Need Of an Electrician

Jersey Thing · Post by **Jersey Thing** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 7:52 pm

Greetings Once again all -

I am so close yet so far. I have everything just about working except the high beams on the headlights as well as the directionals. I do get low beam and the flasher/marker lights but no turn signals.

I did purchase new releys for both from Things Unlimited, and installed with no avail.

The wiring is a mess, whomever had the car prior painted it and went nuts so many of the wire colors have been obscured with paint and a few are just hanging under the dash. I do however have everything else functioning with the exception of the Gas Heater and the cigarette light blows the fuse on my power inverter i use to power some of my electrical tools, i currently use my trucks cigarette light to power some when i run out of conventional outlets in my garage.

HELP!!!!

Thanks for any insight....

Jersey

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 8:17 pm

There is a gray wire going from the heater to the timer switch. That is your power wire for the heater. I have mine on a toggle and it does just fine that way. Hope thats what you need to get it going again.
Kindred seems most capable in the gas heater area. Perhaps he will be able to help too. Bob

Jersey Thing · Post by **Jersey Thing** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:55 am

GREAT!!!!

I have a toggle switch which i am not sure what it is for...i assume it is for that....

You da' man

Thanks

Joe

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:56 am

Joe run a hot wire to the gray wire to test. If it fires up then run a full time hot to one side of the toggle and the gray wire to the other side. Bob

Post by **Marc** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:13 am

Make sure you have the hi/lo relay connected properly. The white/black wire from the headlamp switch goes to 56, and the two outputs are 56a and 56b (it doesn't really matter which is which, but stock 56a is high beam -white wire, and 56b is low beam - yellow wire).
Do you hear the relay click when you pull on the t'signal lever?
There are 4-pin and 5-pin versions of the hi/lo relay. The 4-pin gets its operating power internally from 56, and the 5-pin needs another wire to power it (can just be a small jumper from 56).
Best practice when troubleshooting t'signals is to bypass the flasher unit and run steady power to the t'signal switch while checking out the operation of all of the lights - once they're all working properly put the flasher into the circuit. Most flashers are load-dependent and may not function properly if the correct number of lamps (in this case 2,3, or 4) are connected to it.

Jersey Thing · Post by **Jersey Thing** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:44 am

Thanks...Marc....sometimes i have a click on the steering column and other times no. I will try this suggestion over the weekend....If you have anymore insight i will gladly listen intently. I may have a horn issue as well...

Thank you one and all for all your help. This message board has made me feel very welcome and that there is no stupid question. It has given me the boost confidence to undertake all that this labor of love has to throw at me...

Joe

Post by **Marc** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 12:33 pm

Inside the hi/lo relay there's a little teeter-totter deal that moves each time the solenoid is energized to open one set of contacts, close the other set, and @@@@ itself so it's ready to reverse the process the next time. The solenoid has power to one end of it any time the headlamps are on and the small brown wire that goes to the "S" terminal on the relay gives it a ground to complete the circuit and energize it when you pull back on the t'signal lever. If you can't tell if the problem is in the switch or in the relay, one way to find out is to use a little jumper wire from any good ground to the "S" terminal - each time you connect it (with the headlight switch on) it should click and switch the beams.

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 2:08 pm

I`ve also had good luck with exciting the relay when it was not working. I ran a hot lead to it. It clicked and began normal function . That was three yrs ago and still working. Bob

suntour · Post by **suntour** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:02 pm

Bob is right about the grey wire to the heater. That wire turns the heater on. I should mention that that are three other wires that supply power to the heater (well two and a half) There are two wires coming off the 9th fuse (closest to the steering column should be #10 and #1 is next to the driver door.) hopefully still has a red 16 amp fuse in there.
One should be a big fat 1.5mm red wire and another is a .5mm red wire. The fat wire goes to the relay ?M? on top of your heater. (This is the main source of juice for the heater) The other should go to the back of your timer switch marked ?30?. Another wire that is a .5mm black comes off the 10th fuse to the timer switch marked ?15?

That grey wire Bob mentioned turns the heater on. That should come from the back of your timer switch marked ?A? and go to the Safety Switch on top of your heater. (It is the third to last gizmo on top of your heater towards the passenger side. It is a clear plastic box with a red reset switch facing the firewall.) And last but not least is a red/white wire that comes off your headlight switch 58b and goes to the timer switch ?K?. But that wire only lights up the timer switch knob when you turn your head lights on.

Of course this is based on you still having the timer switch. If you don?t then run the fat wire (1.5mm red) from fuse #9 to the relay marked ?M? and then follow Bob?s suggestion on a toggle switch for the grey. If it still doesn?t work, we can go from there. Good Luck! The spaghetti system behind the dash is a headache at best.

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 5:54 pm

I used to have a spaghetti system behind my dash. Then I had a melt down (timer switch failure). Now its lasagna. Bob

Jersey Thing · Post by **Jersey Thing** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:29 pm

Greetings Once Again All -

Thank you for all the tips and How to's. I must say i am a bit overwhelmed and intimadated by this...but have a warm fuzzy feeling of confidence.

I also get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that i have come a long way since July, knowing that it is a matter of time before i will be motoring in around in something i have wanted since i was 8 yrs old. I realize that the wiring in this VW is not rocket science. I can do the basic i.e. fog lights.

I do have the schematics but it might as well be in sandscript and the some of the other reference materials are in German.

Thanks again,

Joe

suntour · Post by **suntour** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 2:00 am

I feel your pain. Those VW wiring diagrams seem counter intuitive. When I rewired my entire car I followed one from a Haynes manual. It seemed to make a lot more sense. Unfortunately it was made for a bug so it didn?t have anything about the gas heater. I had to follow the VW service manual on that one. You would think they would group all electrical components in one place instead of spreading them all over the page.

Jersey Thing · Post by **Jersey Thing** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 3:51 am

Bob -
Just a note about the Hot wire to grey wire...excuse my ignorance but do i run that from the positive or negative post off the battery?

Thanks
joe

Post by **Marc** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:48 am

The heater is mounted to the body (ground) which is connected to the negative post.
To get a complete circuit you need to provide power from the positive post...as a rule, when someone says "hot" wire they're referring to one coming from the positive side of the battery - unless it's too small for the job, it shouldn't be hot in a thermal sense.

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:34 pm

Joe find something on the fuse panel that is live all the time and use that or come off a terminal on the headlight switch that is always hot.
Use a test light. Ground it at the clip then use the probe to find a terminal that lights up when touched with the probe. Whatever you do avoid running a wire to it that is unfused. Bob