Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 00:55:17 +0000
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Aaron J. Wood" <afn32620@freenet.ufl.edu>
Subject: Re: Oil Press. Sender location(T4)
Kirk wrote:
> I have a 2.0 liter type IV engine in my pea green 1977 camper, and a
> package from RMMW containing an oil pressure gauge and sender arrived
> on my doorstep today. I don't know how similar our engines are, but I
> also have the "hole too small" problem. I'm not sure, but it looks to
> me like there is not quite enough clearance to pull the tin shroud,
> install the new sender, and reinstall the shroud (I'm not even sure
> how to pull the tin).
Kirk, doing this is a real pain, the bolts that hold on the tin are BEHIND
the breat tin(firewall tin). If you have a single carb of fuel
injection you will have to remove the intake tubes. All this adds up
to its not worth it.
> What have you decided to do?
You are right, the threads on the sender are 1/8 in tapered National Pipe
Threads(NPT). This means that the sender could screw right into the
existing hole. Wouldn't that be oh so nice, but that is not the
case. On my engine, I found that there was not even enough room
between the distributor and the existing hole to screw the sender
in(it bumps the dist.). So on to plan B, I went to the harware
store and bought a two inch piece of brass pipe and a brass "T", all
having 1/8 in NPT. I screwed the pipe into the existing hole,
screwed the "T" onto the pipe(so that there was on horizontal and one
vertical hole), screwed the original idiot switch into the top hole
and the new sender in the horizontal hole. Everything fit just
great. As I looked at the setup my brain began to think on its own,
hmm, the pipe makes the two senders the highest point on the engine.
Air flows to the highest point. Damn, air will get into the pipe and
screw up all the readings. On to plan C. Not knowing what else to
do I went to the store again and bought a short nipple(get your ming
out of the gutter) that has two male sides to it, and another "T",
and a draincock. I screwed on the second "T" in the same exact position as
the fist one(one hole vert. one hor.). I then screwed the idiot
switch into the hor. hole and the draincock into the upper hole.
This way I can bleed the air out of the system when the engine is
started and oil pressure has built up. To sum it up it looks like
the strangest contraption in the world. The new sender mounted
horizontal, the old switch mounted horizontal, and the bleeded valve
on top. The problem is that I don't know how often air will build up
in the line, or even if it will effect things that much. I will have
to bleed it every oil change for sure, but I don't know how often
after that. I plan to watch the gauge when I know that there is no
air in the line then when or if it gives some odd readings go back
and bleed it. It only takes a second but is a little messy if not
done correctly.
Hope this help
Write back if anything is unclear.
Aaron J. Wood
Student at University of Florida
Email: afn32620@freenet.ufl.edu
Home Phone:(352) 376-2330
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