Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 18:30:18 -0400
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Summer's coming and my van is getting hotter than ever!!
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.44.0404271317360.13743-100000@neota>
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At 01:31 PM 4/27/2004 -0600, Andrew Fox wrote:
>The electrical problems ive seen in the vanagon have been with troublesome
>grounds, brittle plastic connectors breaking, etc.
Yes, I think the plastics in general are distinctly inferior to
contemporary Japanese practice -- OTOH not necessarily to USA
practice. I'm thinking of my '78 Horizon (Omni? whatever...) which
incidentally had a Rabbit engine...when I got it in '83 much of the
plastic had shrunk several per cent in length, including the door welting
and the *steering wheel* which had a nice 3/8" gap in the plastic at the
bottom.
> I have seen several
>vanagons with faulty temp gauges, the big wide connector that connects the
>"electrical ribbon" to the insturment cluster has been know to provide
>poor contact and cause problems,
Sure, not just in VW -- I've seen the same in Toyota, Dodge etc. It's a
noticeable weak point in an otherwise very attractive method of wiring the
panels. The worst problem I've seen was in my Omni/Horizon -- they'd put
in a shunt-type ammeter so the connection to the panel was only carrying
millivolts; every time it developed a bit of resistance (about every two
months) the gauge would stop working until I burnished the connection
again. Of course so many other things went wrong regularly with that car
-- statistically, not just my experience -- that the gauge was pretty minor
in context. Great paint though...
> also there is a voltage regulator
>attached to the temp gauge which has been known to fail.
Standard ITT +10v regulator used in various cars of the time and presumably
other electronic gear. There is a service bulletin out for the 1.9l (or is
it pre-tach models? I forget) instructing to put a diode in series with
the +12v lead when replacing a failed one, so I guess it's fair to say they
could have made it more bulletproof.
>Considering that a t-stat for a vanagon runs $16-$19 and the special
>coolant costs $11 a gallon, and if you do anything to the cooling system
>you have to spend an hour bleeding it I think John would be best off using
>an IR thermometer to find out if the t-stat is really working or not
>before replacing anything, and its much easier to do it with the t-stat in
>the vehicle with the IR sensor than taking it out and putting it in
>boiling water.
If I had the thermometer or could get one easily, I agree. If I didn't --
this may be hubris, and Dennis Haynes will surely correct me if so -- but I
think the observations as already described are pretty conclusive that the
'stat isn't functioning. I certainly would change mine on the strength of
them. You can change a thermostat in situ on the 1.9l at any rate, a
nuisance but you don't need to lose a lot of coolant -- less than a pint IIRC.
>Also, i was'nt comparing the vanagons electrical system to exotics like
>british cars, i was comparing it to other more popular cars ive owned:
>toyotas, hondas, chevy's, and ford's.
Fair enough. Lucas electrics are bad enough, or were anyway, to make
anybody else look good. He should have stuck to carbide lamps for
bicycles. And I've seen almost no trouble with connections on Toyotas, not
surprising since they put O-rings on practically everything (actually, I've
seen damage where someone couldn't figure out how to release the latch on
the connector... ;-> ). Other cars -- dunno, none of the ones I've had to
do with lasted 20 years, but my impression is that the '84 Vanagon isn't
too dissimilar to a similar-vintage US car in the wiring department.
cheers,
david
>Andrew
