Alright, so it was finally time to put the new guards on Zelda.

Everything bolted on perfectly. I did the wiring and then, well, we tried the brakes, and the indicators, and nothing.

I got a bit further. Currently, I have parkers (on full brightness) and indicators. When I push my brake down, it doesn't do anything whatsoever.

My current wiring is as follows (the exact same on both sides).





Any help would be greatly appreciated. Need this to be fixed before morning!

Hey Brad,

I'm uploading a video to YouTube to explain this all in fullness.
I can give it a go. I'm willing to give anything a go, I need this done by tomorrow morning at 9am.

And by parkers on full brightness I mean it is as if my foot was on the brake pedal.

Parkers are supposed to be dim, and then when the foot is applied to the brake pedal, they go full brightness.
But instead, they're always full brightness.

the light fixture needs to be earthed to the car for any lights to work...


parkers are the very small bulbs... in the headlamps...
not very bright... for parking...

Headlamps - High and Low also need to be earthed to the car otherwise both filiments glow...
one brighter then the other as it needs the earth wire to the car

normally cars get the earth from the guards when they are bolted on...
but if there is paint under the bolts, it won't work...

best to add earth wires if there aren't any there..

You can put a wire from a guard bolt to the light or as I did, I added earth wires and attached the end of the wire to a small self tapping screw on the body of the car..

and the other end to a screw or terminal on the lamp...

power has to flow from the battery back to the battery for the lamps to work...


best of luck

Lee

yeah ok so you have the parkers and brake wires backwards, are you testing it on the car ? If not at least plug the earth wire back into the cluster so you aren't getting feedback through your circuit.

What year beetle is this ?

Your missing the brown earth wire from chassis to reflector/light base.

but the earth wire need to be connected to the tail lamp assembly base for the lights to work properly

Dim and Bright

LEE

see the earth terminal on Your tail lamp assembly bracket with no wire on it??

it needs to connected to the body of the car

LEE

have You actually bolted the tail lamps to the guards???

anyway there should be a brown earth wire to connect to the tail lamp terminal

then they will work

LEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FdTq-5BeRU 

This is the new wiring.

Also replaced the housing with original ones not the reproduction.

rear lights are not LHS and RHS so fis your RHS so it is the same as your LHS and swap the brake and tail over. The mounts are LHS and RHS but the lights aren't.

Hook up your earth

Okay, so from what I can gather I need to earth each taillight assembly to the chassis.
That's what the now added in brown wire does.

Still the same issue though.

Also why an L Bug without reverse light ?

Brake light is presure switch I would not be suprised if sitting a box on it, even a full one did not activate it. Push the pedal with your foot

Have been testing with my foot now, same issue.

The reverse light wiring has been screwed with, I need a full day of just tracing wires to get it done.
I have tonight/now to get the brakes working for tomorrow morning.

Each assembly should have the same wires in the same spots, correct?
Each should also be grounded to the chassis?

Is that what the brown wire is for that is already being passed under to the fender?
I'm going to assume so anyway.

Actually, what is that mustard coloured wire for?
Should I be connecting my brown/earth to it or should I go straight to the chassis myself?

Correct, reverse wire is simple you should have a fuse in the engine bay that takes power from the coil ignition and runs it to the reverse light switch on the transmission and then up to the reverse lights.

Brake lights - check you haven't blown your fuse, check you have power to the switch on the M/C, then just unplug the non powered wire and touch it on the powered wire and make sure they light up.

Brake switches fail all the time so don't be suprised if that is what has happened.

Swap globes left to right and check that no filaments in the globes are blown or are all the globes new?..

Mine isn't that simple. It has been spliced to kingdom come.

Fuse, not blown.
What does M/C stand for?

How am I supposed to drive her without brake lights?
Should I call work and tell them I can't make it till later in the afternoon and take her to an auto-electrician in the morning?

All globes are brand new...

m/c = master cylinder

If you use a flat head to short the two prongs on the master switch, it should turn your brake lights on.

If it doesn't turn on, see if you have current at either:

1) At the brake light switch at the master cylinder (use some wire and a spare light bulb etc, or better yet, a multimeter)

2) At the brake light wire at the tail light, check for current/voltage, even by plugging into 'say' the indicator light bulb, you just want that glow to isolate the problem.


NOW! I had issues with my brake lights... it was due to 2 things. 1: corrosion in the bulb housing. and two, if you see the clip in the bulb housing (that holds in the brake light bulb yea?) that clip at the bottom 'Pushes' into the bulb. Sometimes it can get bent and not push hard enough into the base of the bulb to make a great contact. simply remove the bulb and rebend the clip slightly to put a bit more tension on the bulb.

And of course, be 100% positive that the light housing is earthed, and the earth wire is connected to a nice clean blade plug at the light housing in case corrosion is insulating it. again, a multimeter could be used to check this (through the resistance measurement to check for 'continuity' in the circuit IE: making sure the housing is somewhat able to contact to teh chassis, but if testing this way to check the earth, disconnect all wires but the earth wire to see if it is working).

goodluck

I gave up.

Taking her to an auto-electrician tomorrow morning.

Thanks everyone that landed a hand!

dude u will get charged like a mofo! you can nail this!

pity ur not local.

Lee,
I connected up that wire, and nothing changed. Still no brakes when I push the brake pedal.

Chris,
Yeah, I know I'll get charged high as they can charge me, so I'll try what you said in the morning.
I'll get a mate to come over with a multimeter and we'll nail this.

Sometimes I just wished everything I did with Zelda was smooth sailing. Seems everything goes to shits.
I have a new master cylinder lined up anyway seeing as though one of the things are splitting.

Hi

just connect a piece of wire to the body bare metal and touch the other end of the wire to the silver metal bit on your tail lamps sebastien

that is all it needs

Lee

you'll nail it.

its always the case with the bug. But after the first time you fix a specific problem, every other time ends up a walk in the park.

By the time you replaced everything on it, you'll be right lol (tis what i'm going through now , always 'something' to fix that puts its hand up for attention after another problem is cured)

you would have needed an earth wire as your last guards were fibreglass

Lee

if all the lights worked before

and the lights changed when you pushed the brake pedal..

that is normal when the earth wire is disconnected

Lee


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