I'm still not ruling it out, but as long as I've got the case opened up, I'm curious to see what's going on in there.
This seems to be a very common problem - 20 years ago the VDO factory put some lube that reacts over time on the plastic gear on the reset mechanism. It works fine until that gear simply dissolves and renders the odometer useless until replaced. '
If I get in there and see that's the case, I'll proceed. Otherwise, I'll send it to NH myself.
The gear was $25 from
www.odometergears.com