Date:         Thu, 16 Feb 2006 08:19:48 -0800
Reply-To:     Dave Mari <vw4x41987@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Mari <vw4x41987@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Instrument Cluster Woes
Comments: To: Michael Diehr <md03@XOCHI.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <6DA847E3-BA15-49B6-9366-48E91F94D206@xochi.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Michael,

  Glad to hear that you got this electrical problem taken care of, but you stated that VW started with a NORMAL fuse box. Have you ever open that normal box? Its will have 9 layers of the most twisted looking buss bars with too many connecting points to count, along with several dead bugs, a few webs and a nest or two! I been like so many people working on an electrical problem and it came down to the fuse box, so after cleaning, reseating, and sniffing all the wires, connectors, and relays if you are still having problems try opening and cleaning the normal for VW fuse box.

  Cheers,
  Dave

Michael Diehr <md03@XOCHI.COM> wrote:
  Thanks to all the suggestions. It was a bad ground. Fixing took
me about 2 hours: I had to drop the fusebox, pull the instrument
cluster and move two air ducts to even get access to the ground
"crowns", and even then I was working somewhat blind. On my van the
grounds are really hard to reach even after you move all the junk out
of the way. Anyway, when all was put back together, it works great.

After doing this job, I'm left with the feeling that the electrical
system in this beast wasn't so much designed, as grew through a
process of slow evolution. Start with a normal fuse box. Then,
later, they needed some more fuses, so they added an extension to the
fusebox. Nevermind that it kinda runs into the steering column and
uses a different style of fuse. Then they needed some more
relays, so they added one to the wall. Oops, need a few more!
Let's add some over here. And here! And, of course, the final 2
fuses which the westy owners know about, on the drivers door jam.



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