Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Seeing The Light

Wow what a fun time I've been having working on Vera. There are several issues with the wiring. The problem was turn signals were blowing fuses. Since I knew nothing about VW wiring up until a week ago I was able to use a great book by John Muir to get me started. Also, the help of a few websites like thesamba.com and youtube.com I've been able to navigate the wiring pretty good. With only one problem, half of the wiring, switches etc. are missing. The stuff that is there isn't where it should be.

I first started inspecting the lenses. both were cracked and the bulb socket on the lense housing was rotted out. So I replaced both front housings, bulbs and lenses. This didn't fix the problem though. I inspected the rear lights and everything looked ok. I also replaced all of the fuses. Nothing helped. Fuses still blowing.

So, t then started checking all grounds (I could find) and fixed up a couple but the problem remained. After disassembling the switch, I cleaned it really good. I put it back in and tested, the fuse didnt blow and the signal lights came on but they wouldn't blink. With a lot of tracing wires I was able to determine the Flasher Relay was also missing! I ran down to the local auto supply store and picked up a relay. I came back and tested and they worked!

However, now the headlights weren't working. By now you might think I was getting frustrated? Haha, so would I normally but no I was pretty confident in the problem as I had learned the wiring, whats left of it. So with a replacement of the headlight relay I had working front and back turn signals, tail lights and head lights! I was pretty happy!!

One interesting thing is while removing the stereo I noticed a cassette tape was in the deck! Of course I had to pry it apart, it was a nice break from the rats nest of wires. It had Bob Marley/Tribe written on one side! Ya Mon!! So cool. Also had Backstar written on the back. I think it is another reggae band?

I suspect a pretty big wiring system was in the bus at one time. There is an extra fuse box that is mounted under the dash with all wires cut. This was probably for a stereo. There were lots of dead wires I pulled out. Probably half the harness, Things like high beams, windshield wipers, and dome light are not working.

Anyway, so on to the next project.










No comments:

Post a Comment