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Sun May 04, 2008 4:18 pm

well, im using an american aurowire 15 kit, the car has a VW stamped stock steeing col. can anyone identify thses wires coming from it by color? im looking to use the stock vw switch instead of the autowire one.

Mon May 05, 2008 2:37 pm

Napalm...

I used a Hwy 15 kit in my buggy and it went great right up to the steering column. The kit is wired for use with a GM column and all that goes on inside that column.

I too used a VW column with my Hwy 15 kit and it was a headache to sort it all out.

Some questions:
Are you using VW (multi bulb) or single bulb (dual element) American style taillights?
Looking at your pics I see you have a later model column so you'll to take into account the wiring of that switch. I used an earlier 3 wire VW switch.

These will determine what you need to do to make it all work. I ended up building a relay block based on Dale M.'s diagram to make the turnsignals override the brakelights when necessary. It works well, but added a level of complexity into the project.

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=276655&highlight=highway

Regards,
Tom

Mon May 05, 2008 4:32 pm

i got the starting/chargin figured out.

wahat was throwing me off was the lack of a ACC on the ign swtich

ill be runnning dual filament bulbs with seperate single filament turn signal bulbs and seperate single filament reverse bulbs.

Im going from the highway15 kit brown coulumn acc wire to the B+ terminal on the voltage regualtor to power the switched acc items. The B+ terminal is also connected to my starter soleniod positive, to charge the battery.

the red with black stripe from the column is goin to the coil ign feed on the coil

the solid red from the column is going to the main fuse 175 amp then on the other side, to the starter solenid postive.

this works well, system charges, but there is still no switched ACC line...so who knows for now if my dash light and other circutis not connected to teh manula hadlight switch will go off when the car does.

any insight?

-matthew

Mon May 05, 2008 4:44 pm

oh and any idea where the switch is for the reverse indicators? is it on the tranny somewhere?

Mon May 05, 2008 4:48 pm

On a VW the reverse lights pull power from the + side of the coil, through an inline fuse, to the switch near the front of the tranny, and back to the lights. Then they need a ground of course. Not all trannys have switches.

Thu May 08, 2008 11:30 am

Napalm00 wrote:
wahat was throwing me off was the lack of a ACC on the ign swtich

Im going from the highway15 kit brown coulumn acc wire to the B+ terminal on the voltage regualtor to power the switched acc items. The B+ terminal is also connected to my starter soleniod positive, to charge the battery.

the red with black stripe from the column is goin to the coil ign feed on the coil

the solid red from the column is going to the main fuse 175 amp then on the other side, to the starter solenid postive.

this works well, system charges, but there is still no switched ACC line...so who knows for now if my dash light and other circutis not connected to teh manula hadlight switch will go off when the car does.

any insight?

-matthew

Matthew, I'm not going to try and analyze your wiring, but there are a couple things you're saying that are kind of alarming to me.

First, that ignition switch does not have an ACC position. VW did not build them that way. The headlights, radio and so forth would work without the key being in the ON position. So if you're still using the VW ignition switch and not the Hwy 15 one, you'll have to engineer your own way of getting power to your systems that would be connected to the ACC position with the ignition off. There are circuits at the fuse block that have power all the time, even with the key off. Just get out your multimeter and do some probing.

When you say you're connecting a wire directly to the 175 amp fuse, it concerns me. The only thing that should be connected to the other side of that fuse, is the fat red wire that goes to the fuse block to power it. From the fuse block you should connect your ignition switch power wire there, not that fuse. If for some reason your ignition switch should ever short out, you'd cook your wires all the way back to the fuse and at 175 amps I'm not sure it would even blow - your system would just melt down and release the 'magic smoke'.

Anyway, just my .02.
Tom

Thu May 08, 2008 12:40 pm

everything you stated there is what i adhered to, there is just 1 red wire from the fuse panel goin to the main fuse, this is main panel power.

'yes everything is goin to be switched seperatly due to the lack of ACC position.

so far so good, im on headlights now, ive done some tracing with the meter and found the live circuts for the ON position.

thanks for the advice!