedo are much nicer. It has more quality everywhere.

Also; Does anyone know where the tach wire is? I saw it went from the coil and into the torpedo wall.. Is it in one of the plugs on the speedo? I looked in the haynes manual, with no luck. I would prefer not re-wiring anoth
r wire unless needed.

Whaddaya know.. I decided to replace the speedo before class today with one that has a working odometer. Got everything more or less hooked up, except I was left wondering which wire was for the tach.

My trusty Volvo Wiring manual didn't help either. On the Bosch ignition cars, the tach wire is a red/white wire.

As far as VDO vs Yakazuka, the clusters can probably be swapped with no real pain, but the wiring hookups look completely different on the back, and the Yakazuka one looks like it lacks the big metal plate on the back of the speedo. The connectors on the back of the clusters are in different places, but look like they're the same style. So you can just swap the entire cluster over, but not gauges between the clusters.

If you really like the VDO speedos, go to the junk yard yourself and pull an entire VDO cluster (they're usually about $20). Make sure the numbers on the bottom of the new speedometer match the numbers on the bottom of yours.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo VDO speedo.

On my '81 the tach wire from the low side of the coil is white with a red strip. It's in the harness under the dash with just a single plastic connector on the end. Also, my speedo cable thingie is broke but the stiffness of the cable keeps it in the speedo.