Alternative instruments and switchgear

[Iceworx]

Hmmm any idea's what master cyclinder needs to be used to lower the tank?

I still fancy giving this one a go

[Titus A Duxass]

Hmmm any idea's what master cyclinder needs to be used to lower the tank?

You can gain more space if you fit a different reservoir to the master cylinder.

[silverbullet]

I've considered all sorts of engineering solutions to changing the angle of the master cylinder, from angled shims on the servo mounting to linkages and quadrants, so the master cylinder is nearer to horizontal. They all seem a massive overkill but short of remote servos (twin-circuit ones are near-impossible to get, only one seems to exist) and balance-bar master cylinders (eliminating the pressure reducer for the rears) may be the only option.
All to get a different instrument pack in! I'm tempted to move them to the middle of the dash and put the aux.gauges in front of the wheel instead...

At least a metal dash can be welded, I suppose!

[CovKid]

Its not just the mechanics, theres also the challenge of making it look right and not a right dogs dinner. Theres a train of thought (which I somewhat lean towards) that simple is probably better. One of the plus points with the Beetle was the relative simplicity of the dash - one speedo and a few lights and a fuel gauge built in. I'm not saying that less clocks would be better but part of the reason for putting more instrumentation in the dash is born more out of paranoia than actual usefulness. If its to make it look better (whatever that means) its a rather challenging project to take on and probably not worth the months of work involved.

And last, a T25 in terms of value, is likely to fare better with the right dash, unless you're planning on an entire custom job. I quite like the idea of a heads up display for those long journeys though Perhaps time invested in something like that (which could be removed) would bear more fruit.

[trentjim]

I quite like the idea of a heads up display for those long journeys though Perhaps time invested in something like that (which could be removed) would bear more fruit.

and the easiest way of achieving that would be to plop in an engine with an OBD socket and use a bluetooth elm interface to get the real time info into a netbook and projected with a pico projector....
I quite like the idea of using Torque with an android tablet as a customisable electronic dash rather than a HUD approach

[silverbullet]

^^^I do not understand 95% of what that's all about!

For me, the whole driver to find an "appropriate" alternative instrument pod is simply because the T3 one is so cheap looking, feeling and generally plasticky
(even though it probably cost a small fortune to design and tool up), added to the fact that all the binnacles were made from a type of ABS that is proving to have a very finite life. They are going to be very expensive if Classic Parts ever commission them again; that's if the tooling still exists anywhere (maybe in the hands of Gunzl?)

I'm still determined to go the Audi 80 route, it's the correct period and a similar "school of design" but made from reinforced Nylon composite, so won't degrade like the original and more importantly, looks and feels more of a quality item.

Regarding auxiliary instruments, I reckon that oil pressure and temp gauges plus maybe a voltmeter are about all you need and a lot more use than lights that tell you it's all over, too late. If you use LPG then maybe an AFR display is also a useful precaution to avoid a meltdown.

[slobbo]

I am looking at building a new digital dash using a 7" lcd display. I have been talking to a chap called Matin at http://www.zada-tech.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. It will have a GPS speedo, Rev dial, warning lights etc, Oil pressure and temperature, water temperature, voltage, fuel gauge. He is working it out for me just now. Scared it might be more than I want to spend but will see.

I am doing this for a few of reasons. First is I have a smaller steering wheel and can't see the standard dials. The second is that I have over size wheels and the speedo is 8% wrong. The third is that with the VR6 I like to know things are running well. The gauges that were fitted before I got the van are in a terrible position behind the gear stick. So I need something drastic to fix all three problems.

Will post something up if/when I get it done.

[syncroandy]

Rob, the stock VW electric speedo sender can easily be adapted to work on a Syncro front diff and puts out exactly the right pulse rate to keep a typical VW electric speedo (eg. 90's Golf, Passats etc.) happy. I was testing this today with a 3A and a 3B Passat cluster.

To me, the very notion of using GPS for a vehicle speedo seems bonkers, what about when you're going through tunnels, driving in a forest etc ? I can't believe ANY vehicle manfacturer whould ever do this..

[slobbo]

Rob, the stock VW electric speedo sender can easily be adapted to work on a Syncro front diff and puts out exactly the right pulse rate to keep a typical VW electric speedo (eg. 90's Golf, Passats etc.) happy. I was testing this today with a 3A and a 3B Passat cluster.

