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Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:03 pm

After Art success with the tach install, I got motivated. I took a POS '85 binacle(new word this week, thanks SAMBA!) and put in in my '84. Nada, with key off, fuel gauge went full and temp LED was sending Morse code.. Oh and no tach. All must be due to missing and mismatched wires. I like the "black smoke" approach.

Then, to test the binacle, I put it in my '85. Everything works as it should, but strangely, the temp reads lower. My '85 usually sits with the needle covering the LED. Now, it is just below the LED, where i've read that you hope it stays.

Should I trust it? Can I check both of them for accuracy?

Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:39 am

I say trust it.

Let the van warm up (idle) see where your cooling fan comes on.

Temp gauges are not all that super identical or accurate when it comes to testing one against another.

Sun Jun 05, 2005 9:03 pm

Well, after a trip to the local house of faith, it was happy hour, two dollar Sierra nevada's, I opened the Bentley.

Would you believe that ZERO out of fourteen wires are the same from '84 to ''85? Good news is that the way that the "T14" AMP connector is contructed, I can just open it up and switch all the wires around to where I want them. I'll need to add a wire from outback that carries the tach signal, its a green wire and goes in position 9.

I'm not going to woory too much about the lower reading h2o gauge, i'll just assume that i'm better off :wink:

Dan, I supose you are refering to the fan coming on at 185 or what ever temp switch I have? Thats easy enough to do.

Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:42 am

Yea, that, 185/195 whatever. 8)

Mon Jun 06, 2005 4:02 pm

I'm sorry, I had forgotten that little gem and have added it to the thread. Yes, I had to completely rearrange the terminals in the plug :oops:

Mike!

Tue Jun 07, 2005 5:38 pm

This may be relivent, maby not: The on my original instrument panel the temp only read just above the right line in the cold zone (drive it two weeks before change-out). I replaced the entire head with another of the same year, now it reads directly or just to the right of the LED all the time.(after warm-up of course)
In the last six weeks of ownership and 2.5k miles, I have yet to hear the fan come on, or see the gauge move much more than a fraction past the LED, and the hottest its been has been in the high 80's.