Finally finished the job. The bracket and light combo as originally designed did not allow the lights to point ahead without the backs hitting the lower grill. I put the aluminium spacers shown in previous post between the fog light and the right angle part of bracket. This pushed the light forward about 1/4″ providing enough clearance at the back.

I had planned on using the factory wiring set up (see German wiring diagram below) but have any of the pin type connectors (very much like Molex connectors) needed to plug into positions C22, B16, and B20 (multi prong connectors at back of fuse panel). But the surprising thing (well to me anyway) about the stock set up is that the additional relay added to “relay position 7” serves only to supply power to switch and not to isolate switch from the full light current. Just as it is a good thing to install relays in headlight system to reduce current load on headlight switch, I figure same approach should be taken with the aux. lights.

My version uses spade connectors and goes like this:
(this is for an ’86 syncro passenger van)

-G7 single point connector on back of fuse panel to + connector on switch *EDIT* I changed to use G3, X-relay power
-G9 single point connector on back of fuse panel to “30” on relay. G9 is fused through fuse # S20, license plate lights, I swapped in a 20 A fuse.
-connection from switch to “85” on relay.
-connection from light bulb on switch to ground.
-connection from “86” on relay to ground.
-connection from “87” on relay to fog light positive.

notes: the foglight switch is a 3 position switch and has 2 connectors on it, one for front fog light, one for rear fog light. It also has a light in it that illuminates when switch activated. The relay (40A) is mounted in one of those nifty bases that dovetails onto edge of fuse panel. G7 only has power when headlights are on *EDIT* I used the G3 spade, X-relay powered. so it gets power when ignition on. I grounded the lights via the right hand side lower radiator bracket bolt. The positive wire from lights passes through bumper sub frame via a grommeted hole, then up behind grill alongside the left hand edge of radiator then through body via a factory installed but unused grommet.

*EDIT* here is my circuit diagram as used

And here is the factory wiring.

Been mucking around trying to make some fog light brackets. I’m following the factory method, somewhat. Bending 1/4″ stainless stock (by hand, using some heat) and using some aluminium angle. Stuff I had lying around. The Cibie lights I want to use are quite deep, so the install is not going as easily as I would have wanted. The pics in the gallery show a page from the German manual, a shot of a repro bracket made in the UK, and my efforts. I didn’t make the final bend on my bracket, I wanted to use the aluminium angle to give me a bit of adjustment room fore and aft. Also, I think the final bend makes the bracket more flexible. But the result was a light too close to the lower grill. So I needed to make some spacers, and take boring pictures of the lathe. The brackets are affixed to the frame below the bumper by plastic wall anchors for trial fitting, when I am happy with the fit I’ll use stainless bolts. Oh, and yes, I painted them with rattle can bed liner stuff. Lots of stupid pics of lathe work 🙂

It’s to do with a thread on the vanagon mailing list. I took apart a spare I have.

Not sure what that broken plastic bit was meant to do inside switch. Maybe a shade in the illumination system?

The two teeny incandescents provide light the translucent white plastic for the rocker switch icon, and the amber light pipe.

Ok, just hold your horses about the pros and cons of led H4 replacement headlights, just for the time being anyway. I’ll write about these particular lights later. For now, I’ll describe using one particular type as auxiliary lights.

I bought a pair of these from Banggood last February. Here is the link: [CA$104.34]7 Inch H4 H13 105W LED Headlight Hi/Lo Beam With Turn Signal For Harley Jeep Motorcycle from Automobiles & Motorcycles on banggood.com https://banggood.app.link/4DKhkY87b4

Used them as headlights for a year, they worked out fine, but I was struck by the idea of using them as auxiliary lights from the get go as they are completely sealed and have M8 threaded holes on each side of the body casting.

I made a pair of simple brackets to hold them to my light bar and wired them in to my old auxiliary lights switched power source. That’s switched by the fog light switch ( the posts about that set up is here: https://shufti.blog/?s=Fog+light+).

I’m sure there are other lamps that have mounting holes on the side, obviously the model and dxf linked below are for this particular light.

The old aux lights and the led light bar removed and the new lights wired to be low beam with first position of Switches and high beams in second position of switch.

I plan on rewiring system so the high and low beams on the new aux lights will be controlled, when they are switch one, by the stock main lights hi lo beam stalk switch.

Here is a dxf of the flat pattern of the mount. Btw, sorry about having to be zip files, wordpress won’t let me upload dxf or fusion files ( not to mention a raft of other file formats). The mounts are made from 0.250” 5052 aluminum. Love the spelling mistake I made.

aux-light-baracket-flat-pattern.zip

And a fusion file showing final bent shape.

aux-light-mount-bent-v6.zip

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m getting a lot of guff about this light bar. 

“oh it’s so cute” 

” hey you know the front of your van is starting to look like you”

” you call that a light bar?”

And then I get this, not for the sign, but Bender’s face.

  
And this.

  
But the best one is this.

  
Yup, that’s it.

