Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2014 10:46:19 -0800
Reply-To: "SDF ( Scott Daniel Foss )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "SDF ( Scott Daniel Foss )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Organization: Cosmic Reminders
Subject: Re: Looking for an 86-up instrument cluster w/tach
In-Reply-To: <CAHTkEuK_6FjC77xmArRY8jRYiptWvEP8Puvs7BdTxNHdbiu_ow@mail.gmail.com>
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There is no reason for any wire with the tach signal on it to be in the
front of a vanagon.
In an 84 example..
the only wire/s connected to the '1' terminal of the coil would be
related to the ECU or Electronic Ignition system ..
Ignitor and Distributor and coil ..
thus no wires up front that have tach signal on it.
there is one anonomy I have seen though ..that's an 85 with a green tach
wire in it , but no tach originally fitted, from the factory.
The green wire is at the coil in back,
there's a green wire at T14 on the instrument cluster plug , in the
right position I think...
but they two ends of that green wire don't seem to be actually connected.
I had to had a new green wire from coil in the back to there's green
wire there to the instrument cluster up front.
A vanagon guy I know ran into the same thing too once, on an 85 that
originally had no tach.
I just happen to like 'full time' intrument lighting on some instruments
, like an oil pressure gauge. I wire the dash light in it to 'ignition
on power' so any time engine is running ..oil press gauge is illuminated
..often in red.
Scott
On 2/2/2014 7:38 AM, Don Hanson wrote:
> I followed the instructions in the box my tach came in. The "simple" way
> is to run a wire from the coil to the tach. But, the coil's in the back of
> the bus, so you have to run a wire up to the dash. I've previously run a
> 4-strand "trailer connect" wire from my engine bay to the dash to run my
> other add-on gauges anyhow, so it was very easy. I'm guessing there is
> some wire you could get a tach signal from that might already be somewhere
> up front, but I find it bothersome fishing around under the dash in all
> those wires. I did trace the instruments light wire to a blue/gray teeny
> little one to connect the new tach's night lights to the dash light's
> dimmer function.
> On Feb 2, 2014 7:04 AM, "George Laubach" <skiplaubach@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> I would like to add a tach (like Don, except without the
>> pre-work/time/frustration of dealing with the foil) to my '84/Digijet. Is
>> there a write-up for the "30 minute install"? AKA, where do the wires go?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Skip
>> Illinois
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On Feb 2, 2014, at 8:46 AM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>>> I tried the "move the pins, etc" to put a Vanagon tach into my 84, with
>>> lots of frustrating and relatively expensive failures. I spent a lot of
>>> time removing and re-removing the clusters and foils trying to resolve
>> oil
>>> pressure warning system anomalies and dealing with those minute
>>> connectors. I finally decided a small modern aftermarket tach, which I
>>> mounted dead-center on the cluster in about 30 minutes. I spent about
>> $20
>>> on that and it's giving good readings, though it IS just a bit too bright
>>> with it's LED backlights.
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