> after years of reliable service, my temperature sending unit (87vw
> vanagon) suddenly went kaput (the gague just sat there at the
> bottom). easy enough, i just replaced the sensor...now, when the
> sending unit was working, at normal operating temperature the gague
> would read just above the halfway point. on a hot day, long hours
> on the road, the gague would sometimes creep up just above 1/2.
> (using the coolent level warning light as a marker for the 1/2 way
> mark). at this point, the fan would typically kick in (bently says
> this is appx 195 degrees f.) this seemed normal, and i never
> worried about it.

OK, first of all I'm assuming that you replaced the sender on the
front of the the thermostat housing, which does nothing but send the
signal to the gauge.  It does not send a signal to the ECU; the temp
II sender does that.  The temp II is on the port (as in port and
starboard) side of the thermostat and is blue in color.  You might
think about replacing that one too.  It's about $8-$9 bucks (get a
new o-ring too) and you can replace it without draining the coolant
(you'll lose about a quart, so put something to catch the coolant).

> any of you with post 86 vans?where does your temp gague sit when
> the fan kicks in?

It just clears the top of the LED.

You might think about getting one of Darrel Boehler's Digifant tools.
 That way you can cross check the gauge with the readout from temp
II.  Larry Johnson was just telling me that he had a strange readout
from the needle, hooked up the Digitool, and discovered that it must
just be the gauge sender that whacked.

See:

http://scribers.midwest.net/midwesty/vw/Vanagon/DigiFantTool/

For more on the tool.

-Karl

Karl and Kristina Bloss, Trexlertown, PA
'87 GL Weekender  "Beverley"
Mechanic list: http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/vwshops
Busses by the Trail - Oct 15-17, 1999: http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/bbtt