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Date:         Mon, 20 Feb 1995 18:11:03 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Larry MacPhee"  <lmacphe@cello.gina.calstate.edu>
Subject:      Weird '81 westy gas guage

When we bought our '81, it had a malfunctioning odometer (sticky) and gas guage (wildly erratic). Alice and I tried to fix the odo and although we got it completely apart and back together successfully we weren't able to figure out what needed fixing, so we went to a junkyard and picked up a new speedo/odo unit and a new gas guage. The speedo/odo installation went fine, so we now can tell when we're getting low on gas, but the replacement gas guage behaves as badly (or perhaps as well as) the first.

Symptoms: Fill the tank and the guage reads full. Drive a bit and the guage dips to 1/2 full, back up to 3/4 and after driving a bit more down to 1/4 and sometimes towards empty.

Partial Diagnosis: Since we replaced the guage and are still having identical problems, the guage was not the problem. Duh! We also replaced a little 3 pronged gadget on the back of the clock which the junkyard guy told us was fuel guage related.

Questions: Can anyone narrow this problem down? Could it be in the ribbon cables that connect the instrument pod to the electrical system? Is it electrical or mechanical? Will removal of the gas tank be necessary in order to repair this? Should I bother, now that I have a working odo? What kind of highway/city mileage should I expect?

___________________________ /_________/__|______________\ Larry R. MacPhee /=========/|""||"""""||""""|# \ lmacphe@cello.gina.calstate.edu / //|__||_____||____|## \ lmacphee@vmsa.oac.uci.edu /_________// | | '81 Westfalia | || _| *** | |()==V==()|| /_ _ | | ==W== ||_// \ / \ | _-( ) \=========/_/| ) |--------| ) |==] _-{_}_) \_ | o \_\_/__.. \_\_/_ \_\_/ \_\_/__.__. \__\_\/__


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