tachometer for diesel

[rotaecho]

Thanks Mark!

[crazyvwvanman]

A US model 87 cluster will already have an led in the glow plug location and will work fine other than being red and labels OXS. If you want yellow just pull the red and put the yellow in its place. Swap in the label from your 82 diesel cluster if you need it to have the glow icon.

Mark

[rotaecho]

I'm going to be doing this soon. How did the glow plug light swap go for you? I have a spare diesel cluster and an 87 cluster being shipped.

I plan on doing a mk2 CE1 diesel tach swap into a later 87' instrument cluster, so would like to keep the glow-plugs.

How did it go?

[?Waldo?]

I used a gasser tach and added a hall effect sensor that reads off two of the crank pulley bolts. It doesn't work with the late gas vanagon tach though. I ended up using an earlier jetta gas tach I had on hand as the late vanagon gas tach would not work with the sensor.

[spitsnrovers]

Another option is to use the gasser tach, and add a sending unit of your own making.
Did this with an Isuzu pickup. Instructions are somewhere on the IsuzuPup site, but can't find them just now in a hurry.

Get an ABS sender out of any vehicle - only the 2 wire type (not the 3 wire).
Weld or otherwise fasten two steel lugs to the crank pulley so they protrude slightly - balanced and centred of course.
Mount the ABS sender radially (not axially) with a few thousandths of an inch clearance from the steel tabs.
Feed 12V to the ABS sender, feed the signal back from the ABS sender directly to the tachometer.
_________________
'88 VW Westfalia
'75 Triumph Spitfire 1500

[cris torlasco]

Thanks Karl (and Gnarlodious). I know we've done it in the past, but my question was if I can do it with the materials I have down here in Argentina right now, which is a gasser tach. It sounds like it is possible but more trouble and likely not accurate rpm readings, so I will have to source the Jetta tach in my next trip to the USA and forget about the one I have. I will check locally first, just in case.

Thanks, Cris

[Outback Kampers]

[Gnarlodious]

Here’s what I did:
Gas tachometer to diesel conversion
Has been working well, mod was cheap and effective. makes good use of the real estate where a clock used to live.
_________________
Vanagon ’83 diesel AAZ w/Giles injection, 5spd 4.57R&P+TBD and a '78 diesel Rabbit

[cris torlasco]

After reading all this, and far from being an electronics expert, I am confused....

This is what I have:

- 1990 syncro diesel 16" Doka that originally came with a 1.6 TD and now has a Golf III TD mounted and nicely running. No tachometer, just you basic, early analog clock in spite of being a 90 model.

- tach & wiring harness from an 87-91 gasoline Vanagon.

Can I make this work? On top of being a diesel my Doka is Syncro, and to add to the challenges it is a factory 16. Anything I can do to be ale to use a factory tach, or is there no hope?

TIA, Cris

[Gizmoman]

Tiny Tach

Works perfectly.
I fit it into the void by removing the plastic and glued it in using a hot melt glue gun from the backside.

The engine is off in the photo.

Around 100 bucks - no calibration needed. It's also an hour meter and has other functions as well

http://www.tinytach.com/diesel.php
_________________
82 Vanagon Westy - AAZ 1.9 TD, HE200 Holset, WAIC, 27.75 dia tires, Electric power steering, 5-speed AAP w/.078 5th
Oversize spare carrier - stock location (no longer for sale).

[hans j]

[big swifty]

Hans:
Did you ever do the aforementioned tach modification?
_________________
Evan
1987 Vanagon Syncro // Westfalia pop-top graft // Factory new ALH. 11mm IP. AFN 110 RC 2,3,4 // S7 turbo// Titan P502's
2013 Golf 4d TDI. Deleted. Tunezilla Stage2.
1991 Jetta coupe TD. Giles Superpump. SOLD

[hans j]

I'm surprised only one person has tried this method of deleting some parts in the tach to allow a direct input from the diesel EDU.

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/lt-24-petrol-eng...tml#527970

I checked the guts of a '88 vanagon tach today and it has the same SAK215 chip. I'll be trying this with my ALH conversion.
_________________
1986 Canadian Syncro Westy TDI - 1989 Syncro Single Cab - 2001 Audi S4 - 1981 VW Caddy ABA - 1980 VW Caddy EV - 1973 VW T-181

[crazyvwvanman]

The grounding the wire method works fine and many have done it that way. It is more work to do and more work to undo than the pushing the one pin aside method. Either way works so it doesn't matter much. For the situations where the grounding method falls short, the pushed aside pin always works.

Mark

[MarkWard]

Rather than bend the pin for the dynamic oil pressure unit as I have seen on the tach head, I simply added a permanent ground to the circuit. That keeps the buzzer off but can be easily reversed later if desired.

[crazyvwvanman]

I have swapped clusters between many different years including diesels. The wire color codes are consistent. You need to move around the wires to the right positions on the 14 pin connector for the cluster you are using. For an 88 cluster into an 84 van you also need to join the 2 brown wires into 1 since there is only 1 place for them on the 88 cluster. Then you need to run a tach signal wire from the engine to the cluster. Then you need to deal with getting the oil warning system working but that is trivial when the time comes.

(in USA/CA models a few 84 came with factory tachs and those don't need wires moved on the 14 pin to use the 88 cluster)

Mark

[Bman]

Thanks, it seems my best way forward is to get in there and try it anyway. I will need to identify which components on my Doka are 2.1, 1.9 and diesel. For now though I will ignore the Old Volks Home diesel warning and follow there instructions.

I have the 84 cluster with Trip Odometer and Analog Clock.

Best Regards,
_________________
~Bryan
1990 Burgandy Tintop (Wife's Daily Driver)
1989 Tiico Westfalia "Taj"




2WD Doka build thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=503578&highlight=
FaceHook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/VW-T3-DokaSinka/129026087217120?ref=hl

[MarkWard]

I am not familiar with the Doka. Does the cluster in the Van now have a tach or a clock? The diesel Vanagons sold in the US did not have a tach installed. So the wire for the tach input is not in the harness.

I have a cluster from an 85 gasser in my 82 diesel. I used the oldvolkshome pdf as a reference for the subtle differences. Tach in mine is connected to the ECU though, not the ignition system.

On my 82 diesel, there was one wire in the harness that goes to the tailights. There was nothing connected to it, and the Bentley showed it unused. I recall it being a white wire. I used the wire to power my AC compressor. Yours may have the same wire and can be used to get an rpm signal up to the front.

Also, there are differences in the tachs from the 84/85 and the later 86 and on tachs. It has something to do with the type of ignition system installed. If yours is using the 1.9 engine management, you may run into a problem working a later model tach.

I had the same problem in reverse. My original 86 tach would not work with the dakota digital tach convertor or connected to the ECU directly. A yahoo group member was the one that pointed out that the early tach would have a better chance of working.

[crazyvwvanman]

You can follow those instructions and swap the later cluster in. You will need to run a wire from the ignition coil. You will need to make a minor mod to get a working oil pressure light. It is not hard.

It does not matter much that your 84 started as a diesel. The dash and cluster wiring is nearly identical for a given year no matter which engine it got.

Mark

[Jeff's Old Volks Home]

The wiring harness for the 1988 is different for the 1984... I don't have my Bentley in front of me, but the T14 connector on the later cluster has dynamic oil pressure that is tach triggered, the glow plug light I remember is the same wire as the American O2 sensor light wire. It's doable, I've done it with both diagrams...
Jeff