Dash Lights!! How do I........

[fyrgrrl]

Two questions....

1.) The three lights that light up the speeedo, indicator lights and the tach sections...how do I remove those lamps?

2.) The indicator lights....somehow the bright lights indicator lost its little blue cap. How do I access the little light?

It seems that what I need to do is to unscrew all the screws holding down the instrument panel and pull the unit out for better access. Is that the way to do it?

Heather
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1987 Vanagon Westfalia (manual) - "Van Hildegaard"
1987 Vanagon Westfalia (auto)
1985 Vanagon GL 7-passenger van (auto) - "Blau Frau"
1985 Vanagon GL 7-passenger van (manual) - "Braunkuh"
1998 Subaru Legacy Outback (auto)
2003 Subaru Legacy L wagon (auto)

[floggingmolly]

http://www.weidefamily.net/vanagon/

Click on electrical, then inside lights, 3rd topic on that page. Might be of help. This guy did a great job on his site, and I have referred to it many times. Covers a lot of useful topics.

Happy Hunting!

Scott
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'85 Wolfsburg Weekender

[Witless Joe]

It's not necessary to remove the instrument binacle just to replace the three dash light bulbs. You can twist their socket holders 90 degrees, and they pop right out. The tach, speedometer and idiot light segments are all easy to access with the binacle in place. But if you have a digital clock and you need to replce that bulb too, then you'll have to pull the whole binacle out to get access to that one.

To remove the whole binacle, it's just 4 screws in each of the corners, then disconnect the speedo cable from the back of the speedo (squeeze the tabs together on late models, unscrew it on early models), then disconnect the 14 pin wire harness connector. Be careful, this connector is notorious for getting trashed. The copper traces get ripped off the blue foil very easily.

The sockets for the LEDs for the idiot lights are soldered to the blue foil. So if you need to put blue transparent cover back on the hi-beam idiot light bulb, then just pull the blue foil carefully away from the back of the binacle housing, and go to town. It's fairly obvious where the blue foil snaps into position, and you have to carefully unsnap it. Don't tear the foil, it's a bugger to fix.

[Mathew Zelezen]

If i were you I'd remove the whole assembly to work on it.

Invariably something will slip and fall behind the dash (I'm still waiting for one of the mounting screws to show its stinkin head).

The three little lights in the housing on the top twist (lefty loosey righty tighty) 90 degrees and can be pulled out.
(A needle nose pliers with some care works well)

The bulbs might not be bad...sometimes if you move them just a bit they make a better contact and light up.

Unscrew the 4 screws (you might have to pull some switches to get to them)
Unplug the speedometer cable.
Unplug the wire plug (long and narrow)
And you should be good to go.
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87 Syncro Tintop
~Rocky J Motor
~Steedle Trans


Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.

[VanagOnly]

[Silence262]

In my 1987 GL, a PO has apparently tried to resolve a dash light problem by removing the bulbs and replacing them with a strip of luminescent conductor (kind of like those night lights that look like a rectangle plugged into an outlet.) I have no bulbs, and apparently no wiring for bulbs now.

Is there a perhaps simple harness that plugs in? I am hoping it is something that was removed, but I will pull the cluster if I need to (don't want to!)

I have not had much luck finding it in my Bentley. I would love to get some real light on my gauges.
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Silence
"Knowledge, sir, should be free to all." - Harry Mudd

1987 GL Automatic, 16" GoWesty wheels, Full stainless exhaust.

[syncrodoka]

Does not compute Pictures please.

[Silence262]

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=Silence262

There are 6 pics there. This is my first attempt at posting pics...hope I did OK.
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Silence
"Knowledge, sir, should be free to all." - Harry Mudd

1987 GL Automatic, 16" GoWesty wheels, Full stainless exhaust.

[syncrodoka]

You did just fine with the pictures, but the PO did you wrong. You are going to have to locate another dash cluster(just the black plastic housing) and a dash foil(the blue plastic circuit board). Figuring what they did to hack in the wiring will have to be undone as well. It pains me to see this kiind of PO hackery.

BTW, if you copy the forum code from the gallery pictures you can paste them here and they will show up like this-

[mightyart]

hackity, hack.
You're the victum of somebodys mod.
easiest way to fix it is to try to find a used intact cluster from an 87 just like yours, like look in the samba classifieds.

[syncrodoka]

I believe that a cluster all the way through '91 will work fine.

[Silence262]

Thanks for looking at that with me. I do need this to be undone because at night, it is difficult to see how fast I am going. The tach is not bad, speedo is quite faint.
Is a cluster swap difficult? I am armed with a Bentley and usually buy tools as needed.
I have looked at Craigslist ads for people parting out their vans. Will an older cluster work?
Thanks again.
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Silence
"Knowledge, sir, should be free to all." - Harry Mudd

1987 GL Automatic, 16" GoWesty wheels, Full stainless exhaust.

[randywebb]

I think an '86 might be the earliest you can (easily) go.

these things are on eBay also - figure $100 up to $200 -- be certain that the 4 highly breakable tabs at the corners are intact; same for the horrible tin foil flex they used to save money.

BUT, if it is just the lights, there is no reason you cannot find a wire that is hot with the key on & then tap into that for some power to LEDs. It is again a hack, but would be cheaper.

If the 14 pin connector is intact then a cluster swap is no big issue. A phillips head and 4 screws.
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1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans.

[Silence262]

Then I am looking for an inexpensive 1986-1991 cluster. I hope to swap the speedo into the new one to maintain what I believe to be the original miles....besides, the trip odometer still works.
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Silence
"Knowledge, sir, should be free to all." - Harry Mudd

1987 GL Automatic, 16" GoWesty wheels, Full stainless exhaust.

[Silence262]

I can get some LEDs, and probably find power, but seems like there is nothing to hold the LEDs in place.
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Silence
"Knowledge, sir, should be free to all." - Harry Mudd

1987 GL Automatic, 16" GoWesty wheels, Full stainless exhaust.

[vwlovr]

[syncrodoka]

The '86 clusters have a oxs light and icon in the center. You can take out the led and replace the center with yours.
Removing and replacing/rebuilding a dash cluster isn't a big deal as long as you have some minor mechanical abilities. Buying a complete, known working cluster assembly and then selling your old tach will help you get back some of the cost. Swapping the speedometers will have a extra unit that you can sell also.

[Silence262]

Found one on eBay but it's $220 shipped
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1986-91-VW-Vanagon-...ccessories

I will keep shopping...sounds like an awful lot of money just to get proper lighting. I woudl get it if my gauges were dysfunctional, but a lot to cure my small annoyance.
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Silence
"Knowledge, sir, should be free to all." - Harry Mudd

1987 GL Automatic, 16" GoWesty wheels, Full stainless exhaust.

[randywebb]

Exactly. Hence the idea to tape some grain of wheat bulbs or LEDs in there at least while you're looking

You really just need the shell and maybe the foil - not sure if you'll ever find thos by themselves tho.
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1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans.

[syncrodoka]

Do a search for- dash, cluster or foil in the classifieds here and you can find the foil and cluster housing.