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Old July 28th 2011, 21:47
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volkdent volkdent is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Santa Rosa, CA, USA
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Thanks for the suggestion Luis, so far so good, but it may loosen with time.

Just a little "update"....

So I tell my wife, "sweetie, I'm heading out to the garage to install the boost guage, I'll be done in probably 30 mins."

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

As I'm placing the guage in the dash, unbeknownst to me, one of the + wires that lights the speedo guage breaks off and falls to lay against the speedo housing.

After installing the new guage which is VDO India I turn on the ingnition to see how it lights, as it is a different design than my German VDOs, especially on the light. I notice for whatever reason the high beam blue light is lit up, but I'm pretty sure I didn't have them on. I try the switch, and sure enough, when the high beams are on, the light is out, when they are off, it is on. Curious.

Just about this time my spider senses start tingling, and I feel like something is just not right. Just about then I see smoke billowing out of the front left fender...

WELL, turns out the + wire reversed the polarity on the speedo, thus the odd light action, and decided to use the speedo cable as ground. This induced a resistance load on the speedo cable, which baked the plastic coating off. This in turn sagged and touched then melted the left brake hose, which, once melted through the rubber sheath, turned the stainless steel braid into more of the circuit, which then caught the brake fluid on fire as it dripped from the line

SO, boys and girls, NEVER trust what you do when you are 17, I hadn't fused the + lead from the ignition to the guages all those many years ago, and fortunately, with only a new speedo cable, brake line, and terrribly bruised ego to point at, I got away rather unscathed.

I've taken the opportunity to redu the ingnition switch, light switch, and change out to a smaller set of MCs, so there is a silver lining, as well I've added PLENTY of new fuses to keep things from getting krispy in the future.

Jason
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