Re: MFA swap woes

["T. Reed" <treed2@u.washington.edu>]

Well, I got the swap almost completed.... It was a total bitch, though!
What I ended up doing was getting a 3mm thick strip of teflon-plastic
stuff and drilling five holes in it. The middle one was for the speedo
needle (3/8" diameter), and the next set out (~2mm) was for the screws
that go into the metal feet that the 7k tach face screws in to. The
outside pair (~1mm) was where the 8k face attached. So essentially it was
an adaptor for the wider spaced holes of the 8k non-mfa tach. It sounded
easy enough, but I spent all afternoon making it work because it required
two more tiny screws like the ones that are visible next to the tach
needle.

Naturally you can only buy these from some VDO gauge store in Bavaria - I
settled for screws of the same diameter but a slightly different thread
pitch that I found in a jar of tiny screws in my shop after looking for
about an hour and a half. They were too long but I shortened them
carefully with a dremel tool. Then I had to countersink the
plastic so the screw heads would be recessed and not touch the back side
of the gauge face. I chose plastic that was soft enough so I could easily
screw the gauge face on to the plastic bar without tapping out the hole.

After all that was done, I was able to screw the plastic bar on to the
tachometer with the two shortened screws and then attach the 8k tach face
to the plastic bar. I re-assembled the mfa cluster with my speedo and tach
(I swapped over my LEDs and backlight bulbs too just for consistancy) and
did a preliminary installation in the car and the speedo, tach, odometer,
fuel/temp gauge, turn signal/alternator/oil pressure lights worked fine.
So next time I get a chance to work on the car I will swap in the wiring
for the MFA and the switch.

I wasn't able to swap over the clear plastic from my original cluster
(unfortunately, because it was in comparatively beautiful shape) because
it was glued and I couldn't find an easy way to seperate it. I couldn't
just use the original because the mfa symbols around the lcd weren't
there...

The only thing I have to figure out still is if I can use the oil temp
sender from the stock oil temp gauge for the mfa as well (just by splicing
the wire)... we'll find out..

Also, could somebody tell me where the stock location is for the MFA
outside temperature sensor on the Scirocco? Is there a pre-drilled hole in
a body panel or something that I can pop the sensor in to?

Thanks,

-Toby

--
'87 16v


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