Date:         Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:03:27 -0700
Reply-To:     Steve Williams <sbw@SBW.ORG>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Williams <sbw@SBW.ORG>
Subject:      Alternative to Instrument Cluster Foil?
In-Reply-To:  <201108161953.p7GJraN47266@sbw.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

I wrote yesterday about the horrible task of repairing the instrument
cluster foil where it connects to the tach.  I don't expect my repair
to last, because there's just no good way to do it.

But wait!  It just occurred to me:  All of those electrical
connections ultimately come from the plug at the bottom of the
cluster, right?  Wouldn't it be easier and a cleaner repair to run
wires from that plug to the tach plug?

Yes, I believe there's some active circuitry in the instrument
cluster.  For those circuits, it wouldn't work to just bypass the
foil altogether.

But if the foil just carries the tach signals from the big plug to
the tach plug, it'd work fine to bypass the foil.

Furthermore, it may be more practical to fabricate an entire foil
replacement of point-to-point wires laid up on a loom than to
reproduce the original foil, as Jeff says the VW Classic Parts Center
is trying to do.

I'll have to find me a salvage cluster to experiment with.