It’s this light bar from Banggood.com

54W 18LEDs Car Work Light Bar Spotlight White Projector Lamp

I chose it for its small ( yes, I chose small) size, had decent reviews, and had IP68 waterproof rating. It’s also a spot rather than flood beam pattern but saying spot does not imply that it is a carefully focused beam. My thinking was that I wanted a spot beam to project down trails/logging roads. And also I was pretty curious about these light bars. And god knows you see a lot of them on burley trucks around here. Multiples of the smaller ones, long ones that almost span the width of the truck, on bumpers, above cabs, you know the scene.

I mounted the light bar to what I call the light bar on my bumper ( getting confusing now ), power wire routed internally, ground wire attached to bumper. And I noticed that it’s missing one of the M3 socket headed cap screws on the face plate, sheesh.

   
 
Couple more pics of the ludicrous look.

Back to the wiring. Ran the power wire up into the dash, to a relay and fuse, and it’s switched on the second position of my fog light switch on dash. That’s why you see the aux lights on in the pics. They are on the first position of the switch.

So how bright is it at night? It’s bright but not life changing bright. I took some pics but you know how that works, never really gets things right.

First pic is the aux lights alone. These are tired 55w bulbs and I have aimed the aux lights low and a little bit to the right. The aiming is little bit of an attempt to catch any suicidal deer.

  
And this pic the led light bar and aux lights on. The led bar could be aimed a tad higher. It’s hard to believe from the pics but you could drive easily with this light combo.

 
And in this pic I’ve added my main lights (high beam). 

Am I happy with the light bar? Well yes, it’s fine. Good old high quality halogen spots would beat it, but for the power draw and the price I think it will do what I want it to do .

I added my circuit diagram to my post on how I wired my aux. lights. Here it is if you don’t want to click on that link. Note: the diagram for the fog light switch is not correct in that the 3 position switch does not have the internals wired as shown, but the diagram works for the purpose now.

A couple of kludges here, adding LED lights to the headlight switch and the rear defogger switch. I did this to bug my friend Simon 🙂

First the headlight switch. There are two kinds of switch, one has a white plastic insert in the hole on the back of the switch and one doesn’t. It’s the former that can be illuminated.

Here is a view of the back of the switch removed from the connector and you can make out the white plastic in the hole. Disregard that purple wire soldered to the spade connector, that was a failed experiment.

For a more professional way of installing a lamp into the switch look at this Samba thread. I didn’t have the little bulb holding clips shown in that thread, so I did it a little differently.

Now switch focus from the switch to the connector with all the wires coming out of it, sitting there in dash.

I used a bare bulb white LED and a resistor. The LED fits nicely into the hole in the switch connector and I opened the slots at the base of the hole with an awl so the legs of the LED would fit through. I then could push the LED into the hole and the legs of the LED poked through the other side. I soldered a wire onto one leg and a resistor onto the other. I forget the resistor value at the moment, but you can read the code in the picture. I soldered the other end of the resistor to the black and yellow wire coming into the switch connector. That wire is connected to the X-relay current path, so it get power when the key is on. The purple wire grounds the LED through the handbrake on warning light connecter, the brown wire on that white connector in the picture.

I chose to power the LED from the X-relay track for the reason that I wanted the headlight switch to illuminate when I turned the key, not when I switched on the lights (which seems rather redundant).

Here is the LED powered before the connector is mated to the switch.

Seems pretty bright. The icon on the switch is noticeably lit up even in daylight. I’ll see if it is too bright tonight.

The next kludge is the rear defogger light. There are two tiny little bulbs inside the switch, one to light up the tiny amber dot on the side of the switch when the defogger is on, and one to light up the switch when the headlights/running lights are on. The latter was burned out in my switch. I pulled the back of the switch off (careful, springs and one ball bearing inside), and I put in a LED instead of an incandescent bulb. During the process I broke a little plastic shield that prevents the switch illumination light from also lighting up the little amber dot. One of the pictures shows the shield off, I glued it back on before reassembly of the switch. The leads of the bulbs in the switch are connected to the brass trace by simply being tucked under them. You can pry the trace up and slip the lead of the new bulbs under, then press the trace down again. The resistor can be tucked into a recess in the plastic. I have the negative leg of the LED tucked under the brass at the bottom, which is the “31” spade on the switch, and the positive leg curves up (covered in blue heat shrink) to tuck under the brass at the top, which is the “56b” spade (powered by the headlight dimmer switch).  The switch goes back together pretty easily.

Pulling together some stuff I have on the differences in the tail light assemblies. As some of you know, European tail lights have the provision for a rear fog light (Nebelschlussleuchte), that is, a brighter red tail light to be used during poor visibility. The light is controlled b a 3 position switch (off, front fogs, front fogs + rear fog) on the dash. I have one of those switches controlling my aux. lights. Part number for this one is 171 941 535A, the VAG says 251 941 535 is the one for the Vanagon – bet ya they are one and the same.  Here are a couple of pics:

And here is a German manual diagram:

And here is an annotated English language diagram

And here is my diagram of the circuit boards (right hand side):

And now some pictures of a pair of right hand side tail light boards, “USA” vs “Europa”:

“USA” lens front:

“Europa” lens front:

“USA” lens back:

“Europa” lens back:

Arcane and nerdy stuff, eh Ben?

