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Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:50 pm

denwood,

That park looks nice. I have been around that area in the winter hauling a portable saw mill (long story) and would only come back in the summer. That was the coldest temperature I have every experienced.

The Diesel already made the trip to Cades Cove and up the road to the wind generators so it was the Gas Vans turn. Each Vanagon has its own personality and we like to mix it up. For short trips the gas mileage is not a huge issue, but the Diesel is fun. We enjoy both of the Vanagons in their own ways.

Tue Oct 23, 2012 5:55 am

kendalwoolf wrote:

Vanagon sure corners flat, not all leany like the motorcycles on that road.

Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:12 am

campism wrote: kendalwoolf wrote:

Vanagon sure corners flat, not all leany like the motorcycles on that road.

Yeah at 15 MPH! :D

Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:54 am

Jake de Villiers wrote: campism wrote: kendalwoolf wrote:

Vanagon sure corners flat, not all leany like the motorcycles on that road.

Yeah at 15 MPH! :D

Indeed. 8)

Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:55 pm

Just returned from our trip to Florida.

1800 miles total

19.8 mpg (Mostly interstate at 70mph)

Only one mishap on the trip. At one gas station I hit the key and noting happened. Seemed like the starter solenoid was not engaging. So I hopped out and pushed while my wife pop started it, and away we went. It did not give any trouble after that.

The valet liked the van and had a friend that had one that was broken down in the parking garage he was working on. He parked mine in front of the hotel the entire day waiting for his friend to come to work and park it.
So instead of a Jaguar or Porsche parked in front of the hotel, it was my Vanagon, in bad need of a paint job.

Camped close to Kennedy Space Center and visited the next day.

Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:30 pm

Just an update about my conversion.
I have completed over 22,000 miles.
The last trip over the summer was to Vintage Motorcycle Days

My New Hitch worked great for hauling my bicycle. I added a few supports that helped with the twisting of the hitch.

We camped in the van and tried our gutter-guard window screens.

Engine updates will be coming in the future, I have a 2.0 ABA engine ready to build up. I will be a good increase in power and an upgrade to the serpentine belt (My AC belt is still slipping, I think it is a bad AC pulley). This is a winter project, no problems with the engine now just looking for more power and a better belt setup.

Sun Sep 22, 2013 3:17 pm

22K sounds like all the bugs are worked out. :-)

Mon Sep 23, 2013 3:07 pm

denwood wrote: 22K sounds like all the bugs are worked out. :-)

Yes I think all the bugs are worked out. Except for the AC belt squealing when the AC is on. I think that is the pulley and will be fixed with the serpentine belts. Other than that It is great.
I saw your post about the chip tuning you did, I always wondered about those, I may have to put that on the upgrade list.

Mon Sep 23, 2013 6:52 pm

My setup has a rather scary 3 belts in total..would much rather have the newer serpentine setup. That said, we're 10 yrs or so in with no failures. I do keep new spares on hand for each, however changing the lower two belts requires removing all..not cool if this happened on a freeway somewhere.

Tue Oct 01, 2013 4:11 am

Quote: I used the entire engine Jetta wiring harness and stock Vanagon fuel pump relay and ECU relay.

Key Kendal. I am about to strip an 89 Jetta for the EFI parts and wondered how much of the harness you grabbed from your donor car.

Did you grab all incl the interior fusebox etc or just the main Digifant harness and anything under the hood ?

Any tips on removal are greatly appreciated :) ... my donor is sitting in a boneyard so I have to remove with some efficiency .....

Nice posting here BTW. You did exactly what I am planning to do to mine, a simple 8V is all I need for now ...

Tue Oct 01, 2013 9:45 am

I use the full engine harness to the ECU and cut the portion that goes thru the firewall to the interior. you don't need the fusebox or such from inside.

there's only 5 ish wires to hook up to your stock vanagon system to the 89jetta digifant system. there are wiring charts for the digifant jetta on the vwvortex watercooled MK-II forums.

Tue Oct 01, 2013 9:48 am

danfromsyr wrote: I use the full engine harness to the ECU and cut the portion that goes thru the firewall to the interior. you don't need the fusebox or such from inside.

there's only 5 ish wires to hook up to your stock vanagon system to the 89jetta digifant system. there are wiring charts for the digifant jetta on the vwvortex watercooled MK-II forums.

Sweet Thanks ! I thought it better to be safe than sorry when I get back and find out I missed something ...

Cheers.