To me, the very notion of using GPS for a vehicle speedo seems bonkers, what about when you're going through tunnels, driving in a forest etc ? I can't believe ANY vehicle manfacturer whould ever do this..

Agree about the GPS but as I was unaware of a way to get a correct reading any other way I thought GPS is the easiest solution. The GPS signal issue wouldn't cause me grief. I always have the Garmin on and never loose reception except in car parks. They are a lot better than they used to be.

If there is a way to get an accurate speed out of a sender without it being a blue peter installation then I am interested. Do you have more info. Have PM'd you Andy.

[Titus A Duxass]

I have just been given a combination instrument set out of a Passat.
This one has an electronic speedo so the clearance issues may not be so big.

I just need to find a speed sensor that can be driven by the speedo cable or stick a Audi gearbox magnet ring on one of the driveshafts with the Audi gearbox reed switch/encoder mounted above it.

[syncroandy]

If its from a 3a passat, its all analogue input so the only significant integration issues are the speedo input and physically fitting it in. If its a 3b Passat, you want the pre-CANBUS part (919 not 920 in the part number). VW electric speedo senders (the ones they screw to the gearbox) can be modded to take a drive from the end of the speedo cable.

[Titus A Duxass]

If its from a 3a passat, its all analogue input so the only significant integration issues are the speedo input and physically fitting it in. If its a 3b Passat, you want the pre-CANBUS part (919 not 920 in the part number).

I have one of each - a 3a analogue or cable driven speedo and a 3b with electroinic speedo.

VW electric speedo senders (the ones they screw to the gearbox) can be modded to take a drive from the end of the speedo cable.

That's interesting to know, have you done it? Do you have photos?
There was a thread where someone had used a fjord sender, alas I cannot find it.

[syncroandy]

I forgot one thing, sorry. 2wd T3 speedo's run at 500revs/km, Syncros are 1000revs/km, it happens VW standardised on the latter for the electric speedo's. So in a 2WD T3, not only will the sender have to be fitted, but the pulse rate doubled using a pulse rate converter. There's a chap on BY working on this,

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/adapt ... 73207.html

I'm using a Golf sender with a fairly simple modification to screw to the Syncro front diff where the cable normally attaches. On a 2wd, you can adapt the sender very simply with a short length of narrow PVC hose to link the two square spindles together and a bit of gaffer tape to hold the sender in place, or get as fancy as you want

E D I T: Apologies, I forgot another thing, on the 3b cluster, the fuel sender works the wrong way round. I'm currently working on a circuit which will sit between the sender and cluster to fix this.

[syncroandy]

E D I T: Scratch this ! I was getting carried away. The dimensions were all looking great with one important one I'd overlooked - the depth of the cylinder shaft into the servo. On the T3 it's a fair bit shorter than the parts I was looking at, so I think they're a no-go sadly.

I've been looking at alternative master cylinders. Don't strictly need one as I can squeeze in the 3b cluster anyway, but it would be nicer set back by a couple of inches.

The mk3 golf has a 22mm alu master cylinder nearly two inches shorter then the 23.8mm T3 one. I think it would work, but the increased pedal throw might be annoying. There's also an Audi Coupe/100 one that 23.8mm, also alu, but is slightly longer than the Golf one. The one I've seen was off an early A6 with the 2.8 motor and had 12mm unions, but could be fitted without too much hassle I think.

I think either might give a worthwhile increase in space for a cluster. Both Golf and Audi cylinder have the same fluid inlets at the top, and there may be a number of different-shaped reservoirs off different vehicles that should fit, possibly offering a simple bolt-on solution.

Unfortunately my local scrapper has a habit when draining fluid out of vehicles of damaging the strainers inside the reservoirs, and not putting the caps back on, so the A6 one had been sitting with dirty water in for some time so I left it there.

Any views on 22mm vs 23.8mm ? Too much of a step down ?

[syncroandy]

I spent all day today soldering in the new cluster harness into my TDI pickup, and took it out for a test drive early evening. It looks like this:



This cluster has the blue backlighting and illuminated red needles, which are rather nice.

It's all basically working, including MFA (using early Golf switch). I still have to fit the IMMO pickup coil round the ignition key barrel and obtain a profile N flip-key or similar to put the RF chip in.

I still have some fine-tuning to do to the fuel gauge offset, and the speedo K-value needs tweaking as its under-reading by about 15%.