I’m declaring it done, well almost. Still fussing with ideas to cover the exposed bolt heads. I’m going to give it an 8/10. It is doing what I wanted it to do, but I really don’t like the end caps very much. I found it hard to enclose the “C” shape of the bumper because I carried the bottom angled section of the bumper right back to the standing seam on the body. It made for a big cross section to enclose at the ends. I added facets to the endcaps that really don’t do much for looks. Also noticed after painting how my casual approach to finish grinding and a little warping due to welding gave the top surface the hint of downturn towards the ends. Mostly this is a visual due to the sloppy finish grinding on the top edge. But now my eye is drawn to it and I get that pang of regret.

Oh well, that’s how it goes, I have to see the thing made then decide what I like and don’t like 🙂

The light bar worked out ok. Places the lights approximately in front of the metal section between the upper and lower grills. One could argue that the lights are too close together, but I’ll leave that conclusion until I aim the lights and do some night driving.

As for the lights, I did manage to shoehorn the 6.5″ H4 lamps into the housings. Right now I have it wired to the fog light switch and only connected to the low beam filaments in the lamps. I plan on connecting (yes, of course relayed) to the hi-lo stalk switch so I can have both high and low beam auxiliaries. The lamps had city light bulb holders in them. I replaced them with 2W led eagle eyes. I wired them to come on with key on, thinking they might make DRLs. Not quite bright enough, but certainly noticeable. The night shot shows them on, appearing more brilliant than they actually are. I’ll see if I can dig out some pics I took months ago showing the eagle eye install. I’ll update this post then.

Wiring to the aux lights runs inside the light bar and out behind the bumper. The nice flat top surface really makes it easy to stand on to get things on the roof. The paint is rubberized rocker guard paint. Yes, not bedliner. I thought it would be be a better choice for touch ups after the inevitable scrapes on rocks. Certainly less expensive than bedliner. About ten bucks a can, took two cans to do the bumper. Aluminum was prepared by scuff sanding and acid based aluminum wash. Then one coat of self etching primer and about three coats of the paint.

I should mention how I mounted them to the sub bumper. The stock mounting holes (M10x1.5 I think) got reworked with helicoils for M11x1.5. I made a stainless steel bracket, like two “C” shaped pieces connected by a straight section out of 1/8″X1.5″ bar stock. The “C” parts fit over the sub bumper and are held onto it by two bolts running vertically down through drilled holes in the sub bumper. The bolts hold the brackets in place and also pinch the sub bumper a bit, pretty solid. On the back of the rackets I welded nuts for the M13x1.75 bolts that go through the centre section of the bumper. Trust me, the bumper is on there solid.

Finally, we were able to take off for a weekend trip to one of our favourite places. Weather was to be hot and dry. Packed up Saturday morning and headed out. Alternator light started to glow before we got out of town. Shoot, it came back to me that when I did an alternator overhaul this last winter I made a mental note to replace the brushes soon. Mental note got lost. Had a spare voltage regulator in the van (used, but brushes still workable) and swapped it in. That solved that but then the van started to run oddly. Idle would drop and engine die, ran a little rough. We headed to Simons house to use driveway and I poked and prodded connections etc. Moved the O2 sensor wire away from a spark plug wire. That’s all I could do. Headed back home and the van ran fine. Took the chance and turned around and continued trip. Engine ran well for the rest of the trip. Sooner I put in a new motor the better, it’s so frustrating to trouble shoot this old engine and wiring.

I bought new tires last week. I was running Yokohama Geolandar ats, 215/70 15. New ones were the replacements for the ats, the Geolander GO15. And I went for largest ( some say to much ) that you really should put on the van with stock motor, 215/75-15. Was expecting more of a performance hit than I actually felt. Yes, I did have to downshift on hills that previously I hadn’t needed to, but this was much more apparent on the pavement, not so much in the logging roads ( travelling much slower on those roads).

The ride quality of these new tires are very much better than the old ones. Yes, a little louder on the pavement but smoother ride and on rough roads they soak up the harsh bumps way better. Great grip on loose stuff, and I didn’t notice the lugs getting cut by sharp rocks.

Shade temps were hitting 30-32 C when the breeze dropped. Sun intense, no fog on the ocean ( oh that will come in July and August), just perfect.

Brought the large westy table with us, and it works on the Swellegant™ table mod even better than the smaller table. I’m telling ya, it’s one of the best things I have ever invented.

Dinner was marinated thinly sliced skirt steak on skewers grilled on the Ecoque.

With salad and wrap.

Magnets holding a reflective tarp over part of the side of the van to give the fridge a fighting chance.

If you look towards the horizon, just to the left of that awning guy line, and if you could fly in that direction, the first land you’d encounter would be New Zealand. Amazing eh? 

We pretty well just sat, read, drank, ate, enjoyed the view, looked at the marine traffic. Saw no bears, elk, deer. Nighthawks were there though, and a couple of rufous hummingbirds that really liked the red campchair.

My neighbour bought another Doka. Yes, same guy that has the nice green Doka that at did some heater work on. Blog post on that here.

This one is an 85 diesel. A private import so it has one or two interesting things not usually found on North American vans. I’ve been talking some pics as I delve into the dash and the previous owner’s work and we start with the wide shots.

