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Date:         Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:18:00 -0700
Reply-To:     Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject:      Re: Swapping clock for Tach in an 84? a bit long.
Comments: To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Yes, I can only imagine how crazy a 928 could be that way. glad that's the thing you needed to know ...grounding the high pressure wire. Scott ----- Original Message ----- From: Don Hanson To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2009 8:50 PM Subject: Re: Swapping clock for Tach in an 84? a bit long.

Thanks, Scott. The link from the Old Volks Home page that I referenced in my OP gives a step by step of which wires to switch to which positions in the big plug. All my wires in both clusters are a match for what he says, so I think that will maybe work. But knowing to ground the high pressure wire of the DOPS to make it 'happy'...that is what I was looking for. Man, these German vehicles. My Porsche 928 was a thousand times worse with over 80 relays, all interconnected and interdependent. You *never* could just unplug one thing...That car KNEW, and resented you, and made you pay some other way. I had four different 'bridges' of wire bypasses to fool it into not refusing to run...Until I ripped all that crap out and stuck in a Motec EMS... Anyhow, thanks for the tip on the DOPS..I'll try just taking it right out of the speedo first... Don Hanson

On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 7:54 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

Hi, no, your early vanagon does not have some kind of secondary low oil pressure warning system. The van is wired for just one basic, 'low pressure' oil pressure switch.

I would try this........ well first of all let's say there are 'two kinds' ( at least for our discussion here ) two kinds of instrument clusters with tachs. the more common one would be 86 and later for 2.1 waterboxer engines, and that printed circuit/instrument cluster has the DOPS in it.

the other kind, more rare, but easier for you to install, is an 84 or 85 printed circuit ..... those vans have 1.9 wbxr engines, no DOPS in the instrument cluster , and are much closer to a bolt-in for your van.

Assuming you have an instrument cluster with a DOPS ... I'd just try this for starters. Remove the mutha ! It's hidden inside the speedometer. it's an 'L' shaped electronic circuit on a circuit board, about 3 X 4 inches. ( there's a pic of it in Bentley ) Just take it out.

also ........very important. T14 ........the big plug on the instrument cluster. Which wire is where varies by year, or 'group of year.' I put an instrument cluster with tach from ...... ( .I forget what year it was ) ..........into an 83........ which is 1.9 wbxr with single oil warning light system..

What I saw in the Bentley diagrams is that ....roughly, 80 to 82 has one arrangement of wires at T14, 83 and 84 is the same, 85 might be by itself, and 86 and later is the same.

so .........if the instrument cluster and printed circuit I'm using has the green wire ( tach signal from coil terminal 1 ) on say T14-6 ( or whatever it is ) ......... and the van I'm putting it into has the green wire at position say 4, in the T14 connector plug, it is necessary to juggle the wires a bit by position.

Most happily, the plastic T14 connector 'opens up.' So nice, You flip up the side of it, and the wires are just laying there, and you can take say # 2 and put it in position 4, the one for 4 in say 7, and 7 in 2, or whatever you need. Takes a bit of thinking and studying , but I did it successfully. You can too.

about the DOPS .....if just removing the thing doesn't work, do this. Leave it in. Find the high pressure wire for it coming out of the instrument cluster at T14 .........and just ground that wire. The high pressure side of the DOPS is happy if it sees ground,. The high pressure oil switch is reverse logic from a normal oil pressure switch. Normal ones have the light on when it sees ground ( low oil pressure ) the high pressure switches are opposite ............if it's open to the switch, that turns on the oil warning light, and buzzer, ......it's happy if it sees ground. So just ground that wire ......right there in the dash. that will keep the DOPS happy, and also keep your stock early van oil pressure circuit working just fine. Just mine wire positions at T14.

just be real careful Don't let something like this happen. I was working on an 84 .......for some weird instrument cluster symptom .......no temp gauge, something like that. I checked all I could...........wasn't getting anywhere. And thought I'd just pop in a known good 84 cluster out of another one of my vans. Soon as I turn on the key - poof ! wires fried right there where T14 plugs on.........part of the printed circuit. Some dooffus had taped into the wrong place for radio power ..........and the van, or that improper wiring damaged the original instrument cluster, then it did it to my good one too. Bummer. so be real careful. Check all your wire changes like 5 times before you turn on the key the first time etc.

Scott www.turbovans.com


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