Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 12:21:23 -0400
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Tachometer in a weekender?
In-Reply-To: <CAHTkEuJYMxJa77ZjJDd0DX74WfBLe0zPShBxM6rWovhNA+dTyw@mail.g
mail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
At 08:11 AM 6/24/2015, Don Hanson wrote:
>I've attempted the changeover for my 84...a couple of times. It's an
>involved procedure,
Wait a minute. Let's break this down a bit. There are two ways to
do it: change out the panel, or put a tach in place of the clock and
hand-wire the gauges to the existing flexible circuit (and add a wire
for the tach).
If you do the latter nothing in your panel connector changes, but
wiring to the flexible circuit is not for the faint hearted or
inexperienced. People who do that don't ask about it first, they just do it.
If you swap the panel you have to change the pinout in the panel
connector (the van side, not the panel sid), which means opening it
up and rearranging the terminals, then closing it. It isn't
difficult and requires no tools but it's mildly finicky. And you
have to run the wire from the ignition coil for the tach signal
either to the panel connector or direct to the tach. To go to the
connector you'll have to dig up one terminal with attached wire from
another panel connector. If it's an '85 flex circuit or panel, stop,
you've finished. If it's a later one you also have to either jumper
completely around the dynamic oil pressure circuit by jumpering two
pins together on the connector for that circuit (it's a little board
housed inside the speedometer box) OR if the board is present you can
jumper two different pins together and still have an oil light that
blinks to get your attention but never buzzes.
It sounds more orderly put that way, no?
> I ended up getting an inexpensive small aftermarket tach and using
>that...
That works well though of course not as nice. If you mount it to the
panel cover put a connector in the wiring so you can unplug it when
removing the cover.
>That big old clock still sits in my van, ticking, and sometimes it
>even is right...
Now are you fooling about this? Both the digital and analog versions
of the VDO clock are four-megahertz instead of the more typical
32,768 Hz, which puts them in the five-seconds-a-month accuracy class
vs fifteen seconds a month for the typical crystal-controlled clock
(aka quartz clock).
Yrs,
d