   
 
You can see it’s a bit rough around the edges. That rack is bolted to the roof, previous owner was a plumber. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Fixed vent windows.   

Front turn signal lenses slightly different. 

 
Spartan dash. No padding, the skinny steering wheel with small centre section, no odometer, not even a clock. No handbrake or brake failure warning lights above headlight switch. Rear defogger switch added by previous owner to switch those ugly auxiliary lights

   
Tray instead of glovebox. Full rubber floor mat in great shape. Funny how the rubber floor mat is so sought after. No it’s not funny, so much better than carpet for most climates.

 
Yup, 5 speed. And first is low.   

Double vinyl bench and replacement drivers seat.

 
Very firm vinyl rear bench seat. And you have to sit up straight.

 
I’m deep into dash work and that will be subject of next part.

Headed out Saturday morning with thoughts of the high spot campsite to catch a breeze and maybe see the Fourth of July fireworks over on Neah Bay. It has been an incredibly dry and hot summer here and the forecast was for mid 30C in the area we were heading to.

Started looking for fireworks early

It was hot and for some reason there were a lot of horseflies and deer flies around. I have to get one of the those electric fly swatters. Nearby pond was so nice, warm, peat infused water. Left you feeling very clean and refreshed. We were back and forth to the lake for a dip a few times.

Still looking for fireworks. Well no, actually we could smell smoke when we arrived, we were wondering where the fire was.

There was, and I think still is, a complete fire and BBQ ban in the back country, so we had pre cooked the food for supper. Grilled meat, grilled and marinated porcini mushrooms, a simple salad, all on a store bought tortilla.

After dinner walk and then back for the fireworks. Yeah, you probably are expecting pictures of the fireworks, but Neah Bay is 20+km from where we were and while we could see them, and believe it or not we could hear them, I couldn’t get a picture.

  

So I put up some battery powered Xmas lights for a small attempt at acknowledging the southern neighbour’s celebration.

  

In the middle of the night we noticed the moon was hazy, was it fog or smoke?

Next morning about 6:30 am, eastern sky was reddish.

Nice shot of Jake.

The smoke haze was moving in form the east.

And got worse.

  

At times like this, toast is the answer.

We packed up and decided to go exploring. The smoke haze changed the light in a strange way. Some things took on a sepia tone, but the greenery really popped out. Explored along Braden Creek, Loup Creek, got tuned back at the gate on the road near the abandoned Gordon River logging camp, doubled back to Port Renfrew and stopped at the Gordon River a few km upstream of the marina. The point and shoot camera really exaggerated the sepia tone. The iPad Air II not so much.

Braden Creek

And the very low Gordon River

Canon PowerShot camera really made a meal of the tinted light.

  
  
On the way home we stopped at “Shirley Delicious” coffee shop in… Shirley. Good stuff. The new wheel and tire combo worked outs great. The tires have a much, much smoother and less jarring ride than the old ones. Traction was better although on some stretches of road it is like driving on ball bearings. I didn’t notice the slight gearing handicap with the larger (5 or so percent?) diameter tires on the rough roads, but did notice it a little on some steep paved grades.

Oh, and once home we found out where the smoke was coming from. Most of it was from Pemberton over on the mainland. Some might have been from the fire at Sproat Lake near Port Alberni here on the island. An inversion layer in the atmosphere kept the smoke contained. I found this, and I admit it looks a bit dubious, satellite pic taken yesterday, Sunday the fifth.

Can’t waste a sunny weekend staying at home, so off we went Saturday morning for an o/n trip to the area NW of Port Renfrew. Yeah, we go there a  lot is seems, but it is secluded and pretty.

Before setting up camp we did some exploring on the Sad Lake main logging road. BTW, there is no Sad Lake in that area, no idea why the logging company gave the road that name. We got close (less than 1 km) to the southern boundary of the Carmanah-Walbran provincial park, and ran out of road at about 615 meters elevation. Most of the hills in this immediate area have been logged below this elevation and now we found construction of a new road to log some of the smaller trees (about 1 meter diameter and less). A fair amount of  Yellow Cedar, lovely wood. I wonder what the market is for this species now that wooden boats aren’t very popular?

Nice view of the ocean fog from up there.

Oldish truck being used as a fuel tanker

A little further west. This is about as thick the trees get in this area. Combo of elevation and rocky ground. No shortage of rain here.

And then we headed to our old campsite. I’m telling you, the Dometic engineers just nailed the design specs for the Westy propane fridge, well at least for us up in the temperate rainforest 🙂 Yes, solid ice in the Barbie sized ice cube trays. A rather poor surface area to volume ratio with these cubes, they don’t last long in the G&T.

Yup, same spot, same picture. Poptop canvas different though.

Just about then the dogs started casting about, some scent got them alert. Looking down from our campsite, 3 bears. Look to be 2 yearlings and what I presume to be the mother.

Mum?

Ok, all the LED lights on.

Next day we explored further. Nothing much to report except coming across a bear carcass. Been shot, hind legs were a few feet away, the paws cut off. Bear hunting pisses me off. The fuckers who buy bear paws and gall bladders should be… well, I won’t say.

