Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:54:55 -0700
Reply-To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Westy water tank sender
In-Reply-To: <D094D86E-5374-4905-99FB-F281FABA2954@gmail.com>
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Your floater turned into a sinker? Well, that's no good.
I'll need to look at my tank to see if I've got the float kind of sender
or the contacts on the side of the tank kind of sender. My van's an 84,
and Capt. Mike at westfalia.org wrote to say that "VW was not very
consistent with their water tank level sensors...There are two basic types
-- one that uses sensors outside the tank and one that works on a float
within the tank . To make matters worse, VW didn't upgrade the Bentley
wiring diagrams for the latter type. An '87 should have the latter..."
(http://www.westfalia.org/community/showthread.php?t=187)
So my 84 might have the sensors outside the tank kind of sender, which
does not have a float, if I read what little is available on the Google
about this subject. I don't know if the contact kind can be broken by
freezing.
But I don't know how the contacts kind of water tank level sender even
works, since clean, fresh water is such a poor conductor I can't see
counting on the conductivity of the water to flow current between electrodes.
Someone around here has the schematic for the LED battery level/water
level panel.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
On 8/24/2009 3:37 PM Jarrett Kupcinski wrote:
> This happened to mine, and it was due to the fact that the "float" on
> the sender unit no longer floated. I fixed it with a piece of styrofoam
> wedged on the existing float and it works perfectly now.
> -Jarrett
> '89 Westy, Oly
>
> On Aug 24, 2009, at 4:06 PM, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>
>> I didn't do any winter prep of the water system over the winter other
>> than
>> drain the tank and run the faucet until dry. I was planning to get
>> antifreeze for it but the darn RV supply shop was closed every time I
>> drove by.
>>
>> Went camping last weekend and the water system survived, except the water
>> level LEDs stay on red even with a full tank. It wasn't like that before
>> winter so I'm wondering if the freezing damaged the sender.
>>
>> Anyone have any wisdom to shine on this possibility?
>>
>>
>> --
>> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
>> Bend, OR
>> KG6RCR
>
>
>