Hello, all..
Haven't posted in a while, mostly because things have been going pretty good reviving my '82 Rabbit convertible back from the dead. It currently has a recently rebuilt '84 1.8L JH engine in it with about 500 miles on it so far.
The car has always had bizarre gauge issues. The three center console gauges in front of th stick work well, although the oil pressure gauge slowly drops down to pretty much zero after about 15 minutes. It reads accurately (I think) when the engine is started. Right now, that's not a big deal.
Here's the current issue.. the binnacle gauges are, and always have been, acting up like crazy. Here's the symptoms, followed by what I've already done to try and correct the problems.
Symptoms:
1. When key is turned to the "on" position (just pre-crank), none of the dash idiot lights illuminate. The "fasten seat belt" light on the left of the dash does come on.
2. When the car is started, after I "blip" the rpms up once, the tach comes alive and the console gauges read higher. The turn signal indicator light works properly. The high beam indicator light does not work. The gas and temperature gauges in the dash don't work at all. More on that later.
3. Once I've driven for a few minutes, the tach starts behaving erratically, swinging all over the place, and sometimes indicating zero. When it gets stuck on zero, the turn signal indicator light does not work, either. I don't know for sure if the outside turn signals are working at that time. The problem can usually be remedied by racing the engine enough to get the tach moving again... until it starts swinging all over the place and quitting again.
4. When the tach drops and indicates rpms less than what the engine is actually doing, the oil warning light flashes. No buzzer.
That's about it for the symptoms.. no idiot lights on pre-crank, no gas and temp gauges, screwy tach which triggers oil pressure warning light, and no turn signal indicator (and maybe no turn signals at all) when the tach quits completely.
Here's what I've done and or replaced on the car to try and remedy all this before bothering you folks..
1. New fuse block.
2. All new grounds in the engine compartment - battery to frame, frame to transmission, cylinder head to ignition coil bracket. This DID gain me almost an entire volt of charge, much brighter headlights, and much faster windshield wipers.
3. I just ripped out the dash cluster and followed Brian's recommendations found in the DIY section of the cabby-info site. The gas and temp gauges both work properly when fed 9 volts through their associated posts on the back of the cluster. I cleaned all the contact nuts, washers, and traces on the mylar, added the electrical tape to increase the contact at the large ribbon connector per Brian's advice, and I also spliced in an additional cluster ground from the brown wire second from the end of the ribbon connector to the frame in the dash.
4. I was going to swap in a new voltage regulator, but the spare I had didn't physically fit the space and it was an 8.5V regulator. I believe the correct one should be 10V, yes?
In any case, no joy yet. Could a bad regulator cause all of these problems? I've owned the car about five years, but have only been able to drive it this past summer finally. Now that it's running pretty good, I'd like to start getting serious about making it "right."
Any and all ideas or advice is, as always, GREATLY appreciated. Thank you all for your help in getting me this far over the past year or so.
Best wishes,
Barry
Haven't posted in a while, mostly because things have been going pretty good reviving my '82 Rabbit convertible back from the dead. It currently has a recently rebuilt '84 1.8L JH engine in it with about 500 miles on it so far.
The car has always had bizarre gauge issues. The three center console gauges in front of th stick work well, although the oil pressure gauge slowly drops down to pretty much zero after about 15 minutes. It reads accurately (I think) when the engine is started. Right now, that's not a big deal.
Here's the current issue.. the binnacle gauges are, and always have been, acting up like crazy. Here's the symptoms, followed by what I've already done to try and correct the problems.
Symptoms:
1. When key is turned to the "on" position (just pre-crank), none of the dash idiot lights illuminate. The "fasten seat belt" light on the left of the dash does come on.
2. When the car is started, after I "blip" the rpms up once, the tach comes alive and the console gauges read higher. The turn signal indicator light works properly. The high beam indicator light does not work. The gas and temperature gauges in the dash don't work at all. More on that later.
3. Once I've driven for a few minutes, the tach starts behaving erratically, swinging all over the place, and sometimes indicating zero. When it gets stuck on zero, the turn signal indicator light does not work, either. I don't know for sure if the outside turn signals are working at that time. The problem can usually be remedied by racing the engine enough to get the tach moving again... until it starts swinging all over the place and quitting again.
4. When the tach drops and indicates rpms less than what the engine is actually doing, the oil warning light flashes. No buzzer.
That's about it for the symptoms.. no idiot lights on pre-crank, no gas and temp gauges, screwy tach which triggers oil pressure warning light, and no turn signal indicator (and maybe no turn signals at all) when the tach quits completely.
Here's what I've done and or replaced on the car to try and remedy all this before bothering you folks..
1. New fuse block.
2. All new grounds in the engine compartment - battery to frame, frame to transmission, cylinder head to ignition coil bracket. This DID gain me almost an entire volt of charge, much brighter headlights, and much faster windshield wipers.
3. I just ripped out the dash cluster and followed Brian's recommendations found in the DIY section of the cabby-info site. The gas and temp gauges both work properly when fed 9 volts through their associated posts on the back of the cluster. I cleaned all the contact nuts, washers, and traces on the mylar, added the electrical tape to increase the contact at the large ribbon connector per Brian's advice, and I also spliced in an additional cluster ground from the brown wire second from the end of the ribbon connector to the frame in the dash.
4. I was going to swap in a new voltage regulator, but the spare I had didn't physically fit the space and it was an 8.5V regulator. I believe the correct one should be 10V, yes?
In any case, no joy yet. Could a bad regulator cause all of these problems? I've owned the car about five years, but have only been able to drive it this past summer finally. Now that it's running pretty good, I'd like to start getting serious about making it "right."
Any and all ideas or advice is, as always, GREATLY appreciated. Thank you all for your help in getting me this far over the past year or so.
Best wishes,
Barry