So on the way back we took a few side tracks, exploring. On one track the van started to lurch and miss. This got worse so I stopped in Port Renfrew to fiddle with the engine. Nothing looked amiss, no vacuum leak or bad connection.O2 sensor was disconnected, no differance. At the worst point (and it was not consistent) when I moved the throttle valve just off fully closed, I mean *just* off, the van would miss, stumble, almost die. This was me moving throttle by hand. I replaced relays, checked evap/emissions tubes. Nothing seemed amiss. Then it would run well enough to get going again. For minutes it would be normal, then it would buck and die. For most of the trip I either had to have the pedal full down, or else coasting. I suspect the throttle position switch. Will check it out.

I have manual mirrors on the syncro and they are less than satisfactory. They are small, don’t stay adjusted very well (I have gone through all the tricks to keep them adjusted), and they frost up in winter. Now I finally have collected enough used parts to get 2 power mirrors installed, as yet not powered, and not without having to bugger around to make them work.

I have one white one, complete but the heating element connection broke, and one black one which also had the same broken connection plus a broken stem. I’ll deal with the black one first. By the way, the mirror had been “repaired” by its previous owner using duct tape and lots of shoe-goo. What a pillock.

Here is a shot of the socket showing the broken stub.

And here is the part that was broken off.

The bracket that receives this stud looks like this.

The stud passes through that bracket and is held in place with a nut and spring arrangement. The lumpy end of the bracket fits into corresponding divots in the socket on the mirror arm, you can see them in the first picture. Here is the spring and nut on the broken stud. The white thing is a plastic washer, but it was cracked and not reused.

A new stud had to be made and affixed to the mirror. I had an idea and, not surprisingly, I discovered that someone else had the same idea before. SpitsnRovers posted his fix on the samba. As an aside, his website has some pretty useful Vanagon info on it. It is just a matter of  tapping for a new stud to be screwed in. The stud has a 13 mm X 1.5 thread  so if I had a bolt with that thread and the corresponding tap, I would be in business. But I didn’t so I wasn’t. I did have some 1/2″ NC bolts and the right tap, why not use that instead?

I used the die to make the threaded portion of the bolt a bit longer. The bolt was chucked up in the lathe and drilled out (passage for the electrical wires). Oh I am so clever eh? Well, no. I drilled the hole a tad to large.

Found another bolt and drilled the right sized hole. Shown below is the drilled and cut bolt, a 1/2″ Nyloc nut, the stock nut, the broken plastic washer, and the spring. I feel like I am becoming even more pedantic.

I then enlarged the hole in the socket and tapped some threads. Not much meat there though.

I cut the drilled out bolt to the right length, actually a little longer than the broken stud, and threaded it in with some locktite and set it aside overnight. To be honest, I had my doubts whether the stud will hold, there are so few threads engaged. Righty-oh, next day I put it back together. I used a 1/2″ Nylok nut instead of the stock slotted nut, but here it is assembled onto the bracket with plain nut (that broken plastic washer was discarded later).

It withstood cranking down on the nut, the threaded stud did not pull out. I set that aside and had a look at the mirror glass itself. The glass is glued onto a molded plastic backing, with a metal heating element sandwiched between. There are two tabs bent up from that metal that connect to the 12V power supply wires. Here is an intact tab.

One of those tabs was broken (same thing with the other mirror). I tired to solder on a new tab, but no luck, the solder would not flow onto the metal. Time for the cheesy fix, I could lift the plastic backing up from the metal enough to slip the bare end of a wire in. It helps of you heat the plastic with a hot air gun. The wire was trapped and it made electrical contact. I tested it by popping the mirror into the freezer for a while then connected a 12V source to the tabs and watched the fog disappear from the glass. To make the cheesy fix even more obvious, I dolloped a bit of silicone onto the area. This picture is of the repainted white mirror (Krylon Fusion satin black) and you can see the same repair on the back of the mirror.

I routed all the wires (mirror motor and heat) and put the darn thing together. I’ll post more about the wiring when I get around to connecting the electrics to the van, I’m happy right now to have the bigger mirrors. The repainted white mirror was put together, minus that broken white washer.

Not quite the right sized screwdriver, but close, and German. So you know it has to be complaining about my lack of mechanical skill.

And a final shot.

A word about the electrics. The heating element supply is connected to the rear window defogger circuit, so it gets power when that is switched on. That will be a simple connection. The adjuster motor (and its little magnetic clutches) is wired to a control switch mounted on the driver’s side door. I have to find a switch. I believe some mid ’90’s cabriolets share the same switch? I’ll document that sooner than later, I’m keen to see the mirrors move and de-mist.

Another article from my old website

Frank writes:

Just finished building a new Vanagon Instrument cluster for my TDi conversion project. I’ve always disliked the Vanagon instrument pod. The center section really offended my sense of completeness. Just looked fake. When I decided to divert the 2.0 Turbo Audi project to the TDI, I decided to do something about it. The result combines the instrument cluster from the 1997 Passat TDI (contributes the gauge faces and front cluster face), a 1995 Passat GLs (contributes the MFA processor calibrated for the 4 cylinder engine), a vanagon cluster, the bezel from a ’97 Passat and a set of VDO gauges.

