Hi Vanagonauts,

I recently acquired a dash from a 1988-89 vanagon.  It has the digital
clock and tach.  I am using my old speedo into this cluster.  The wiring
is causing me a little frustration.  I almost have it figured out but I
was hoping one of the lists electrical gurus could help.

I know you have to dissect the 14 pin connector and rearrange the
wires.  I have done some of this but am wondering what to do with a
couple of them. I looked at the Limbo article for putting a 86 tach into
the 81 using a Porsche oil temp sensor to run the oil temp warning
buzzer.  I have a VDO oil temp sensor already in place.  I am hoping to
use this setup without buying a new Porsche sensor but am unsure of its
compatibility. (anyone know if this will work? The article described the
81 to 86 wiring switches.  The new 88/89 dash has each pin described
written in German.

Below is a table of the 14 pin wiring connector to the dash.  The three
columns are:
1: 88/89:   my new dash w/ tach 14 pin connector
2: 82: my current 1982 westy 14 pin wiring configuration (air-cooled.)
3: 86: wiring as per the LIMBO tach retro rewiring article

YEAR     88/89                 82                    86
1     Inst. lights          Vacant               Inst.lights
2     FERNLICHT             Ground               High Beam
3     ALLGEM. -             Inst. lights         Ground
4     FREI(KL.1)            High Beam lights     vacant
5     UHR                   Ground               Clock
6     Oil Temp              New Oil Temp         New Oil Temp
7     Gas tank              Clock                Gas Tank
8     ALLGEM +              Gas Tank             Positive
9     KL.1                  Positive             Tach
10    BLINKERKONTR          Oil Press. Ind.      Turn Signal
11    LADEKONTR             OXS                  Alt Warn light
12    1.8 bar Oil press.    Vacant               Ground
13    0.3 bar oil press.    Alt. Warn light      Oil Press. ind.
14    Diesel/OXS/CAT        Turn Signal          Turn Signal

The names on the new cluster are in German.  I can figure some of them
out.  The AltaVista tranlator helped 0 (zero).   I am hoping someone can
clarify the German terminology for me.  I put my guess after the word.
#2:  FERNLICHT (High Beam?)
#3:  -ALLGEM. (Ground)
#4:  FREI(KL.1) (I have know idea, coolant temp maybe?)
#5:  UHR (Clock)
#8:  +ALLGEM   (positive source)
#9:  KL.l        (Tach wire from Coil??)
#10: BLINKERKONTR (obviously turn signal)
#11: LADEKONTR (Alternator warning??)

Based on the above differences between the 82 and the 88/89 I rewired my
14 pin connector as follows:
82 wires                 88/89 wires
#2 ground           to     #3 -ALLGEM.
#3 instr. lights    to     #1 INSTR. BEL.
#4 high beam        to     #2 FERNLICHT
#5 ground   NOT SURE WHAT TO DO, maybe splice into #2 or ground #12
#6                 ADD     #6 Oil temp wire spliced from VDO sensor.
#7 Clock            to     #5 UHR
#8 Gas Tank         to     #7 TANK
#9 Positive         to     #8 +ALLGEM.
#10 Oil Press Ind   to     #13 0.3 bar Oil Pressure
#11 OXS             to     #14 DIESEL/OXS/CAT
#12 Vacant  NOT SURE WHAT TO DO, I have no 1.8 oil pressure wire.
#13 Alt. Warn Light to     #11 LADEKONTR
#14 Turn Signal     to     #10 BLINKERKONTR
New wire from Coil  to     #9 KL.l for Tach

My questions:
Anyone see anything obviously wrong or know if I'm missing something?

Does the coil terminal #1 wire go to #9 (KL.1)?

What to do you with Ground wire #5?

What to do with terminal 12 for the 1.8 bar Oil pressure? Leave it
vacant, ground it, or add a wire from somewhere else like the VDO O.P.
sender or the oil pressure light switch from dash?

Thanks for your help.  This will help others also as there were a lot of
the dash pods available in the last two weeks.

Ken Wyatt
82 westy
SLC, UT