Fitting a new Wiring Loom

Okies folks,
I know a few people have done this and am looking for tips, pointers or specific VW guidance.
I have just bought a new generic vehicle wiring loom, not a buggy kit, just a basic Non 'VW specific' wiring loom similar to those from Watson Street Works advertised in 'Cruzin' and all the US VW mags .
Its pretty similar to the ones advertised as VW specific in the US, but will have a lot longer wires as its suitable for much larger cars than a beetle.
What I am looking for is if anyone has fitted a wiring loom to their beetles (either a VW one or a 'new' generic brand one) and still has the instructions as to where to put the wires etc, or if there are any specific things I should be concerned about when I am running the wires.
Oh yeah, its going into an Oval 😉 sorry, forgot that where the wires run will be a wee bit different in different year beetles.
Cheers folks 🙂

[ Edited on 27-6-2006 by penguin ]

No one??😢

Is the colour scheme 4 the wires the same as a origional Beetle

If so then start wiith the easy wiring which is the Lights

white = high beam
yellow = low beam
grey = parkers

once you have hooked this up the up have done about half of the wiring

black green
black white = blinkers

black red = stop lights

I made My own wiring harnesses up....
No two colour wires....
just black, white, yellow, light blue, dark blue, light green, dark green, brown plus 2 heavy wires to take power to the dash... plus 7 wire trailer cable from front to rear...
plus smaller wires for the tacho & oil temp/pressure senders...
My Blinker light inside the Speedo, flashes so bright at night its nearly blinding...
All connections soldered and heatshrink wrapped...
Big Job and took ages to do....

Lee

I am doing similar thing at the mo.I have a 65 wiring harness and am attempting to fit into an oval.I"m a little stuck at the mo as to what way the thing installs!It has the same length wires at one end but are somewhat staggered at the other.I have been looking at every wiring diagram i can get my hands on.It'll take a little time.

Thanks guys

Dave, nope not the same colours as a VW loom, but I am pretty sure that the destructions that will come with it will tell me which bundle should be headlights etc.

Lee, the line at the end of yours is why I bought a shop made loom, 'Big jobs and took ages to do...". I am willing to play with most of the car, but the wiring loom had me stuffed. Plus with the cost of buying wire, fuse box, relays etc and the shear frustration of stuffing it up a few times (I know I would have). I figured it was easier to just buy a loom that had been made up.

What I was trying to ask (I just reread my 1st post) was where do the wires go? and has anyone fitted a modern loom to an Oval? I know that in a VW loom the fuse box is behind the dash, but for a new loom is that the easiest place for it? etc

if the loom is completely new then you may be restricted as to where you put the fusebox so that all the wiring goes in the correct place... if its a true VW copy then i would assume it is made with the intention that the fuse box is in the original spot.

I installed a 'Painless' wiring harness into a Holden once - half the circuits weren't there and it took ages - and I know what I'm doing

For Beetle, suggest transplanting a good harness, relays fusebox etc from a wrecked Super or you will go nuts

If you still have the old loom i suggest that you lay it out beside the car and use it to copy if possible

do the lights first as i said there half of the wires n there the easiest

Nope
no old harness. It was removed many years before I bought the shell. Thats why I am trying to do this before I paint the body. The shell is off the pan at the moment (and its at the panel beaters having the last bit of red worm cancer cut out) and before I get it painted I was going to try and run at least string lines for the loom., if not wires.
I am guessing from a lot of pics that 'winners of shows' have up, I may end up with the fuse box under the rear seat (not that I am complaining about that) but am curious as to how others have run modern looms.

Hey mate,

you can see a few pics of how I did mine here:
http://www.manxgallery.org/gallery/album228

Not sure what you meant by your last sentence, but here is where mine is:


By the way, you could easily install it under the dash as per a vw trends article way back (used the watson kit), I just didn't have enough room with the amplifier and crossovers etc.

I recently helped my brother in law rewire under his dash using two 8-fuse fuse panels with modern style fuses from supercheap - you can probably u2u blup58 for some pictures. His panels are under the dash and look very neat.

[ Edited on 29-6-2006 by Dasdubber ]

Thanks Das
didn't mean much by the last sentence. Just whenever I have seen modern harnesses the always seem to be under the rear seat and was wondering if it was because of length of wires etc. I forgot about your car, for soem reason I thought you built your loom yourself. I was actually trawling a few american sites as thats where this loom is coming from. I did ask an Aust Auto Elec shop about building a loom and he talked me ouit of it and sold me the American one. Shall u2u blup58 and ask what he has done.
I'll follow Dave's suggestion though and do front lights first (when the loom gets here and I get the shell back)

No probs penguin.

Brad (blup58) pretty much left most of the stock wiring harness in place, but we simply replaced the old fuse blocks with modern style the re-routed the wiring to tidy it all up.

We used wiring diagrams off the following site to guide how to figure out which wires went to which fuse etc.
http://66.34.72.138/index.html

Mind you, not being an autoelectrician I managed to make a few stuff ups along the way but hopefully they will be remedied without too much difficulty! I am most likely seeing the car this weekend so will try and get some pics.

with the body is off the chassis YES run a tie wire through the roof n down the front pillar so its easier to fit the loom after painting use thin steel tie wire if you can get some n leave it long at each end so as to make it easier to pull the loom through the roof.

Also get some silicon spray to apply to it to make it slide easier

while the bodys off also get into the roof cavity with a hook n pull out all the upolstery bits n pieces stuck in the side of the roof get in there n blow it out with compressed air as well. this will stop futher corrosion and allow you to spray in some rust inhibitor after you have had the car painted and the loom fitted in the roof cavity

There is a place in Bellingen NSW (between Coffs and Port Macquarie) called Vintage wiring harnesses that made a new harness for my 72. This is the list of looms they have done before.
VW VOLKSWAGEN

VW502 1950-52 MODEL 11C LHD (till early 1952) 2AT
VW522 1952 MODEL 11C 25HP 2AR
VW556 1955-56 BEETLE 2AR
VW589 1958-59 BEETLE, SEDAN WITH TRAFFICATORS 2AM
VW599 1959 BEETLE, CABRIOLET WITH TRAFFICATORS 2AM
VW612 1961-62 BEETLE SEP FLASHERS NO REVERSE LIGHT 2AQ
VW622 1962 KARMANN GHIA 2AS
VW700 1970 MODEL 1600 TS NOTCHBACK 2-DOOR 2AT
VW733 1973 MODEL L (BUG) 2AU

Their website is http://www.vinwire.com.au/ if you want to get one of those and adapt it to your 54. The only thing I can say is ask them how long for it as they are snowed under doing harnesses for lots of old cars not just VW.

Great operation though, I called in there with my LHD harness to leave with them as a template and they showed me the machinery that weaves the fabric around the wire to make the completed harness. (They did mine in the modern plastic style but they mostly deal in older fabric looms).

Good luck.

Yogie