today i ripped the dash out and began the daunting task of righting my kombi's electrical system. i have since decided that it was designed by little gremlins, and therefore does not follow any physical laws. before i removed the dash the only issues (besides the huge mess) with the electrical system were that the emergency switch had been partially disconnected, the fuel pump would occasionally not come on and the wipers only worked in the central position (as in - the switch worked off/on/off).
after removing the dash i tried all of the switches again. now i had no blinkers!!! i found the bundle of wires that had been disconnected from the emergency switch, and if i connected the black/white wire to the left blinker output, turned the switch on and the left blinker on i could get a left blinker, but no matter what else i did with the wiring i could not get either pair of blinkers to operate properly, nor the right blinkers to work at all. if i switched 2 of the otherwires on the emergency switch however, the fuel pump kicked in (with the ignition off). any guesses how that could happen!?!
after about an hour i gave up on that and went to the wipers. by playing with what wire goes where i managed to get the following situations; off/on/on, with both on positions at the same speed; on/on/on, 2 different speeds, but not much good when u cant turn it off; and several different blown fuses and off/off/offs that were seemignly inexplicable.it occured to me after a while that i had another wiper motor in the shed, one with the original plug, so if i were to install that one and simply clip the 2 original plugs together i would get a working wioer right? WRONG! i got nuttin, no responce from the motor at all, started playing with the wires again until i ran out of fuses and didnt get any further then i had with the previous motor.
WHAT THE HELL SHOULD I DO ABOUT THIS WIRING!?!
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
Get yourself a wiring diagram..... you should be able to do a search here and find one, or someone who has one, as I'm sure I recall someone asking for one in the past.
Kruizin Kol
Just be grateful it's not an Italian car. Speghetti electrics.
Ain't nothin' like the wind in your hair.
Try looking at a new SAAB or Volvo. There are more wires in the drivers door than in an entire Kombi.
Yeah, so quit your bitchin and get on with it!
Ain't nothin' like the wind in your hair.
take em all out and start from scratch 😉
Founding member of the C'town Rat-Pack
burn em'.
THe MC Bat Commander's motto: "Never do now, what you could do for 24 hours straight, all night, the night before."
you think you got issues.
this morning my kombi had short circuit and all electrics cut out and the engine stopped and the cabin filled with smoke.
good old fashioned fun with vw's.
Yeah, but at least there aren't any of those nasty computers (with minds of their own) inside. Face it - it could be worse!
And some people pay a lot of money to inhale smoke. I reckon you've saved yourself some money!
Best of luck with your bird's nests.
thanks guys. went out this morning, took the spare fusebox from the long gone donor bus and set about pulling off every wire on the installed fusebox that was different from the spare one. that done nothing worked at all, but after some slow and careful connecting i now have headlights, high beams and fans running. now i just need to get the wipers, blinkers, accessories, aircon..... i thinks i might be at this for a while.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
Some people have jigsaws... What you're doing is at least productive. BOL
I'm having the same problems with the hi low beam and light switch... I know everything works... and My Sons Baja , He wanted toggle switches in the dash... and they were MUCH easier to wire up than the VW system....
I doubt if the electrics man at VW was an auto electrician at all... 🙂🙂🙂
I'm not sure what He was... but He was a German......🙂🙂
So, I'll perservere for a while, but the toggle switches are close by..... 🙂🙂🙂
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
burn em:blah
Baby Loves to Mumbo
I dunno what you guys are all on, the VW electrical system is just fine. Don't forget to take into account that your dub has 30 years of normal wear and tear, and has possibly been neglected for the same period.
How many other vehicles of the same period had individual fuses for RH high beam, RH low beam, LH high beam and LH low beam? I'm guessing not many....
My kombi is 29 years old, and the only (stock) electrical component not working is the heater booster fan in the engine bay, and I choose to live without it.
Of course, my '76 FI kombi was a bit more complicated, and had the occasional hiccup, but I felt this was justified given its age too. :thumb
Kruizin Kol
