William R. Kennedy, NJIT CIAT, 201-596-5648"@lenti.med.umn.edu writes:
> 
> Thread has morphed into a gauge thread and my 2 cents is that cheaper
> gauges (than the $50 estimated in a previous post) are ok.  If you need
> to choose between one VDO gauge and two or three JC Whitney's, get the
> cheap ones.  You don't need accuracy to the nearest 2lbs of oil pressure,
> you just need to be able to tell when the engine starts doing something
> it didn't do yesterday.

I agree 100% with the above, except that...

The price I quoted ($50) included the sender.  I don't think the JC
Whitney gauges include senders, certainly not the type to fit a VW engine.
With Oil pressure, for instance, you will *have* to buy the VDO sender,
which is over $20.  I wasn't sure if the VDO sender would work with
other gauges, so I bought the VDO gauge, too. The VDO gauges also look
really nice, and at least come close to matching the other VDO instruments
that came with the bus (speedo, clock). 
> 
> I'd hate to think that anyone is scared off from gauging their van in
> a healthy way by the cost of fancy VDO parts.  Gauges let you drive 
> with much more confidence.

Agreed.  Scary to think that I paid as much for those 3 gauges as I did
for the whole van when I bought it, but that's how important they are to
me.  IMO, gauges (be they VDO or less expensive ones) are absolutely
essential to have on an air cooled VW.

-David

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David Schwarze                     '73 VW Safare Custom Camper  (Da Boat)
SAIC Comsystems, San Diego Calif.  '73 Capri GT 2800            (Da Beast)
e-mail:  schwarze@nosc.mil         '87 Mustang Lx 5.0           (Da Sleeper)
http://papaya.nosc.mil/~schwarze   '93 Weber WG-50              (Da Piano)
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