TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:20 pm

Hey everyone,

This is a pretty cool site, tons of info.

Anyway, I just bought an 85 vanagon 1.9 water cooled.

My one side of dasboard controls come on once in a blue moon. And is off pretty much all the time.

Its the control with the Tach,Coolant Temp and Gas Gauge. Does anyone know why??

The guy I bought it off of, had said that it was a poorly designed chip board that goes down in the heat. He said it will rarely go down when it 's cold out.

So does any one know a solution for this.

I appreciate any input.

Thanks

Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:26 pm

My tach does this sometimes. If I wack the top of the instrument cover with my hand, it comes back on.

Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:54 pm

The flexible printed circuit board is notorious. Do a search, lots of good info.

It could be something as simple as the edge connector to the gauge assembly being loose or otherwise messed up. It's easy to dissemble and have a look. Beware- anything made of plastic is old, dry, and very fragile.

Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:12 am

Try the voltge stabilizer- Check Van-Cafe.

Located in instrument panel - shared by both gas gauge and temperature gauge -this part is usually the culprit when both of those gauges malfunction simultaneously.

Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:11 pm

Yeah, but the voltage stabilizer has nothing to do with the tachometer. Having just had to wire up my tach direct to the pins (only 3 of the 4 pins are used), because of shorts in the blue plastic foil, I can confirm this.

Check your Bentley manual, there is a test for this. Bentley says to use the VW 1301 tool, but nobody has these things anymore. Use a resistance decade box, or rig up your own test tool by soldering resistors together to get the appropriate number of ohms. Plug in your resistance tester to the correct wire colours (as spec'd by Bentley), and you should see your gauges move to the positions set out in Bentley.

I posted the correct ohms (corresponding to the VW 1301 tool settings in Bentley) in this thread.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=157046

Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:55 pm

Hey thanks for chiming in folks.

Sounds like good advice.

I may not get a chance to work on that issue just yet.

I 've got all my tune parts ready, so I can take her on a trip to Montreal this weekend.

Thanks,

Hank :D