Don't be like the guy who lost his watch halfway down the street but
was looking for it at the corner because the light was better...

A cheap offset screwsrdriver will get those crowns out. A dremel tool
with a flexible shaft might clean up the blades, but wouldn't do much
for the crown-to-dash connection.

Of course, if you just want to have a spare switch, that's another
matter. I have two vanagons and it takes just a few minutes to swap
switches to test them.

Jim

On Feb 15, 2006, at 1:14 PM, Michael Diehr wrote:

> Should i bother trying a new headlight switch first?
>
> On my 85, those crowns are up against the left wall of the vehicle,
> don't look easy to get to at all, whereas the headlight switch looks
> easy to fix.
>
> On Feb 15, 2006, at 9:56 AM, Tim Demarest wrote:
>
>> Yep, the '85s look like that too (I've seen mine up-close and
>> personal).
>>
>> I never got the crowns themselves off the body (they're screwed in
>> there
>> pretty tight), but your problem is more likely to be corrosion in
>> one or
>> more of the spade terminals that push onto the crowns, or (less
>> likely) a
>> wire no longer making good contact to it's crimped-on terminal.
>>
>> These connections should definitely be taken apart and cleaned at
>> least
>> once every 20 years. :-)
>>
>>
>> At 11:16 AM 2/15/2006 -0600, Jim Felder wrote:
>>> Ground problems. Pull the fuse box out and look up behind it. I don't
>>> know what the 85 grounds will look like, the later models (and
>>> possibly
>>> yours) have two "crown"-looking fixtures screwed into the metal under
>>> there. Removing and fully cleaning these did it for me.
>>>
>>> Jim
>>>
>>>
>>> On Feb 15, 2006, at 10:41 AM, Michael Diehr wrote:
>>>
>>>> My instrument cluster (85 vanagon with auto tranny, with tach)
>>>> recently began exhibiting the following symptoms:
>>>>
>>>> Engine running.
>>>> Headlight switch off:     All is well.
>>>>
>>>> Headlight switch on (either Parking lights or Headlights):
>>>>   Parking and/or Headlights turn on as usual.
>>>>   Water temp gauge drops to zero.
>>>>   Tach drops to zero.
>>>>   Clock turns off.
>>>>   High beam LED glows dimly. (if i turn on high beams, the LED goes
>>>> OUT, ironically)
>>>>   Cluster illumination lights off.
>>>>
>>>> If i rotate the cluster illumination dimmer control, the tach &
>>>> water
>>>> gauge will flicker to life briefly.
>>>>
>>>> Headlight switch back to OFF:
>>>>   Everything goes back to normal.
>>>>   The water temp gauge blinks for a few seconds (as if you'd just
>>>> turned on the ignition).
>>>>
>>>> Is this more likely a headlight switch failure?   Or perhaps ground
>>>> problems in the fuse box?  Or the voltage regulator issue?
>>>>
>>>> thx!
>