On 12/14/05, John Lauterbach <lauterba@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> About four or five years ago, a couple of the list vendors offered late
> model instrument clusters for sale.  I bought one and with the help of
> those
> on the list did the install after rewiring the 14-pin connector such that
> tach worked and supposedly low-pressure oil pressure switch worked and
> connection for nonexistent high pressure switch was grounded so the buzzer
> would not go off when the engine went over 2000 rpm.
>
> Is this still considered the correct way of doing this.  The oil pressure
> light flashes momentarily when I start the engine.

Well, ideally you'd want to go in and cut the trace feeding the tach signal
to the "dynamic oil pressure sensor" circuit board. Above 2000RPM the board
ignores your .3bar sensor and just watches a ground loop where the .9bar
sensor should be. Cutting the RPM signal to the board would make it think
you were always below 2000, thus keeping your .3bar sensor "in the loop" all
the time. Realistically though, it shouldn't matter. If your oil pressure
drops far enough to trip the .3bar sensor when you're above 2000RPM, the
light is essentially a "pull over and swap engine" signal. I mean, maybe if
the pump was sucking air because of a major leak blew all your oil out you
might be able to pull over before your engine goes feet up, but more than
likely not. The idiot light is better than nothing, but not much.
Personally, I think an oil pressure gauge is the only really sure way to
know when things start "heading south". The Vanagon oil light reminds me of
the TEMP light in my awful 82 Olds Cutlass-- it really should have been
labelled "THAR SHE BLOWS".

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"