Re: VDO Gauges

[Shawn Meze <Trnsfrma@ix.netcom.com>]

At 04:13 PM 10/15/96 GMT, you wrote:

>My car doesn't have a gauge fitted next to the ashtray, just a blanking plate. 
>So here's
>question one.
>
>How much do I need to cut away (ie the divider between the ashtray and the 
>gauge hole) in order to make these gauges fit. Do I need to cut out the
back of 
>the ashtray housing to feed the wires through ? What's the best way to fix the 
>new panel (which has no fixings itself) ? OK so that's three questions !

Ahh, this is a good one. Having done this myself a few months ago, I can
tell you that you only need to cut away the plastic tracks that the ashtray
uses. I used my trusty Dremmel tool and butchered the whole back end of the
ashtray receptical, when in fact, only needed to cut away the back end to
allow the new wiring to pass through and the tracks that the ashtray uses
need to be removed so the guages will fit in properly. 
Fitment of the new pannel is done by the guages themselves. There are
brackets on the back of them that pull the pannel back into the console.
(Remember, you will need to remove the center console's upper half to do
this correctly. Cut and fit the guages and them wire them.)

>Question two concerns the senders for the guages. My engine is a non-injected 
>1800 EX with hydraulic tappets (is this a term you US boys use ?).
Consequently 
>I don't have any of the sensors fitted as standard which will drive the
gauges. 
>Genuine VDO senders are mighty expensive - have I any other options ? 

Uh, no, we U.S. MEN use the very manly term "LIFTERS" instead of the
feminine term "tappets". its all a matter of preference and either term is
quite acceptable. :)
Anyways, lets get your car wired, shall we..........
As for the senders, I changed the 1.7L out for a 1.8L and in the process,
used different water housings that had the senders in them. If you can find
or get parts from a 1.7L, get the cooling hardware from the right hand side
of the block. The part that comes out from the head, just below the oil
pressure sender port. It has a thermo sender built on it that I use for my
water temp guage. Change this out and all you'll need to wire in the water
guage is a single wire.
On your oil pressure guage, do you have the big sender on the oil pressure
port on the right side of the head? If not, simply buy one for a guage and
run that wire also. 
Now for oil temp. you should have 2 sender units on the oil filter housing.
A big one and a small one. One of them, the small one, should be without a
wire since you dont have an existing guage in the dash. the other one is
pressure. 
Run a wire to that also and into the car through the firewall in an existing
passageway. 
You dont need VDO senders for the system to work. Stock senders work fine as
they were designed to use VDO guages. 

>Just for more info, the gauges I have are a voltmeter, oil temp (170
degrees C) 
>and an oil pressure gauge (5 bar). The voltmeter doesn't need a sender, and I 
>seem to have a blanking plug on top of the oil filter housing which will take 
>an oil temp sensor. My main problem is the pressure sender. My existing one 
>will just drive the buzzer, but I don't know where the best place is to site 
>the sender and I don't know if senders are interchangeable etc etc. 
>
>Any advice is gratefully received !
>
>Sean Conway

You spell your name funny my friend! :)
I think I covered most everything except for at the gauges, you will need to
run a power line to each guage and also, on the back of each gauge, you will
see the - + and G. (I think.) The - and + are self explanatory, posative and
ground wire and the last one is for the sender unit of each respective guage. 
If you want it to light up at night, splice into the dash light for what was
the ashtray and get 2 more lights with the electrical connectors since VW
uses a wierd size clip. (Its tiny.) Then you'll have 3 functional and
visable new guages! Its alot of blab but its really much easier than it
sounds. There not much wiring to do to get eveything up and working in a few
hours. Its all just a matter of time and having all the parts you'll need to
do it all in one shot.

If ive been vague on anything, lemme know and ill try and expand on anything
you might need. 

Shawn 

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