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Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:45 pm

I'm wanting to rewire my baja but want to cut out all the unneccesary stuff. I was wondering if one of the simple wiring looms made for dune buggies would work or should I buy a beetle loom and cut off unneccesary stuff? Thanks....ZERO

Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:08 pm

money well spent is to go down and buy a giant fuse block and wire up what you need/want to that. when you buy these "buggy" or reproduction bug harnesses you pay a huge mark-up for what you really are getting.
a bug repro is over kill and you pay for lots of stuff that you are just going to cut off anyway, plus the "its for a bug" mark-up.
with the buggy kits it is just a fuse block and a bunch of wires, people refer to them as "the bag of wires"
you can get good wires at your FLAP along with fuse blocks and save a bundle.
plus you dont support people that want to charge a lot of money for little product just becouse the beetle and buggy market is a little specialised.

look at different wiring diagrams, online sources, and books and you should be able to put it together yourself.

i know people have discussed this topic a few times on here, see if you can dig up the threads couse i bet you can learn from others past mistakes/solutions.
or you can pay too much money for a simple product and screw yourself.

P.S. i have seen people with the buggy "bag of wires" on here asking for simple wiring diagrams to figure that crap-ola out.

Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:22 am

its easy to do. just follow the simple plans. not hard at all unless you're color blind. :lol:

Sat Jun 11, 2005 7:00 am

NAPA auto parts has a nice selection of aftermarket fuse blocks.

Sat Jun 11, 2005 7:23 am

I made mine from srcatch for my buggy and it took about 2 days with alot of beer breaks, could have done it in one day. And even after buying everything it was about 28 bucks and I also got a couple extra spots on the fuse block to add on in the future if I want.

Sat Jun 11, 2005 8:46 am

just don't wire it all with one colour. it's a pain in the ass for the next owner.
Don't ask me how i know.

Sat Jun 11, 2005 9:04 am

Hey, that sounds familiar. I think the same guy wired my car. I especially liked a few runs that had several different colored wires scabbed together with butt connectors. Finally pulled it all out and started over...

Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:17 am

That bastard sure gets around!

You mean wire come in more colors than black and red? :lol:

I'm in the middle of my own rewire.

I got tired of using hand signals and not having running ligts at night.

Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:06 am

The $30 buggy looms are not very good... we have to rewire our Berry becuase of one of these....

Couple of ideas.

Online you can find very good quality not-installed wiring kits.... OR Earl Duty's book shows a VERY clean wiring diagragm.

On our baja, we pulled all of the wire via a plastic conduit near the tunnel.... it did not take long when you're not trying to snake it through the body.. if you make the conduit thick enough, snaking is a snap.

T.

Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:43 am

Well that was a lot more advise than I was expecting to get. Thanks a lot folks. Doing the wiring myself is what I really wanted to do anyway but wasnt sure how hard it would be or how much it would cost compared to pre-fab looms. But I think I'll give it a shot. Thanks again....ZERO

Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:36 am

Same guy had done my wiring. I went to the hardware store and bought 10 spools of different color wire to rewire my bug. I used the 65 8 fuse block and wish I had used a different approach. I am limited with the connections. I used #10 for power to the battery and #14 for everthing else. The www.type2.com web site has a bunch of wiring diagrams. I found the one for my bug and printed it on a color printer. So far no shorts and nice, bright lights. It was easy.

Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:18 pm

The Earl Duty book has a good easy to follow set of instructions for pulling your own wire.

Sat Jun 18, 2005 8:52 pm

Hi, i am wanting to do a buggy harness on my 73 Thing, did you wire your own Thing?

I could use some help, all info and help is greatly appreciated, Peter

Sun Jun 19, 2005 12:17 am

for the BAJABUS got another fuse block (stock from another bus) and pulled as much wire as I could (from a wreck) so I had the right wire for the stock wireing diagrams, so driving lights are yellow black and white black like the stock headlights. now I put the fuse block on the right and ran a second 10ga power wire from the second batery. so one block is all accessesorys and back up batery the other all stock. Also there is a work light in engine bay that has a spade conector and will reach the hot side of the coil. so if all goes to hell can run the ignition off that (ony had to do that once but I learned) stock coloring makes wiring a breeze,
total cost 5 bucks from a rolled bus

Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:12 am

I'm one of the few that like the 'bag-o-wires' buggy harness. I could design my own harness (Electronics Engineering Degree) but I don't think it's worth the hassle.

Yeah, the fuse block sucks and would be a good thing to replace.

But for $30, including the schematic, I think the buggy harness is a great deal and plenty for a basic buggy. Think of the time it takes to design, draw, and color code a good schematic...

Solder all the connections, take your time, and the buggy wiring harness should last as long as any other harness.

Installation (and documentation) is much more important than anything else!

I've got a colored and scanned schematic of the buggy harness if anyone would like to see it, or use it to build their own harness. Shoot me an e-mail and I'll send it to 'ya.

Mon Jun 20, 2005 8:00 pm

Respectfully disagreeing...

If you want a diagragm.. check out the Earl Duty book... you can buy it on ebay for about $10 frequently... much better than the BugCrap one that little kids are shrink wrapping.

One of our cars has this loom (cheap buggy harness) in it -- has mysterious lost power issues... PLUS it's under charged for most of the wires..

For $30... I'd buy the book with $10.. then Buy bulk wire... it took us the same ammount of time to pull custom wire as it did to install the Chiwaneeze blister pack one....

Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:00 am

So im using one of the wiring diagrams that i got off line to wire my baja. It fires up good but doesnt seem to be charging. The diagram has the B+ wire of the alternater going to the starter on the same post as the battery. When I fire it up and and disconnect the negative battery cable it dies, so im guessing its not charging? The alternator is new so thats not the problem. Should the B+ wire be connected to the same post on the starter as the battery? Or is removing the negative battery cable not a good test of the charging system when its wired this way? I'm stuck on this one, any help would be appreciated. Thanks...ZERO

Sun Jul 24, 2005 5:29 pm

zerosanity03 has an open ground, If you're sure the alternator is good. Make sure you have good continuity between the engine, body, and frame.
A good source for fuseboxes is the wrecking yard, I mentioned that in another post a while back. The quality just can't be beat by an aftermarket unit. It's not rocket science to rewire them either, look at the "underhood electrical centers" found in a lot of cars, most of them even have relay sockets integrated into them. "Parts Express" sells bulk wire pretty cheap, and they have end-stackable bosch style relay sockets as well, very clean install. Imp558

Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:06 pm

I gotta chime in here:

It's not really rocket science to make one of your own. I did mine and I even used the same color wires for everything. They do it on airplanes all the time and it even looks kinda spiffy. I didn't use any relays and I wish I had bought an new fuse block instead of reusing the VW one. Next time, I might even go with circuit breakers or maybe circuit breaker switches.

Yes I kept a list and numbered all my wires. One thing I will do next time, and there will be a next time. Second buggy is sitting in the yard right now. Next time, instead of pulling 2 spare wires, I'll pull at least 3 and maybe more. You will forget something no matter how hard you try or, you'll have one that just won't work.

The new buggy came with one of those wiring harnesses yall are beating down so much. I didn't think they were that bad. I wasn't planning on using it if somebody wants it. It's been opened but I think everything is there.

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TC