The fast rise of the needle made me think of that electrical fault.  But it
was only doing what it was supposed to do when the coolant is low.

As it turned out, the tank was empty because one of the hose clamps was not
tight enough and lost about a gallon of coolant or more.  I thought, the
plastic part was broken, but after checking under a magnifier glass, it
proved to be fine.  Putting everything back and have the clamps tighter, all
seems to be fine.

Checked all the other clamps and got them tighter.  Fortunately that was
all.

Thanks for all the help from all of you though.  I filed the good advices so
I don't have to ask about this again.

Cheers,
Zoltan

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Lauterbach" <jhlauterbach@BELLSOUTH.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2011 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: '84 temp gauge shoots up fast

> If coolant is low, or coolant sensor is bad, temperature gauge will
> shoot way up, often with flashing red warning light.
>
> john
>
> On Sat, 2011-12-17 at 12:01 -0800, HotelWestfalia wrote:
>> Hi to all,
>>
>> I can't remember what the reason is why the early 1.9 water cooled temp.
>> gauge shoots up fast while the temp. is still normal.  I only know, it's
>> some kind of electrical technicality.
>> Looked in my archives and could not find it.  I will file it under a
>> better name once I got the answer.
>> Thanks guys and girls.
>>
>> Zoltan
>