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I have a 71 super-beetle which I have had for years and drive it quite regularly. My horn and brake lights quit working! Started to diagnose at the fuse panel which became quite confusing and still is. I have 12 fuses. I tested with a tester and 6 through 12 show power on with a test light and 1- 6 show no power?? All electrical items work but the brake lights and horn.
I have also checked the brake switches under the car at the master cylinder but show no power there also. My fuse box 1- 8 are white 8 amps 9 and 11 are red. I have seen a few wiring diagrams on line and some are different than this. I'm really confused and need some help! Jennings

http://www.vintagebus.com/wiring/1302_U ... r_1970.jpg

The last three fuses (10,11,12) all receive their power from the ignition switch - the third one in (10) serves the brakelamps and horn. There's really no reason for #9 to be 16A (apparently that's where the factory assumed that a dealer might connect a high-amperage accessory), and even #11 - the wiper motor - is normally OK with an 8A as well but there's no harm in leaving it 16A.

Many times all that's necessary is to clean up the fuse contacts with a piece of emery cloth/fine sandpaper, and gently bend them a little so that they hold the fuse tighter. It's a good idea to "spin" the fuses now and then to keep them making good contact.

Unrelated to your problem but worth noting, for reasons known only to the factory the LR parking lamp has a fuse all to itself (#2) while #1 serves the RR, license plate lamp, and all four front parking/sidemarker lamps. Personally I like to cut off the wire to the LF, put a new "piggyback" spade connector on it and move it to #2 for improved load distribution.

Once you've got power to the brakelight switches restored, another thing you may want to do is to test them independently. They're wired in parallel so that either the front or rear circuit will light the stoplights, but if one's bad they may not come on upon light braking. Simply unplug them one at a time and make sure the stoplights will still come on.

thanks! Just did the no. 10 fuse thing and got brake lights working but no horn! I do have a new turn signal switch on order as one little tab broke off and it will not return to neutral by itself any more. When I had this apart I noticed the brass contact for the horn had holes worn in it so may this has something to do with the horn problem but I bent it up a bit to insure contact with the wheel brass ring. ???


JENNINGS

First check that the horn itself isn't the problem. It has power any time the key's on through fuse #10 and the black/yellow wire, and sounds when it receives a ground through the contacts at the steering wheel. Pull the brown wire off the horn and use a jumper wire between that terminal and a ground (bumper, chassis bolt, etc.). If the horn works with the key on and that terminal grounded, it's good and you won't be wasting your time continuing to troubleshoot the control circuit.

Sometimes all a balky horn needs is a few good smacks along the rim with a hammer to knock loose any corrosion detritus on its internal "buzzer" contacts. Most of them have an adjustment screw (under a blob of RTV) that you can tweak with a screwdriver to "tune" the operation...success is usually rare, but worth a try before buying a new one.