After Market Gauges

After installing a new engine I knew I wanted to have more instruments than the standard Vanagon cluster includes. I had bought some VDO gauges a long time ago for this. My first installation of these gauges was really simple, but after the first test drive I decided the location (to the left of the column under the air vent) was really hard to see. I decided to put them in individual pods right in the middle of the dash up by the windshield.

Even though I had VDO gauges I decided to see if I could make these Autometer pods work. I wasn't too impressed by the VDO style, and they were over twice the cost.

The down side is that the Autometer pod is really too small for the VDO gauge (especially the light holder). I had to do some creative wiring to make it all fit. For the light, I cut off the barrel on the female space connector, and soldered the wire to the side of the connector. Then I curled everything around just so to allow it all to come out the back of the pod.

I put some shrink tube around the wires here they come out.

I mounted the bases so they would be pointing directly at the driver. The grommets had to be shifted to the side a little to fit.

I added some terminal strips near the glove box.

Here they are hooked up. I ran 6 wires to the engine bay (right terminal strip). Only two of them are being used so far (oil pres. and coolant temp.). The left strip provides grounds (brown), ignition switched power (yellow), and dimmer controlled lighting (white).

Here's how they look installed.

And in the Van. With a big cup they block the left gauge. Eventually I'll put the voltage gauge there since it's the one I use the least.