Date:         Mon, 28 Jun 2004 22:58:04 -0400
Reply-To:     Tim Demarest <tim.demarest@POBOX.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tim Demarest <tim.demarest@POBOX.COM>
Subject:      Re: No water--faulty submersible pump?
Comments: To: pete owsianowski <pnocean@EARTHLINK.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <BD063D0D.8F89%pnocean@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;

Pete,

It may not be the sensors, it may be the chip in the LED panel below your
stove, or the wiring, or connector. Pulling the LED panel and re-seating
the six-wire connector may be worthwhile.

There are two very different sensor arrangements for the tank:

         Early westies (like my '85) use the water in the tank to complete
the sensor circuit, so operation may be affected by the hardness of the
water (I don't know if hard or soft water "breaks" the sensor, but I have a
water softener and my level sensor works with my water).

         I've heard that later westies use a mechanical float device inside
the tank, if you have this arrangement, it may be that this mechanical
sender is not working correctly. Both versions use the same circuit in the
LED panel.

         It's easy enough to check the operation of the LED panel, testing
with an empty will keep you from getting any mixed signals:

         1. Remove the cover panel at the bottom of your storage bin to see
the wiring connections on the tank.
         2. Attach a jumper to the ground connector (two black wires, near
bottom of tank).
         3. touch jumper to the other sensors connections in turn. Each
should turn on one LED on your panel...
                 - highest sensor (green wire) turns on the green LED,
                 - next one town (yellow wire) turns on yellow LED
                 - lowest (white wire) turns on red LED.

I've attached an overhead photo of the tank wiring in my '85 (Pete, you'll
get it), if anyone needs it, p-mail me and I'll forward the image.

After I pulled the kitchen in my '85 and reinstalled it, I had no LEDs, I
needed to change the chip on the LED panel and all is now well... of
course, you'll need to be handy with a soldering iron to perform this repair.

Tim


At 09:24 PM 6/28/2004 -0500, pete owsianowski wrote:
>My pump is working, as I posted earlier, but I noticed when the tank had
>water in it, only the red indicator light was on even though the tank was
>3/4 full.  Is there any way to clean off the sensors?  Or, maybe change them
>out?