I’m using the wiper (controls the MFA) and turn signal stalks (controls the cruise control) on the steering column from the 1995 Passat GLS 4-cylinder. Here in the cluster, the temperature and fuel gauges are combined, with separate speedometer and tachometer. The warning light group contains the typical diesel functions. There are two unused light ports. I’m doing transfer logos for them and adding my two color (red/green) LED’s. One of the lights monitors the radiator fan speed (green for low, red for high). The other follows the auxiliary lights with green for Fog on and red for the driving lights. The MFA monitors among the standard features, the engine oil temperature, the average fuel consumption, the instantaneous fuel consumption and the external air temperature. This LCD screen also displays the digital clock.

In the bezel, I add a boost gauge and a pyrometer for EGT measurements. In the lower dash plane I have two gauges, one on either side of the column. To the left, oil pressure and to the right, oil temperature monitored after the oil coolers. In the lower heater face panel, I have a set of five gauges monitoring voltage on the primary circuit, voltage on the auxiliary battery circuit, the pressure in the radiator coolant circuit, an analog clock and an LED compass direction gauge.

The speedo drive is electronic. I took the rear mount out of an old Jetta speedo cluster I had, cut it up tp keep the frame and the Hall magnet wheel. Then mounted them in a box to take the place of the EGR counter. I use the 3 wire speedo hall sensor from the G/J series. Its a bolt up (or screw up) to the speedo frame. A variable pulse counter frequency adjuster (circuit supplied by my son) will allow variable adjustment for a dead on speedometer regardless of tires and state of wear. Precision wirewound pot for frequency conversion adjustment. Calibrate with simple GPS.

Further notes on fabrication…

On the master cylinder reservoir interference issue … it was in the way and I wanted to maintain the visual angles, so I took it out! I then used a master cylinder reservoir from a ’90’s Mazda pickup. It comes (from your local P&P yard) with a remote mounting bracket. I rotated it so the long axis is parallel to the windshield long axis. It comes with a built-in level sensor that I wired into the VW harness. I can’t remember if the vanagon originally came with the level sensor built in of if I added it to the vanagon reservoir and modded the harness years ago. For the inlet lines to master cylinder, I believe I used the plastic barb adaptors from a Super Beetle. I use an inline T to tap off the clutch feed. I mounted the reservoir in the same general area as the original Vanagon unit and aligned the inlet so that the plastic drip shield fit again (anal-retentive, I know). Clears the back of the cluster as if it were designed to do so! This solution should work for any cluster one would like to put in!

On the choice of cluster…. Well to start with, I have always thought (going back to March of ’82 when I placed the order for Westfalia for factory delivery) that the instrument cluster was a tacky design. The fake molded sensor lights particularly irritated me! I later years, I added the tach, the oil pressure warning circuits, the VSS speed sensor and redesigned the warning light package to give right and left turn signal lights, added cruise control lights, finally adding multicolor LEDs to the fake center section to monitor radiator fan speed, intercooler fan speeds, fog and driving lights and A/C control parameters. But I never liked the look of the thing.

When I decided to TDi the Vanagon, my orders to the salvage yard were that I wanted it all – engine, hoses, all wires and sensors. To my surprise, they included the speedometer cluster. The three gauge pattern carried the same info as the Vanagon cluster, but much more cleanly. The row of sensor lights along the bottom of the cluster was very tasteful and, the LCD display made it possible to add the MFA (multifunction display) to the package. I noticed immediately that the size of the Passat cluster was just a bit larger than the vanagon center section, so I decided it was time to generate a cluster that was good on the eyes and technically compatible with the Vanagon. The MFA was a key part of the equation, since I could integrate a miles per gallon function together with monitors for oil temperature and all OBD II sensed engine variables (the son is hacking the MFA controller to display all VAG.com accessible info). So, while the A4 cluster is nice and the later sport clusters from the Passat and G/J series are very impressive, they were somehow not in the same design paradigm as the classic Vanagon shape. The approach I used is compatible with any cluster. I chose not to go the digital monitor approach or to rebuild with aftermarket gauges (VDO or other), although the 9 gauge custom cluster seen here on the list recently pushed me from design to implementation.

Key details … Needed – Dremel tool, JB Weld, ’97 Passat instrument bezel, ’95 to ’97 Passat instrument cluster, one or more Vanagon instrument cluster bezels, flexible bumper spray paint, 20+ hours, high quality source of KMZT-FMin garage. To begin, I cut away all the instrument pod from the plastic vanagon bezel to a distance of about 1 inch from the front face. I cut off the bezel support pieces so I could reassemble them to the cluster in the end. I then took the plastic ’97 instrument bezel and used it to shape the remaining vanagon bezel surface. When I has the shape right (easier than it sounds with the Dremel tool) I bonded the passat bezel to the vanagon plastic. This left a series of open areas since the smooth transitions at the top and sides were not a part of the Vanagon shape. These areas were filled with JB Weld then smoothed and shaped by hand with various wet/dry sanding papers. On the back side of the Vanagon cluster, I removed the plastic shell support for everything except for the light switch and the lowest switch position on the right. I then filled and smoothed the front surface in preparation for cutting the two 2 1/16 gauges that I wanted as part of the cluster. I then bonded the cluster support pi eces from the original vanagon bezel to the revised unit. I set the positions in a jig, heat treated the plastic for a slightly different takeoff angel to meet the original mount point without stress. These support pieces were about 0.250 inches further to the right and left than the original. I then fitted the Passat cluster (took off some interfering tabs) and reinforced the remaining structure with JB Weld. The gauge holes and switch areas were then clearanced and a final sanding polish performed before painting with the flexible semi-gloss black. The paint removed fine sanding damage with a high film strength drying surface. Did a test fit and all was well including the latched top pod cover.

