Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 20:18:31 EST
Reply-To: KENWILFY@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: KENWILFY@AOL.COM
Subject: Love that Digitool!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
After having an intermittant fuel injection problem with my van that was
stumping me, and having heard alot of good things about Darrell Boehler's
digitool, I contacted him about getting one. He was really nice and asked me
to check exactly which ECU I had so that he could be sure to send me the
right one. Then he overnighted me a rebuilt ECU with the digitool already
installed. WOW! This thing is cooler than I expected. Remember when I
started that really long thread about computerized gauges, well, the digitool
is my dream come true.
For those who have never seen one before here is what it looks like:
A small black box with a digital display, a row of leds at the top and a
rotary switch in the middle. The row of LEDs are for: power to the ECU,
power to the starter, throttle position switch, coil, and fuel injectors.
The box has a 15' ribbon cable connected to it with a plug on the end. I
happen to have a nice set of one-piece floor mats on the floor of my van so I
could mount the digitool on the right of my instrument cluster, run the cable
under the cluster cover, and down to the floor and then straight back and
under the rear seat. The floor mat covers the cable any place that it would
get stepped on and it is very thick so the cable should be fine.
You just plug in the cable to a plug hard wired into the ECU and reinstall
the ECU.
Crank up the van and the coil and fuel injection lights flicker merrily. You
can select to monitor your Temp I, Temp II, AFM, Oxygen Sensor, or Battery
Voltage by turning the selector switch. This puts each reading on the
digital display. Warning: Don't drive around with the Oxygen Sensor output
on the display. It can be very distracting (numbers change constantly).
Right away I spotted something that I had noted previously, that the Temp I
sender reading was out of spec. Also the AFM reading before start up was out
of spec as well. So it sounds like time for a new AFM (I have these in stock
for $120 by the way). I figured this before I got the digitool, but I wanted
to be able to monitor what happens after I replaced it to be sure that I
wasn't also having an intermittant problem with the throttle postition
switch. Only time and the digitool will tell.
My one wish at the end of the day was that the digital display on the tool
was back lit. And as the night came on and I started the van to go home, Lo
and Behold, it was back lit!!!
So, I would just like to say that I am very happy with the tool and with the
quick service that Darrell provided. If I knew this was going to be this
cool I would have bought one a long time ago. I would strongly encourage any
list members who have been thinking about getting one of these and putting it
off, to delay no longer. Well worth the $100 (worth it's weight in gold
really).
Thanks,
Ken Wilford
http://www.vanagain.com
John 3:16
Office (856)-765-1583
Shop (856)-327-0027
Fax (856)-327-2242
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