My first thing

livy · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 12:53 pm Post subject: My first thing

Hello everyone, I am a proud owner of a 1973 Thing that was advertized as in near perfect condition. As you might guess it needs many things. For starters Who has for sale the heater pull control that goes on the dash the one with the click down timer. And guess what it not charging either. It has an alternator on it and when I when tested it is only putting out 2.4 amps. So I guess I need an alternator too. The gas gauge does not work and it has a new float in the tank so I guess either the vibrator or the gauge itself. Any help or information on any of these subjects would be much appreciated. A happy but some what concerned owner

Semper_Dad · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 1:51 pm Post subject: Re: My first thing

Welcome to the family. Put up some pictures when you get a chance.

As for your questions

1) You can sometimes find the timer switch in the Samba classifieds. Ortherwise, The Thing Shop is another good yet expensive source. Might as well go to their website and order their free catalog and sample sheets. The DVD is a good reference as well. .

2) Gas gauge is a common faulty area and realtively easy area to troubleshoot and fix. This pages may help.

http://www.midsouthvw.com/TechTips/tech_tip_FuelGauge.htm
or

http://www.vw-resource.com/fuel_gauge.html

3) Use Rob and Dave's pages for troubleshooting the charging system. Sounds like you have a handle on situation though.
_________________
74 VW Thing - Walküre
78 GMC Motorhome - Valhalla
"Patina" my ass, that's rust
Recovering Split Bus Addict
Washington State 181 (Thing) Registry - current tally: 58
World 181 Registry Map: http://www.zeemaps.com/394427 Gitm registared boys!
Officially, there are only 98 181s in the world

Banker · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 3:29 pm Post subject:

livy

Welcome,
As for the new gas float, make sure that not all of the screws have the nylon washers. It needs to be grounded. Ask how it took me several hours to trouble shoot Embarassed

_________________
Brian

07 Charger Sublime
03 Goldwing
74 Thing

livy · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 4:07 pm Post subject:

Thanks a million to each of you. Brian I saw that about the plastic protectors on the tank sending unit. I pulled off one of them and it did not help. The owner told me it was a vibrator behind the dash??

Banker · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 4:54 pm Post subject:

Your best friend for your VW is a 12v circuit light or meter. For the gas guage look for 12v going into the vibrator. vibrator going to fuel guage, with votage that pulsates, then brown wire going to float. The link Semper_Dad gave is good. If you do need a new vibrator, I picked up an electronic one from http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1158343
fellow boad member.

Let me know if you need more help. I'm just next door in OHio.
_________________
Brian

07 Charger Sublime
03 Goldwing
74 Thing

livy · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:28 pm Post subject:

Thanks a million Brian for your offer. It's funny the car I bought came from Ohio a fellow named George owned it. Right now the alternator is not working. He didn't mention it and I wonder if I am testing it correctly. The people at Interstate told me it was not charging, it is a Bosch and looks new. But it only is putting out 2.67 amps and the car will not run with the battery disconnected. How hard is it to change the alternator in one of these cars???

Ron Domeck · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:54 pm Post subject:

You have the 2 Domeck brothers close to you in Louisville. We are always ready to try to help you fix your car. Citreon would be the one for these questions. Don't you like the way I drop my brother in first?

guppysoup · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 10:31 am Post subject:

Welcome I´m new too. Just for sheets and giggles I would pull your gas tank and fix/replace your float and in the mean time you can inspect your rusty gastank.

