gday

Anyone have any ideas why my Type 3 is positively earthed. Basically I found when I put the radio in that the car body was giving off 12 volts and had to hook up the earth to the inner core of the aerial. Is this common in VW's or has someone hooked something up backwards? Is it easy to change back, my fuel guage isn't working and i'm thinking it maybe because its earthed to the body.

Thanks
John

Something is not right. VW's have a negative earth ie the body is connected to the -ve terminal of the battery. Check to see if this is the case in your car. What exactly do you mean by "the car body was giving off 12 volts"? 12 volts relative to what? If you have the terminals of your multimeter hooked up the wrong way, the reading will be the wrong polarity.

I'd be checking again. It would be a bit of effort to change over to +ve earth for no apparent gain! Anything polarity sensitive, such as the starter motor, alternator, windscreen wiper motor, coil, etc would have to be swapped over.

guys thanks for the info, went and talked to my local vw guy today and he said they might have put the battery in backwards and no probs turning it around. guess what it was in wrong, unbelievable. anyway swapped it over fixed up the stereo and now the fuel guage works. its all good, thnaks again

.........your local VW guy put the battery in backwards !!!!!
......... i.e. reversed polarity ????????

You're right...unbelievable. How does he manage to stay in business ? And furthermore - would you go back there again for more punishment ?