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Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:08 pm

So the dash board fan I bought for my 84 westy that plugs into the lighter socket runs backwards. It operates normally in another car. Before I spend time digging around behind the dash board, can someone tell me, do I just have to switch the lighter socket wires around?

Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:24 pm

Turn the wires around on the plug--not the socket--- and it should spin the opposite way.

Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:23 am

If it were me, I would check the polarity of the cig socket. Especially since the fan spins the right direction on another car.

Not sure if, or how, the wiring would be incorrect at cig socket though..... :-k

Neil.

Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:07 pm

This is pretty bizarre-

Why would it work in one negative ground vehicle and not the other?

If one vehice was positive ground & the other wasn't the motor wouldn't turn---it would short out.

Is there a direction switch you missed on the fan?

Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:52 pm

Terry Kay wrote: This is pretty bizarre-

Why would it work in one negative ground vehicle and not the other?

If one vehice was positive ground & the other wasn't the motor wouldn't turn---it would short out.

Is there a direction switch you missed on the fan?

Assuming it's a DC motor driving the fan, it should turn both directions.

If the fan was made in North America for North American cars, I'm pretty sure it won't care if it's plugged into one of those wacky old British cars with a positive ground. It would just spin backwards.

But maybe he has the fan pointing the wrong way? ;)

Sorry. Couldn't resist! :)

Neil.

Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:23 am

thanks for the reply guys. No the fan is not pointing the wrong way, how ever I did get a good laugh. It's an 84 westy and I do have some other electrical issues so maybe they are related. By the way the fan works fine in my 90 GL. Here are some of the electrical issues;
The temp gauge only works right with the relay removed.
When you hit the horn, the radio cuts out for a moment.
When you run the rear blower, front blower, and wipers, the fuse blows.

Known history is last year the front blower was replaced. When I got the van back, the clock and the lighter did not work. I found the wires for the lighter hanging out behind the dash and figured this was causing the fuse to blow. So I hooked up the wires for the lighter and thought I was good to go.
The lighter actually heats up but my phone charger will not work and of course the fan runs backwards. The fan was made in China.

Maybe the ground is messed up?
I'm stupid when it comes to electrical issues.

Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:58 am

Ken Letherer wrote: The temp gauge only works right with the relay removed.
When you hit the horn, the radio cuts out for a moment.
When you run the rear blower, front blower, and wipers, the fuse blows.

This all sounds normal for an aircooled VW... at least compared to some I've owned! :wink:

It sounds like you've got some serious under-dash rewiring to do. If it were me I would just plan on pulling the dash board, sitting down with my Bentley, and getting everything straightened out. Or you could live with the rest of it and wire a DPDT switch in the fan cord to flip the polarity. That will work until the dash goes up in smoke due to whatever else is going on under there! :)

Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:03 am

Ken Letherer wrote: thanks for the reply guys. No the fan is not pointing the wrong way, how ever I did get a good laugh. It's an 84 westy and I do have some other electrical issues so maybe they are related. By the way the fan works fine in my 90 GL. Here are some of the electrical issues;
The temp gauge only works right with the relay removed.
When you hit the horn, the radio cuts out for a moment.
When you run the rear blower, front blower, and wipers, the fuse blows.

Known history is last year the front blower was replaced. When I got the van back, the clock and the lighter did not work. I found the wires for the lighter hanging out behind the dash and figured this was causing the fuse to blow. So I hooked up the wires for the lighter and thought I was good to go.
The lighter actually heats up but my phone charger will not work and of course the fan runs backwards. The fan was made in China.

Maybe the ground is messed up?
I'm stupid when it comes to electrical issues.

Safe to say you simply have the wires reversed at cig lighter socket.

The cig lighter element (part that gets hot) doesn't care about polarity. It'll get hot hooked up either way.

Just swap around the cig lighter wires.

Don't plug anything else in until you do this. The fan should serve as a good polarity tester given that I assume you don't have a VOM (volt ohm meter)

As for your other wiring woes, too bad one couldn't drive to the electrical specialist with the dash off. It would save some money. (time taken for specialist to remove/replace it)

I wonder what happened to the wiring when dash was put back on. Pinched wires? Incorrectly routed wires? Missing or poor grounds? Wires dangling from the cig lighter socket sure sounds like questionable work to me.

Electrical stuff isn't too hard. I sure banged my head against a wall learning more about electrical with my Jetta conversion. My point is that one can learn (if I'm any indicator) and it sure is useful to have a basic knowledge of DC circuits when owning one of these beasts.

Cheers,

Neil.

Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:51 am

Thanks Neil,
You were correct. I switched the wires on the back of the socket and the fan spins the right way. I guess I had a 50/50 chance when I first put them on.
The breeze is nice.
Ken