Tue Oct 01, 2013 5:25 pm

I'm having zero luck finding a wiring harness from a digifant golf.

Tue Oct 01, 2013 8:05 pm

metropoj,
Glad to hear my posts are helping. I did use only the engine harness, not the entire fuse box. I started with the full harness and strip it down to what I needed. Like was said before there are only about 5 wires that need to be wired up. Using the Vanagon relays helps keep it simple.
It is getting harder to find the digifant harnesses, for one thing the digifant cars just keep running. They really are simple harnesses.

Wed Oct 02, 2013 3:40 am

My scrap metal dealer has a Golf and a Jetta Flair that I'm going to strip for the harness and maybe a motor since one of them is at the 130,000 mile mark.

Yeah, these 8V cars with 200 to 350,000 miles up here are still fetching 500-1200 dollars as is !

Just gotta dig up some 83 diesel bars instead of my 82 bars or refabbing the tranny mounts / shiftrod to make it a cleaner install. If budget dictates I'd consider some FAS stuff for a smoother ride but first things first since I got a Diesel Transporter at my full disposal for the swap parts.

I found a '5 wire' reference on vwvortex so that should help make it all connect together well ... here is that info cut and paste if anyone is interested.....

I appreciate the help guys !!

Re: Digifant II swap, What are the 5 wires clip next to the computer (vdub6v)
05-25-2008 11:42 AM #3

Here you are:

T5/1 Red/White O2 sensor heater (usually from fuel pump relay J17)
T5/2 Red/Yellow Fuel pump relay J17 (-ve side)
T5/3 Red/Green Terminal 50 starter solenoid
T5/4 Black/Yellow ECU relay J176 (switched supply from +12V)
T5/5 Red Injector +ve supply from fuel pump relay J17

Wed Oct 02, 2013 7:40 am

Just a note to add, that
my 1989 jetta wolfsburg digifant harness was much cleaner to extract
than
my 1989 Golf (mexican) digifant harness was because the golf harness was partially routed with the headlight/grill wiring harness.
so if you have a choice I'd say to dig under a 89-92 Jetta hood 1st. though i'm unsure if a mexican jetta would have the same wiring path issue.

it's also tough to source these because the poorly taken care of cars of this era are already long gone, and the well cared for cars are the minority. often it's a O2 or vac leak issue that would be the demise of these for daily driving duties.

and remember that a $500 complete car (uncommon anymore) is worth $~200 over the scales with no engine or transmission. so that's a pretty cheap driveline donor (sell the Trans if good for $$ to)

nemobuscaptain wrote: I'm having zero luck finding a wiring harness from a digifant golf.

Wed Oct 02, 2013 9:50 am

I'd recommend finding a running car if you can. I was able to find a low mileage 91 GTI and with the money I made from parting the car out I practically offset the price of the conversion.

I was worried about the wiring but in fact found that to be the easiest part of my conversion.

Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:04 am

Sloride wrote: I'd recommend finding a running car if you can. I was able to find a low mileage 91 GTI and with the money I made from parting the car out I practically offset the price of the conversion.

Yes, good advice. Ultimately, that is my goal too. I'd like to have something I know is running well with good leakdown results, compression, etc.

I'm just scavenging these xtra digifant cars while the boneyard has them here :) ... Spare parts are never a bad thing unless they make a TV show about you..... lol ....

Sun Dec 22, 2013 12:07 pm

im doing the same conversion on a 1986 westfalia. 1.8 is in and mounted, im lost on the wiring. please give me a call if you have the time. 8317068926 taylor smith

Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:43 pm

Started on the serpentine belt conversion on my 1.8 block. This is a stepping stone for once I get the 2.0 ABA rebuilt.
After upgrading my lights the v-belts could not pull the load and I still have the problem of the AC belt slipping, so serpentine here we come.
The bracket is bolted on. I added the 4th mounting point for the 1.8 block.

I will be going with the serpentine AC once I get a good compressor.
Also had to do a little modification to the power steering mount to clear the water pump hose.

Unfortunately the alternator will not fit under the deck lid, so new motor mounts will have to be fabricated. I will just make adapter plates to drop the motor mounts down about 1.5inches.
Here is the problem:

I hope to use these as a solution, Jetta mounts P/N 357199402B
Not so excited about the Made in China Sticker, time will tell.

Also got the weight of the Vanagon the other day 3600 pounds with 1/2 tank of gas and no people in it.
More to come later...