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Date:         Fri, 6 May 2005 11:43:00 -0700
Reply-To:     Gerald Masar <azsun99@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gerald Masar <azsun99@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Re: holy smokes (melted the instrument circuit)
Comments: To: Robert Harris <rdh24@CORNELL.EDU>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Sorry to hear of your Vanagon troubles (is that a double negative?). #1. Always disconnect the battery ground. #2. The blue hi-beam is a bulb with a blue cover, not an LED. Might still be able to get one from dealer $$. Good luck. Jerry

----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Harris" <rdh24@CORNELL.EDU> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 11:23 AM Subject: holy smokes (melted the instrument circuit)

> hi y'all, > Back on the list after being unsubscribed since December... yeah theres a > metric ton of email every day but I missed y'all! Never see any Vanagons > around my town, they're a rare breed up here in the Northeast any > more. Just about the first email I got was the thread about how if you > park nose-up in the rain you get to hear a loud water drip from inside the > left rear sail pillar all night long, long hours of wishing you had > remembered to park the other way round -- I about fell out of my chair > laughing -- another one of those quirks you think you were the only one to > remark on, and it turns out everybody has had the same experience!! > > ANyway I was working on my 84 Westy last night and it turned into a classic > Vanagon experience... the way a tiny 2 cent problem you think will take ten > minutes to fix degrades into a Big Deal that takes hours... just had to > share with you guys. > > So for a long time now my high beam indicator LED has not been > working. After blinding many an oncoming driver, last night I finally > decided to fix the thing. Took the dash cluster out, messed around w/ the > multimeter and determined that the LED was burned up. Quick trip to Radio > Shack, bought new LED, out with the old one and in with the new, all with a > minimum of cursing and only one beer... so far so good. Went to reinstall > the gauge cluster on the dashboard and suddenly one of the little > incandescent instrument illumination lights that lights up the speedometer > is on the fritz. It's dark and cold by now and I'm working by feel so I > just kind of wiggle the bulb around in its socket hoping to make it get a > good contact. > > That's when all the instruments lights flickered out and grey smoke started > pouring off the mylar printed circuit sheet. Aaaack! Punched off the > light switch to stop the juice, yanked the gauge cluster out again, and > back to the workbench. Ahh, the heady aroma of burning German > plastic. (usually followed shortly by the smell of burning MasterCard > plastic) Turns out the printed copper contacts behind the bulbs are all > starting to lift off the plastic sheet they were printed on, and when I > wiggled the bulb one of the circuit tracks moved far enough to short out > against a ground track. So the instrument light circuit track is now all > melted, and the headlight switch rheostat is kaput. Not only that, I soon > discovered that in my excitement to yank the instrument pod back off the > dash, I tore part of the printed circuit sheet, disabling half of > it! Aaaaack! > > Let's see.... in two carefree hours I have gone from having a perfectly > functional dash cluster (w/ the exception of the hi beam LED) to having a > dash cluster that is (a) melted, and (b) torn. Although in theory the hi > beam indicator would work now. By midnight I was calm enough to go to bed, > and early this morning before work I started painstakingly soldering in > wires to bypass the damaged parts of the mylar circuit sheet. Will finish > the job tonight, PROVIDED nothing else goes haywire in the process! > > Vanagons! Why do we love them!? > > Still keeping my cool in upstate NY, > Robert H.


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