Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:03:36 -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: Tranny Whinning in 84 Westy?
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Don,
re
"I do not intend to tip-toe
carefully through Life...Only to arrive safely at Death"
RIGHT ON !!
and....I'll tell you how to trick or disarm the level warning feature for
the coolant pressure bottle.
Unplugging the sensor won't work, nor will jumpering the two contacts..
doing either will result in a full time flashing LED.
if you jumper the two contacts with a resistor .........forget what
value...but whatever, 2.2K ohms might work...
that will trick the circuit into being happy..
and you won't get a false indication from the level circuit again.
I don't believe in living dangerously ..
or in being too conservation/cautious either.
< and a blown trans is a real problem far from home >
one term I like that you might appreciate is something like 'judiciously on
the edge of not quite reckless.'
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Hanson" <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: Tranny Whinning in 84 Westy?
> I'll take the other side of this discussion....
>
> I've found that in a statistically significant number of instances, the
> warning systems on German vehicles are either too sensitive or faulty, and
> indicate a problem that is not there...or a problem that only exists with
> the warning system itself. The flashing LED coolant level indicator in
> the
> Vanagon dash...that seems to be frequently mentioned here as behaving
> oddly
> or incorrectly.
>
> I probably would not even own my vanagon now if I'd heeded that LED
> warning
> light, which was flashing when I bought the van near Tacoma and drove a
> few
> hundred miles home. In fact, it may *still* be flashing, over 65k miles
> later...I just taped it over, after about 3 frustrating attempts to make
> it
> work consistently and correctly.
>
> "Too careful"...there's that. When the consequences of a wrong
> decision
> are 'probably fatal', like when your airplane motor might quit or you
> could
> encounter a White-out over the Brooks Range...that type of decision...the
> "Go/No Go" there, that's a bit more crucial than driving around in a VW
> with
> something arguably not working 'exactly right'..
>
> .If I had delayed every trip I have embarked upon during my lifetime
> until
> I was "100& sure" nothing bad or inconvenient was going to happen, I would
> have missed some really fine adventures. "I do not intend to tip-toe
> carefully through Life...Only to arrive safely at Death"....that is one of
> +my+ guiding T-shirt quotes...I believe in T-shirt wisdoms like that....
> "Dog is my Co-pilot"...that one, too. (bumper sticker, not a T-shirt, but
> just as valid as a T-shirt)
>
> Yes, many times I have been 'caught out' when doing 'dumb'
> things....thinking I could get away with it. So far, it's been more fun
> 'living a little dangerously' than holing-up and avoiding the chance that
> something 'bad' might happen to me...Sometimes these 'mistakes' have been
> unpleasant and had negative consequences...But over all, trying NOTHING,
> because I'm scared, that'd be really bad...IMHO.
>
> Now if I were a really careful guy...a "belt AND suspenders" kind of guy,
> I would have a fancy safety tow bar on my Vanagon with a Smart-Car or a
> Suzuki Samuri in tow....."just in case"...Of course, I would have to put
> off
> going anywhere for a few years while I worked long enough to buy the
> 'back-up' car and the fancy safety tow bar....but then...If I were working
> to be safe...I wouldn't be in danger out on the road......
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 5:37 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
> scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>
>> right on John..
>> same thing applies to vanagons when there's a known issue of course.
>>
>> I was a little surprised to get a call from a vanagon owner about
>> overheating ..
>> flashing LED ..the usual cooling system weirdness ..
>> only to hear that after thinking there may not be a 'real problem' he
>> took
>> off for McKenzie Pass in Oregon ..
>> which is very steep and unforgiving from the west side..
>> rather than just head home , which was about 3 hours by freeway..
>>
>> but he made it ...
>> but I though that was 'too bold' heading away from shops and safety and
>> home, and up into the mountains, when he didn't find a clear simple
>> problem
>> that he knew was fixed.
>>
>> but he made it home at least.
>>
>> y
>>
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