Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 10:03:56 -0500
Reply-To: jpalmer@MYMTS.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeff Palmer <jpalmer@MYMTS.NET>
Subject: Re: Funky temp gauge - update
In-Reply-To: <vanagon%2015060800485341@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
It's times like this I wish I lived closer to other listees so I could pop over! David I would even bring your favourite beer. Maybe I could trade you for a week at our Lake of the Woods cottage instead!?
I can do better than describe it - I will make a video tonight after work and post it on that damn FB site.
On a side note, now that I've searched for that mould product Neil recommended from Home Depot, the product now appears as an advertisement in my FB news feed. Alongside ads for Viagara and balding therapies.
Jeff
----------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 00:48:56 -0400
> From: dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET
> Subject: Re: Funky temp gauge - update
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
> At 11:49 PM 6/7/2015, Jeff Palmer wrote:
>>Haha you are clearly smarter than me and
>>unfortunately smarter than my mechanic too :)
>
> Unfortunately it's possible.
>
>
>>The reason I got the new VR last year was
>>because at approximately the same time my gas
>>gauge would only go to about 95% full even when
>>the tank was full, and the temp gauge began to
>>normally read just a smidgen below normal (generally ran at the LED level).
>
> That's a reasonable indication, but a couple
> minutes with a voltmeter will nail it and tell
> you if it's bad regulator, baad panel supply, bad
> panel ground -- no, sorry; panel ground affects
> the blinker but not either of the gauges proper.
>
>
>>The LED light was always finicky ever since I
>>bought the van 20 years ago. When it was humid,
>>it would flash for extended periods. Sometimes
>>if I let it flash for five seconds before
>>starting it would stop flashing. When dry it was fine.
>
> Yes, the internal capacitor is leaky and
> eventually it will never stop flashing; because
> it always flashes at power-on. It's supposed to
> continue for two or three seconds any time it starts.
>
>
>>Then last fall it kept flashing and wouldn’t
>>stop. Not long after the temp needle began to peg immediately at startup.
>
> Too far away now to know what "immediately at
> startup" means. As I said, a literally
> second-by-second description is needed to
> distinguish between gauge behavior and controller
> behavior. The light and the gauge are completely
> independent of each other. One heats up more
> when more current flows through it, and the other
> monitors the voltage at the sender terminal and
> starts flashing when the voltage falls below a
> certain point. The light will start to flash any
> time the sender line is looking at 35 ohms or
> less to ground. 35 ohms is also the value that
> should put the gauge right on the edge of overheat.
>
> I'm guessing you have a 1.9l van and that your
> level controller is tall, not cubical, is that correct?
>
> Once again, describe minutely the behavior of
> blinker and gauge starting when you turn the key on from cold.
>
> d
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