Chaps...

My lovely 1987 244 is coming along quite nicely after some freshening up.

One of the issues at hand is that my orange "upshift" light is either solid on, or fluttering/flickering so quickly that it seems on with maybe a candle type flicker.

Now, I've had the battery disconnected a few times in doing some repairs, and I've read that this can reset the shift control module, and that the flicker is typically associated with this. I've also read that it can be reset by leaving the car in each forward gear for 10 seconds... but I have not found an "exact" procedure for doing this.

I've ALSO read, that this flickering could be associated with an air mass meter problem? I'm not familiar with how or why they would be associated, but I'm not a doctor.

As a possibly related aside... the car is loping a little at idle, and I can get the RPMs to drop to near stalling by rapidly pumping the brakes. I've assumed that this is a vacuum leak, though I haven't been able to source one anywhere using propane, and as far as I can tell, my brake booster is boosting appropriately. I'm also assuming that the clean flame trap hasn't been regularly serviced on this vehicle, so I'm going to be relocating, and servicing that as well.

Sorry for the long post... anyone have any thoughts?

 

Update.

I found an owners manual for my car and it states that to reset this, the vehicle needs to be in each forward gear (1st gear omitted) for 8 seconds. This will enable the computer to "learn" the shift points again.

Sadly... I haven't had success in getting it to reset with my attempts so far.

Just in case anyone is searching...

Still, any advice/thoughts are appreciated.

 

that shift indicator light looks like its controlled by pin L of a control unit thats tucked away behind the dash to the far left side of the car, it looks kind of like a relay. the wire that drives this llight it is yellow/red.

inputs to this control unit include:

• pin 30, green-white wire with power from fuse 9.
• pin 31, black wire to ground
• pin C, brown from clutch switch (other side of switch goes to ground)
• pin 1, white-red from tachometer signal from ignition coil
• pin 6, blue from instrument panel pin 228/200 (I beleive this is a speedometer *output*)

near as I can tell, this control unit compares RPMs to speed, and for a given speed if the RPMs are too high for best economy, it tells you to upshift. the one that was on my '89 Jetta got input from the manifold vacuum so if you were accelerating, it wouldn't come on until much higher RPMs...

 

Thanks Pierce. At this stage, I think I'm going to be pulling the bulb. I just installed a factory tachometer in place of the clock, so I don't especially need it? Though it is frustrating when something isn't working and I can't figure out why.