On the instrument cluster mods … I added the boost (0-30 psi) and EGT gauges in an excellent 270 degree sweep unit made by Speedhut. The MFA cluster (not part of the original Passat TDi cluster) was pieced together from a ’95 Passat GLs (4 cylinder motor) cluster with turn signal (has cruise control switch) and wiper (has MFA controller) stalks from same. (This idea came from Chris Bell on the TDIClub list). The tach sensing was correct for the TDi engine. The temperature gauge is appropriate for the sensor on the engine. The gas gauge worked for full scale to empty due to VW internal standardization policy! The speedo sensor is electronic. I cut up a GTi speedo cluster to get the Hall effect sensor wheel and mount shell. Added a VW three wire VSS sensor and turned it all into a 2.0 x 2.0 x 1.5 inch adaptor that pops onto the end of the Vanagon speedometer cable. I convert the pulses from this Hall sensor packet to the frequency (pulses per mile) needed by the Passat cluster with either a Dakota Digital pulse frequency converter of a circuit for variable calibration designed by my son. In the custom circuit, we would calibrate the speedometer with a GPS system and thereby lock it on for any tire combination.

I had to read the wiring diagrams when I installed the fog lights 🙂 The group of (mostly unused) spade connectors on back of panel have some interesting properties, especially G10. Here is what I decoded, your van’s panel may be different, but I hope this list will be useful in thinking about power taps.

The male spade connector group designated “G” in “that manual” trace out as follows:

G1 – X bus controlled power, fused through S12 (20A) (on my van it has BK/Y wire connected which feeds warm air blower switch)
G2 – #15 ignition switched power fused through S18 (10A)
G3 – X bus controlled power, fused through S12 (20A)
G4 – D+ alternator trigger circuit via alt. led light
G5 – #15 ignition switched power fused through S18 (10A)
G6 – dead end
G7 – power when headlights on
G8 – dimmer controlled dash light power
G9 – license plate lights power fused through S20 (10A)
G10 – power when windshield wipers run

and the M connections close by:

M1 – connected to G7
M2 – power with lowbeams

I took this from my website (http://www.members.shaw.ca/albell/) , thought some of you might be interested in it.
Frank writes:

Just finished building a new Vanagon Instrument cluster for my TDi conversion project. I’ve always disliked the Vanagon instrument pod. The center section really offended my sense of completeness. Just looked fake. When I decided to divert the 2.0 Turbo Audi project to the TDI, I decided to do something about it. The result combines the instrument cluster from the 1997 Passat TDI (contributes the gauge faces and front cluster face), a 1995 Passat GLs (contributes the MFA processor calibrated for the 4 cylinder engine), a vanagon cluster, the bezel from a ’97 Passat and a set of VDO gauges.

I’m using the wiper (controls the MFA) and turn signal stalks (controls the cruise control) on the steering column from the 1995 Passat GLS 4-cylinder. Here in the cluster, the temperature and fuel gauges are combined, with separate speedometer and tachometer. The warning light group contains the typical diesel functions. There are two unused light ports. I’m doing transfer logos for them and adding my two color (red/green) LED’s. One of the lights monitors the radiator fan speed (green for low, red for high). The other follows the auxiliary lights with green for Fog on and red for the driving lights. The MFA monitors among the standard features, the engine oil temperature, the average fuel consumption, the instantaneous fuel consumption and the external air temperature. This LCD screen also displays the digital clock.

In the bezel, I add a boost gauge and a pyrometer for EGT measurements. In the lower dash plane I have two gauges, one on either side of the column. To the left, oil pressure and to the right, oil temperature monitored after the oil coolers. In the lower heater face panel, I have a set of five gauges monitoring voltage on the primary circuit, voltage on the auxiliary battery circuit, the pressure in the radiator coolant circuit, an analog clock and an LED compass direction gauge.

The speedo drive is electronic. I took the rear mount out of an old Jetta speedo cluster I had, cut it up tp keep the frame and the Hall magnet wheel. Then mounted them in a box to take the place of the EGR counter. I use the 3 wire speedo hall sensor from the G/J series. Its a bolt up (or screw up) to the speedo frame. A variable pulse counter frequency adjuster (circuit supplied by my son) will allow variable adjustment for a dead on speedometer regardless of tires and state of wear. Precision wirewound pot for frequency conversion adjustment. Calibrate with simple GPS.

