| atomatom |
Fri Sep 19, 2014 7:39 am |
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I replaced the crappy and badly wired aftermarket temp gauge on my 84 van. I now have a digital water temp and oil pressure gauge. They even turn off when I turn the van off - unlike the old gauge, which would stay on. Huzzah. The only surprise is my temp gauge is in oC, but as I live in Canada, I should be ok with that. (it is taking some getting used to).
When I installed these I tried to research how to wire it in correctly. And for the life of me, I cannot find the good threads about it again.
I wanted to go over how I did it and also ask a question how to splice in the power. Hopefully this is both helpful to others and I welcome any suggestions for improvements.
There are two main things to this job (aside from destroying your dash to mount them. I use the term 'destroy' as this seems to be a matter of taste, but I have seen few mountings I liked)
1) which fuse is the best to use
2) how to splice in the power
which fuse is the best to use
I used fuse #12. I've read this is a good fuse to use. It is controlled by the ignition power (no parasitic drain), and in the unlikely event of me screwing up and a fuse blowing, it won't disable any critical systems.
2) how to splice in the power?
Lets start with how not to do it. (not my van!)
from http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4808793#4808793
Aside from the very obvious tinfoil wrapped fuse (ensure your gauge always has power!), the other big problem here is that this red 'aftermarket' wire is connected *before* the fuse - meaning that any short down the path of that red wire turns it into a toaster. Not that it matters a fart in this case, with that 100 amp tinfoil fuse.
Now - the reason I post this, is because my van had the wiring spliced in in a similar fashion - that is, a wire jammed under the fuse. Not so bad in my case - because the wire was attached on the top end of the fuse (safe) however the PO, or some mechanic, had used fuse #1 or 2 which is always on - so my battery used to drain - but no more!
Most of the threads I read talked about the later years, which have a nice panel that you can stick things into. This seems to be lacking on the early years (pre 85).
As my day was running out, I reluctantly did the same hack of sticking gauge wire under the top of the fuse. I'm looking for a better solution, because I don't like how easy it would be to swipe the fuse panel (eg, when camping and throwing bags/etc in drivers seat) and rip the wiring out. I could tap into one the wires coming out of #12 at the back of the fuse panel - is that the best way to handle this? |
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