I see.
perhaps I had the wrong notion ..

here's what i have now ..
turn on key and wait, light flashes 10 seconds and goes out.
start van ....light is not on at any time. - which I see now is normal.

3 vans I have do that.
somehow ...I 'thought' ...the light was on a few seconds after fire up.

this 85 does have a very hard time with an old 1.9 starter cranking a brand
new and tight 2.1 engine block, fwiw. .

I get it now..
I probably have been turning the key straight to 'start' on them
sometimes...
and I'm seeing the normal 'timing out' of the light ...related to how long
it's been since the key was turned on, and not when the engine was fired up
.
If you just wait until the light times out, then start,  ...you don't see it
again. ...until those head gaskets blow ! lol..
thanks !
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beierl" <dbeierl@attglobal.net>
To: "Scott Daniel - Turbovans" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Cc: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 6:21 PM
Subject: Re: temp gauge flasing LED goes off instantly on start uip

> At 08:58 PM 3/13/2011, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>>I'm sure the normal indication is after you start a water cooled  vanagon
>>..
>>the LED flashes for a few seconds then goes off.
>
> Normal indication is that the light flashes for 2-3 seconds after you turn
> the key on, and then goes out.  What happens if you start cranking during
> this interval depends on how far down the starter drags the battery.  If
> you turn the key on and wait, and the light flashes for a couple seconds,
> then it's normal.
>
> Yrs,
> d