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Sometimes little projects teach you things you could probably do without knowing.
I pulled my cluster yesterday and bypassed the temp compensation board. As much out of curiosity as anything, I'm really just wondering what it will read without the "help" of the TC board.
While I had it apart, I replaced (the second time- grrr) the trip reset button, and took Bruce's advice and lined the inside of the cluster lamp wells with aluminum foil. I also replaced one of the cluster lamps that was burnt out, and glued in a little square of blue plastic inside the high beam warning light cover. (What is with these high beam indicators that are BRIGHT anyway? They're so bright I NEED my high beams on to see around them. Maybe they just fade?)
Anyway all that went well and I returned the assembled cluster to the car. Plugged it all in, and, nothing. Nothing worked. Wiggled stuff, plugged, unplugged, nothing. No lights except cluster lights. High beam light would flash. Nothing else. No tach, no speedo, no gauges, no warning lights.
What's going on? Well, I found I didn't tighten the nuts on the temp gauge. So I did that and reassembled everything. Now it won't start. Cranks and doesn't go. But the lights do work... well, of course I checked my fuses during this and apparently my #6 fuse is still on the edge of working. Gave that a cleaning and it fired right up.
So I have a little bit of work to go I guess before this car is as bulletproof as my 87 was. Maybe it never will be- the price for better economy and emissions compliance is reliability? Well, I think you can have all those things. It's just going to take a little work to get to that stage.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244-M47-208K ::: 90 745GL-M47-271K ::: 88 245DL-AW70-182K ::: 84 242 project ::: 70 VW Bus ::: 70 Bus SInglecab Pickup ::: 71 VW Type III Notchback
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