Date:         Mon, 21 Aug 2006 08:45:19 -0700
Reply-To:     John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Question about turn signal indicator light
Comments: To: Jim Felder <felder@knology.net>
In-Reply-To:  <43050D18-2DE5-41FA-BCE8-DFA1945F4E96@knology.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

> Today I swapped out that instrument console for yet another one I'd
> collected. Now EVERYTHING works EXCEPT the turn signal indicator LED.
>
> Is that LED a common problem? Should I be looking for the wiring
> somewhere else?

Well, my original "no tach for you! Only clock!" instrument cluster
had a bad oil pressure LED (no wonder the PO thought it had no oil
pressure issues), and if you take apart the housing that holds them,
you find that the LEDs are in slip-in connections. They're a little
hard to get to, but they're easily replaced. This leads me to believe
that they are considered a replaceable failure item, albeit a fairly
uncommon one. But if you have it not working on TWO clusters, I'd say
go ahead and pull the main connector for the dash module and make sure
it's working at that point before futzing with that stupid flimsy blue
plastic circuit. Near as I can figure without chasing lines all over
the Bentley wiring diagram, the Blue-with-Red wire provides an
intermittent ground path for that LED in time with the blinker. An ohm
meter between that and chassis ground should give you an idea if it's
working (for the sake of the meter check with it set to volts first,
on the off chance I'm an idiot and it provides 12v, not ground;
wouldn't be the first time I've misread a wiring diagram). Also check
the mechanical condition of that pin on the connector, make sure it
can make good contact with the folded over plastic foil sheet thing.
If all that seems OK, then I'd check the LED.
--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"