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Fri Jan 03, 2003 2:56 pm

My license plate has no light (no bulb holder, no electrical connection/wires).
How should I make this connection ? -i.e. which type of electric wires ? from bulb holder to what ? should the wires be placed behind the firewall ?
Thanks for your help, Phil.

Fri Jan 03, 2003 6:48 pm

You did not say what year. But most are wired the same anyway... one wire to ground, the positive wire feeds off of the tailight circuit..

Are you installing a real "VW" tailight or just some other light you got ??????

Anyway just look under the tarboard engine compartment insulation on either side and get the test light out and find the hot wire when the running lights are turned on...

Fri Jan 03, 2003 7:19 pm

It is a '72 bug, with some '70 tailights (I have recently bought some '72 tailight chrome rings and they were too big for the tailights installed on the car ... so I guess that the tailights are not '72 but '70 instead).

I will try to find out the bulb holder from a junk yard. Is a extra connector required to connect the license plate light/wires to the tailight circuit ?

Thanks in advance for your help on VW basics ... that's the first electric job I am doing on the car since I bought it one month ago.

Sat Jan 04, 2003 3:54 pm

The normal VW licence plate circuit uses a one-pin bulb where the bulb's body is earthed to the the car through the holder and the single solder pin on the bulb is connected to the tail light circuit under the tar board (I can't remember which side), but you can replicate this very easily by just taking a wire from the bulb to the tail light fitting on either side and using a double spade connector (from any auto parts store) to connect to the tail light wire at the back of the double filament bulb.

Rob
Rob and Dave's aircooled VW pages
Repairs and maintenance for the home mechanic
http://www.geocities.com/aussiebug1970/

Sat Jan 04, 2003 6:29 pm

Although it will light just through the ground to the body metal, most of the stock wiring harness to the tailight I have seen on the 67-later models have a grey wire for the + and brown for the ground wire.
In a lot of cases you can find the remains of the factory harness still connected to the tailight circuit... right behind the rear tarboard nearer to the passenger side. they harness gets snipped off and stuck back behind there... if you find it just test it with a light or a VOM. or like Rob says wire it from scracth if need be.

Sun Jan 05, 2003 8:56 pm

A good idea is to go to www.vintagebus.com
and get your wiring diagram. Every VW enthusiast should book mark this site as it has invaluable reference material. Though it's called vintage BUS it has material for all VWs.
Greg

Mon Jan 06, 2003 7:01 pm

Thanks everybody. I got the bulb holder from the junk yard, your precious advices ... I should be able to drive my bug at night time very soon.
Take care, Phil.

Mon Jan 06, 2003 11:37 pm

you can still drive it at night without the light working right?

haha, just kidding.

=brett=

Sun Apr 06, 2025 12:27 pm

[email protected] wrote: Thanks everybody. I got the bulb holder from the junk yard, your precious advices ... I should be able to drive my bug at night time very soon.
Take care, Phil.

HAH! This is the same reason I do not drive my 63 after dark. The light assembly is there, just no wiring. I have known it is a simple fix...I have just never gotten around to it. I'll get on it this evening.

Sun Apr 06, 2025 5:10 pm

Way to revive a 22 year old thread! :P