I do appreciate the time you put into the troubleshooting procedure
for my gauges. However I am a simple man. I do own an average
voltmeter yet it only sees the light of day under situations of
extreme crisis. Since I had the spare used part I opted to switch out
the voltage stabilizer and when that restored complete gauge function
(including a nice bright coolant LED) I opted to forgo the
troubleshooting. I have saved the offensive part and will gladly send
it to you or anyone else who desires sufficient conclusion to this
conundrum. Perhaps a collection of spare parts can sometimes be
considered a crutch or an impediment to learning. But that part is
getting me down the road and I am blessed for its existence, just as I
am blessed to have people like you and others on this list who try to
teach me new things. Your instructions will be saved for a future
crisis.

Thanks again,
David

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 2:40 PM, David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net> wrote:
> At 03:49 PM 4/15/2011, David White wrote:
>>
>> Driving down the road, in the rain, both the coolant temp gauge and
>> fuel tank gauge go to zero.
>
> Both gauges are supplied with +10v from the voltage regulator on the panel,
> so if there's a problem with it or its wiring the gauges will stop. �The
> regulator gets +12v along with the rest of the panel so any wiring problem
> is on the flexible circuit at or near the regulator itself (see 90.4 figure
> 2). �Be gentle with the flexible circuit, especially if it's a hot-weather
> vehicle - some of them are delaminating.
>
>> start the engine the coolant temp light �blinks forever but it's
>> pretty faint. �When I start the engine sometimes the coolant blinks
>> for the three seconds, other times it never blinks. The rest of the
>> lights on the dash are bright. What's the deal? 1984 Vanagon GL
>
> Get the voltage within spec and then revisit the LED blinker. �Proper
> operation is 2-3 second blink at key-on. �If voltage is correct (10 +/-
> 0.5v) and you get extended blinking, very high probability you need to
> replace or have replaced a 10 uF 16v capacitor inside the temp gauge which
> controls blink duration. �Blink brightness (assuming input voltage ok) is
> the LED itself. �Replacing it is quite possible but not completely
> straightforward as it's a self-blinking LED that runs on 5.0 volts, not a
> standard one like the rest of the panel LEDs. �We can talk about that after
> you get the gauges reading correctly.
>
> Yrs,
> d
>
>
>