Westfalia level indicator board identification

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Anyone know what the lower unit fits? Got these 2 in a deal but only came with one cover plate which is typical US setup. I have seen the joker/westfalia ones that have another switch/light for the de-icer on the LPG tank but this one only has the the light, also note the red color for the Fridge.

another oddity is the the yellow wire typically jumped at the plug runs from the circuit board on this one and it has that round I guess resistor located on the right. That center red light was just sort of bent over and it does not have the whitish plastic base like the others but that could have been removed by someone down the line as there is the remnants of something under the light.

Any Ideas???? could it be the rare "Milking" option? ( I hope somebody gets that joke!)

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Markus

[Dogpilot]

The lower board is from the NSA, it reports your position and transmits conversations in the van, directly to a repeater.

The lower one is actually from the earlier models, not exactly sure of the cut off, I think 85 and up use the upper one.

The lower one uses the big transistor to cut off the pump when the water level was low. It is the notoriously failure prone model. The transistor fails.
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Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G

[captainpartytime]

Mine looks exactly like the lower unit. It came out of my '82 diesel westy. I think the yellow wire runs through the circuit board and uses the transistor to prevent the water pump (controlled by sink faucet) from running if there is no water in the water tank. I just bypassed the circuit board because I was not getting power from the yellow wire (faulty transistor I think). Three strand LED side (left on my photo) is battery and right side is water level. I still don't know what the middle red LED is for...maybe fridge but not sure because my fridge has been lit many times and I've never seen the light turn on.

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-Kerry

1982 turbo diesel Westfalia

[redtail]

That's the same one that's on my '82 gas westy -I've never seen the middle light come on either. donno why...

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Many thanks for the quick answers guys! So I guess in thoery I could test this on my '88 to see if it works?
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Markus

[crazyvwvanman]

The middle led is in fact the fridge flame led on very early panels. Those early fridges usually have a little meter inside the fridge door to show the flame is lit. Those fridges don't have the extra wire run to make the flame led on the panel work. If you run the extra wire to the panel you can have a working flame led as well as the little meter inside the fridge door.

Since the early fridge had a flame meter inside instead of the wire to the led flame indicator the metal led panel cover often does not have a hole for the middle led to stick through and that led is just bent over to the side under the metal led panel cover.

The early panel was used 80-81 with a few 82.

Mark

[Summers420us]

[Phishman068]

since there is a red light at the bottom of the water level tank (the extra red light at the bottom) i would say this is an early model/canadian model. I've seen it on a pair of '80/81 Canadian Westies. Probably the same on US westies of the same era.
However, they generally have no switch. Mine is ALWAYS on. No switch.
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"Along with the ability to go fast, one looses the desire to hurry."

[monstersteve]

That board looks the same as that in my 1980 Westy. My center LED was smooshed flat against the board and had no hole from which to illuminate.

I pulled the icebox and put in a Dometic 182B on mine. I figured I would share my experience with getting the propane LED to work.

The cabinets in the early air-cooled westys were apparently wired anticipating either icebox or fridge. There was a 3 pin plug there already for the fridge. I had to reverse two wires in the existing plug to make it work. The blue wire from the alternator changes to a white wire in the battery compartment and then changes back to blue at the fridge. It served no purpose in the pre-existing cabinet. I installed a relay on top of the fridge (activated by the blue/whit/blue alternator wire) to make the fridge run on 12v only when the car is running. I read this thread after I finished the job while researching an issue relating to the water tank/pump and decided to see if I could make the propane LED work. Perhaps the board (the big circular transistor?) had an issue (which would explain my pump issue), but I was not successful.

Access was pretty easy. I did not have to tear the fridge back out. I pulled the metal panel (not just the small one with the circuit board) that says "Westfalia" off to reach the plug. Pulling this plate involves removing four screws - on on each side and two underneath - and pulling the lip on top down off of the stainless steel sink/counter. This allows plenty of room to get at the wiring plug for the LED board. I isolated the wire for the propane indicator. It is a white wire going from the plug to the circuit board. The corresponding plug from the plug coming out of the van's "wall" has no wire to connect to the white wire. So I rigged up a wire going from the black thermocouple wire on the fridge that previously had no place to run it to the empty plug receptacle matching the white wire and I plugged the two plugs together. I turned on the LED board and even though the fridge was off (no 12v, no 110AC, no propane), the middle light (previously dark) lit dimly. Also, the H20 tank level light blinked and went out. I lit the gas for the fridge and watched to see if the LED display would change. I waited and watched for about 10 minutes. The water level indicators remained off and the propane light stayed dimly lit. I turned the propane off and relit a couple of times - same deal.

The good thing was when I disconnected the thermocouple wire and put the cabinet back together, the water level indicator came back on.

[DanHoug]

that transistor in the old style board is a common power transistor still available for about $5. it likely fails due to lack of a heat sink.

kinda silly to have the pump cutoff controlled... sure, the impeller>magnetic drive will overheat and melt if you keep it on when the water is out but who does that?
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com