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Date:         Sun, 10 Oct 2004 08:04:21 -0700
Reply-To:     Joel Cort <joel_cort@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Cort <joel_cort@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Fw: '86 Westy Oil light flickers briefly...other basic ?'s
Comments: To: Steve Freyling <sf@brindle.cardiff.ca.us>
In-Reply-To:  <200410100548.i9A5moIl014796@brindle.cardiff.ca.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi Steve,

Thanks for contacting me. How lucky you are to be in Cardiff. I used to bicycle through way back when biking was starting to be a popular past time about 30 years ago. Cardiff was a good place to stop for lunch before the big grade at Torrey Pines. I grew up in Anaheim and would ride my bike from there to San Diego and put the bike on the train for a trip back home to Fullerton station. Ha the groovy days....

Ok back to your questions. The low oil pressure sending unit is the one located between #3 & #4 cylinders on the driver's side. You have to get to it by removing the engine tin. The hard part on existing engines is that the tin is mounted on the exhaust manifold bolts and almost impossible to unbolt cleanly, unles you have a very recent exhaust pipe.

The VDO sender available can fit many other engines and too "fat" to fit were the stock sender is located. Because the port for the sender is so tight and the "fatter" sender will not fit directly on the block there are several work arounds. VDO came out with a rubber extension hose. This little rubber hose goes from the threaded hole between 3&4 and out about a foot with a mounting clamp to fit the sender into. It is imperative to use the mounting clamp with the rubber hose to ensure proper grounding of the sending unit.

There are two wires on the VDO sending unit, one for the gauge marked "G" one for the stock idiot light marked "WK" and the expectation is that the unit is grounded by being screwed into the case or the clamp is tight and mounted on the frame metal. I ran some new wires from the sender to the dash for the gauge and used the stock wire for the idiot light. I did this while rewiring my E-code headlights and the new relays for the light switch so I did a pretty involved wiring job. You would only need to run the wire for this gauge. I ran all the wires in a sheath following the A/C pipes under the van.

I purchased the VDO sender from the BusDepot. Ron was out of the VDO hose, but I found the official VDO attachment hose kit at John's Bug Shop in Niagara Falls Ontario. I've been told that the rubber hose kit has been discontinued by VDO so all you can find is old stock.

There are issues with the rubber hose, one you are sending oil pressure information to the sender, that much further away from the source and two you have to run all this through the engine tins and near the exhaust pipes which get hot.

A much cleaner solution to the VDO rubber hose is to use the attachement set up available from www.volkscafe.com if you have not seen this yet. The guys at Volkscafe have done a very neat connection to the port and only requiring a small pipe to the sender. They have a nice kit and a nice writeup on how-to do it. I recently purchased just the piping to upgrade my system since I do not like the long rubber hose set up. It cost me around $35 for just the braided connection from Volkscafe. They normally sell the entire kit with the sender and the wiring but they seperated some parts for me... and probably anyone else wishing to upgrade their set up.

There are probably other options to put both the stock sender along with another sender for just the gauge to monitor the oil pressure, but for the effort, the VolksCafe kit is pretty slick and does the job.

Additionally from BusBoys, I was able to purchase a home-made sender unit using a VDO oil temp sender, that fits in the oil drain plug on the 2.1 L engine. I think it cost about $20. I use that to gather oil temperature readings tied to the oil pressure readings. I have a set of three VDO gauge on the dash and continously monitor the status of the oil in the engine. I have yet to connect the coolant temp gauge which is my 3rd gauge.

Thank you for allowing me to share some of my experience.

Joel Cort 89 Syncro Westy Rochester NY. Western NY LiMBO representative.

Steve Freyling <sf@brindle.cardiff.ca.us> wrote: Hello Joel. You replaced the low pressure sending unit with a VDO dual in your Syncro? Did it just "fit", or was there external plumbing required? Is this the sender near the oil pump or between cylinders 3 & 4? I have a newly rebuilt Boston Engine ready to be re-installed (along with AA-rebuilt tranny, front diff, etc..) in my '90 Syncro. Both oil pressure senders are new (as is everything about the engine). Some of the more knowledgable(?) list members (very strongly) recommend adding a pressure gauge (and keep the warning light). Is the VDO sender available from a list vendor (Bus Depot, etc.)? What'd you do for wiring (from the sender to the gauge)? Regards, Steve Freyling '90 Syncro Westy Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California 760-492-1893

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