Date:         Tue, 5 Mar 1996 14:06:41 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dlytle@as.arizona.edu (Dyer Lytle)
Subject:      '66 microbus, 6-to-12 volt conversion questions


Hi all,

I am back to work on my '66 standard microbus and was thinking
about the 6 to 12 volt conversion I plan to do.  A couple questions
came up.
 
Is there any difference in the transmission bell housing as far as 
the distance between the crankshaft/trans center-line and the starter
motor canter-line?  I've read that I will have to grind a little aluminium
off the bell housing to get the 12 volt flywheel to fit and that I
will have to replace the starter bushing if I put in a 12 volt starter.
But, even if I do all that, I worry about things fitting if the
above mentioned center-line to center-line distance isn't the same.
 
I pulled the fuel tank out yesterday after draining about 5 gallons
of gasoline.  That gas had been sitting in there for the past 15
years and looked surprisingly good.  I guess our dry climate has
its advantages.  I removed and tested the fuel guage sending unit.
At first its resistance didn't seem to be changing much as the float
went up and down so I disassembled it and slid the float up and down
a number of times while gently twisting it to put a little more
pressure on the contacts between the resistive wires and the float
contacts.  This seems to have cleaned the contacts to a point
where the resistance varies between something like 60 ohms when
the float is down to just a few ohms when the float is up.
 
What will I have to do to make the fuel guage work when I do the
6 to 12 volt conversion?  I figure the guage itself is an ammeter,
or is it a voltmeter??
 
Thanks for any advice about this!
 
 -Dyer
 
 
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Dyer Lytle                  '66 microbus (in restoration)
dlytle@as.arizona.edu       '72 Safari high topped,big tires,ugly,was-a-westy
HST NICMOS Project          '73 Westphalia (stock) (for sale)
Steward Observatory         '61 Raleigh Sports (restored)
University of Arizona       '75 Raleigh Super Course Mk II (in restoration)
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