Date:         Tue, 19 Jul 1994 23:21:12 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         rickgo@halcyon.halcyon.com (Rick Gordon)
Subject:      brake lights, propane and auxiliary batteries

Lots of stuff from my weekend exploration into the mysteries of my new 1980
Vanagon.

master cylinder life - after pricing one of these I've decided I'll let
the one that's in there live out it's full life span. $300 from VW dealer.
(Well, I'll see what Midas or someone sells them for first before making up
my mind.)

I did replace the wheel cylinders though. The old ones were pretty crusty and
were starting to show leakage past the seals.

brake light switches - hadn't thought of the clutch being involved. Hydraulic
clutch eh? Well, I don't see fluid level dropping so I hope that's not the
problem. I want to go and rerun my test now - I did notice that the 2nd switch
took quite a bit of pressure (i.e. foot as opposed to my hand during test) to
flip on.
As for replacing these things, how much fluid leaks out? How did you even get to
that switch closest to the dash without taking out the unit? I don't think
I want to be under a stream of brake fluid trying to screw in the switch
that will stop it!

And now a new subject: propane refrigerators and furnaces. This one has
them both. The fridge is a Dometic, furnace a Coleman. Previous owner
claimed that the fridge would usually light, but she sometimes had to crawl
under it and light it. Back under the flap that comes
down when you push in the igniter knob. In my case, the igniter clicks, but
I don't see any spark visible in the "flame viewer port" mentioned in the
manual, nor does it light. I tried putting a butane stick down there but it
doesn't light that way either. Kind of a high-pitched whoosh. So I backed
off. It is getting gas at least.
Any tricks to this? How about tricks to removing these units?

The propane furnace is a Coleman. Previous owner says she never even tried
to get it to work - only camped it in the summer. Yeah right. Anyway, the
pilot light works fine, thermostat I'm not sure about, but when I short it
the pilot light gets blown out. Not a good sign.
Clues on this are welcome too.

And finally - about 3 years ago some garage rewired the alternator and
auxiliary battery to meet current VW specs. This is great, as apparently
the old wiring caused a drain (according to the mechanic's note anyway.)
But, I haven't been able to find where they stuck the relay that controls
the charge to the aux battery. It's not over the fuse box, and the wires
from the batteries disappear into the floor boards. Does anyone know where
this relay is in the Westfalias?

I may yet get out in this thing this summer...

Rick