Further notes on fabrication…

On the master cylinder reservoir interference issue … it was in the way and I wanted to maintain the visual angles, so I took it out! I then used a master cylinder reservoir from a ’90’s Mazda pickup. It comes (from your local P&P yard) with a remote mounting bracket. I rotated it so the long axis is parallel to the windshield long axis. It comes with a built-in level sensor that I wired into the VW harness. I can’t remember if the vanagon originally came with the level sensor built in of if I added it to the vanagon reservoir and modded the harness years ago. For the inlet lines to master cylinder, I believe I used the plastic barb adaptors from a Super Beetle. I use an inline T to tap off the clutch feed. I mounted the reservoir in the same general area as the original Vanagon unit and aligned the inlet so that the plastic drip shield fit again (anal-retentive, I know). Clears the back of the cluster as if it were designed to do so! This solution should work for any cluster one would like to put in!

On the choice of cluster…. Well to start with, I have always thought (going back to March of ’82 when I placed the order for Westfalia for factory delivery) that the instrument cluster was a tacky design. The fake molded sensor lights particularly irritated me! I later years, I added the tach, the oil pressure warning circuits, the VSS speed sensor and redesigned the warning light package to give right and left turn signal lights, added cruise control lights, finally adding multicolor LEDs to the fake center section to monitor radiator fan speed, intercooler fan speeds, fog and driving lights and A/C control parameters. But I never liked the look of the thing.

When I decided to TDi the Vanagon, my orders to the salvage yard were that I wanted it all – engine, hoses, all wires and sensors. To my surprise, they included the speedometer cluster. The three gauge pattern carried the same info as the Vanagon cluster, but much more cleanly. The row of sensor lights along the bottom of the cluster was very tasteful and, the LCD display made it possible to add the MFA (multifunction display) to the package. I noticed immediately that the size of the Passat cluster was just a bit larger than the vanagon center section, so I decided it was time to generate a cluster that was good on the eyes and technically compatible with the Vanagon. The MFA was a key part of the equation, since I could integrate a miles per gallon function together with monitors for oil temperature and all OBD II sensed engine variables (the son is hacking the MFA controller to display all VAG.com accessible info). So, while the A4 cluster is nice and the later sport clusters from the Passat and G/J series are very impressive, they were somehow not in the same design paradigm as the classic Vanagon shape. The approach I used is compatible with any cluster. I chose not to go the digital monitor approach or to rebuild with aftermarket gauges (VDO or other), although the 9 gauge custom cluster seen here on the list recently pushed me from design to implementation.

Key details … Needed – Dremel tool, JB Weld, ’97 Passat instrument bezel, ’95 to ’97 Passat instrument cluster, one or more Vanagon instrument cluster bezels, flexible bumper spray paint, 20+ hours, high quality source of KMZT-FMin garage. To begin, I cut away all the instrument pod from the plastic vanagon bezel to a distance of about 1 inch from the front face. I cut off the bezel support pieces so I could reassemble them to the cluster in the end. I then took the plastic ’97 instrument bezel and used it to shape the remaining vanagon bezel surface. When I has the shape right (easier than it sounds with the Dremel tool) I bonded the passat bezel to the vanagon plastic. This left a series of open areas since the smooth transitions at the top and sides were not a part of the Vanagon shape. These areas were filled with JB Weld then smoothed and shaped by hand with various wet/dry sanding papers. On the back side of the Vanagon cluster, I removed the plastic shell support for everything except for the light switch and the lowest switch position on the right. I then filled and smoothed the front surface in preparation for cutting the two 2 1/16 gauges that I wanted as part of the cluster. I then bonded the cluster support pi eces from the original vanagon bezel to the revised unit. I set the positions in a jig, heat treated the plastic for a slightly different takeoff angel to meet the original mount point without stress. These support pieces were about 0.250 inches further to the right and left than the original. I then fitted the Passat cluster (took off some interfering tabs) and reinforced the remaining structure with JB Weld. The gauge holes and switch areas were then clearanced and a final sanding polish performed before painting with the flexible semi-gloss black. The paint removed fine sanding damage with a high film strength drying surface. Did a test fit and all was well including the latched top pod cover.

On the instrument cluster mods … I added the boost (0-30 psi) and EGT gauges in an excellent 270 degree sweep unit made by Speedhut. The MFA cluster (not part of the original Passat TDi cluster) was pieced together from a ’95 Passat GLs (4 cylinder motor) cluster with turn signal (has cruise control switch) and wiper (has MFA controller) stalks from same. (This idea came from Chris Bell on the TDIClub list). The tach sensing was correct for the TDi engine. The temperature gauge is appropriate for the sensor on the engine. The gas gauge worked for full scale to empty due to VW internal standardization policy! The speedo sensor is electronic. I cut up a GTi speedo cluster to get the Hall effect sensor wheel and mount shell. Added a VW three wire VSS sensor and turned it all into a 2.0 x 2.0 x 1.5 inch adaptor that pops onto the end of the Vanagon speedometer cable. I convert the pulses from this Hall sensor packet to the frequency (pulses per mile) needed by the Passat cluster with either a Dakota Digital pulse frequency converter of a circuit for variable calibration designed by my son. In the custom circuit, we would calibrate the speedometer with a GPS system and thereby lock it on for any tire combination.