[Vwdiesel] Dasher diesel insturment cluster problems

[Roger Brown]

William J Toensing wrote:
> Several months ago, while installing an extra water temperature gage, I did something to disturb a connection, which acted like a loss of a ground connection while snaking a wire in back of the instrument cluster. The result was the heat & fuel gages stopped working. Today, I removed the instrument cluster & could find nothing wrong, nothing loose. This time, the Bentley manual provided understandable instructions to R&R the instrument cluster. It also suggests the voltage stabilizer might be at fault, but why would it fail as a result of my fishing around in the back of the cluster? Any good suggestions for troubleshooting while I have the instrument cluster out of the car? I do have a spare instrument cluster I can take from my 1980 Dasher diesel parts car. I do have a VTVM meter to check for continuity, resistance, etc. I will play around with it tomorrow but if I don't find the problem, suggestions will be appreciated.

Check the voltage on the guages.  Forget the exact value the stablizer (i.e. 
regulator) maintains, but probably in the 10-12 volt range.  The gauges work by 
placing a known voltage (maintained by the stabilizer) across the variable 
resistance of the of the sender to vary the current in the meter.  Might have 
accidentally shorted out the stabilizer.

> Also, can the clock be replaced with a tachometer on the diesel. If so, how? I thought I would do this while waiting for my rebuilt left driveshaft to arrive.

Sure:
	http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/CheapTricks/Tachometer/index.shtml

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   Roger