citroen · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 4:33 pm Post subject:

i am the other brother dennis for a fast check on the fuel guage turn the key on and pull the wire off the fuel sending unit and touch it to a good ground the gauge should go to full if it does the guage is all right and the tank unit is bad or a bad ground on the tank run a good ground to the tank unit and check the guage, if the guage did not go to full pull the speedo out and check for voltage at the guage if you have voltage the viberator could be bad on the alt check is it a internal reg or ext one big wire one little wire or one big wire and 3 little ones if that does not help i will be back in 2 days or someone else will help you there are a lot of good people on the site

kubelmann · Samba Member Joined: April 13, 2003 Posts: 2947

The Domeck brothers are an awesome resource to the VW community. They are always online to offer their collected expertise. One thing I do to every vintage VW I get is to pull the gas tank, give it a full cleaning and replace all seals and lines especially the fill tube and screen on the bottom of the tank. This tends to get rid of most fuel delivery issues right off. There many others like me online here who can help you get good OE German parts new sn used for a fair price. We are a great and helpful group. K-mann

livy · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:52 am Post subject:

Thanks all, Here is a short list of the parts I will be looking to buy.
Heater pull switch (with or without the ticker working)
Main light switch (the one in the dash that pull out to turn on the head lights.
Many thanks.

livy · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:58 am Post subject:

Dennis: The wires on my alt is one big red wire and one smaller wire, must be an internal volt reg.
I found what cooked my alt. This car was build up for a girl going to highschool. It had a big amp with two 12" woofers. I think that this amp was pulling all the current out of the alt and just over time burnt it up???? Does that sound like something that could happen. I was under the impression that big amps in cars had to have an extra battery to keep from burning out the alt??

Captain Spalding · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 8:30 am Post subject:

livy · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 8:47 am Post subject:

Sorry for my causing confusion, please excuse me as this Thing is new to me. But I was under the impression that on the switch that turned on the gas heater located to the left of the steering wheel. That this knob pulled out to control the amount of heat and that it turned once to the right to turn on the heater and if you turned it all the way to the right it engage the ticking? Is this not correct? I have another pull out knob marked "defrost and heat" Located to the far left by the door opening. These are the only 2 heater related knobs on my car. What I was trying to say was that I really do not need the ticking option and if someone had a good heater switch that had this pull out and turn on function I would be interested in buying it.--Larry

Captain Spalding · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:55 am Post subject:

Hi Larry,

Nope. That switch to the left of the steering wheel, let's call it the heater timer switch, does not pull out. It has two modes of operation, depending on whether the ignition is on or off.

With the ignition on, the knob may be rotated clockwise to the first stop. This will turn the heater on. If the ignition is turned off and the key removed, the heater will turn off.

With the ignition off the knob may be rotated beyond the first stop to turn on the heater and engags the timer, or ticking function as you refer to it. This is a handy feature if you want to pre-heat the passenger compartment on cold mornings but not leave the motor running with the key in the ignition. But beyond being a convenience feature, the timer has some other important functions. The timer won't let the heater run unattended for more than twenty minutes or so. This prevents running the battery flat, running the fuel tank dry, and filling up your house with carbon monoxide. So the ticking function is important, and a proper heater timer switch is something you should have.

doublecanister · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:09 am Post subject:

livy · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 12:10 pm Post subject:

Thanks again Captain and Auf for the information. I see now how that heater switch is suppose to works, now I have to find one. I went to the German parts site and it said these switches were sold out. I see how that ticking function would be a good thing to have working thanks for that information. But I swear the pull out knob that is on the dash by the drivers door, on my 73, has a small red bulb that says DEF and a pull knob below it. I guess you pull it for defrosters and leave it in for heat on the floor. You guys on this web site have a wealth of information.

Semper_Dad · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 1:25 pm Post subject:

You can look at and download a pdf version of the 73 owner's manual in the reference section of the forum. Heater information starts on page 20. Not too sure what the function of the "def" light near the heat tempature know or how and when it lights up. According to the manual, heat/defrost is controlled by the lever near the middle of the dash.

Of course all of this is a moot point for me. I have a 74 Laughing

_________________
74 VW Thing - Walküre
78 GMC Motorhome - Valhalla
"Patina" my ass, that's rust
Recovering Split Bus Addict
Washington State 181 (Thing) Registry - current tally: 58
World 181 Registry Map: http://www.zeemaps.com/394427 Gitm registared boys!
Officially, there are only 98 181s in the world

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