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Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:59 pm

I used one of these on my 73 Super beetle, and went pretty well.

The only thing i'm having issue with now is that the Hazards only seem to work with the ignition on. I have an always hot wire connected , but it seems to be irrelevant to the operation of the hazards with the key off.

Does Rebel (or anyone here) have a good schematic of the 73 super style rocker Hazard Switch?

Fri Oct 30, 2020 5:40 am

Double-Double wrote: Jeremy, can you run a single ground up front and split it off to all the switches and gauges or do you have to use all the little ground tabs on the body? I'd rather get rid of them if I can, less chance for bad grounds and corrosion.

You can run your own grounds and don't have to use the tabs on the body. I probably run them different every time really. You could run a main ground and split it off to different areas (just think, you'd have to do that anyway if it was a glass body running the same lights, gauges, etc). The last buggy I wired I came off of a terminal block under the dash ran the ground up the driver side split off to lights and signals, ran across to the passenger side and did the same. They all came back into the same ground though.

Fri Oct 30, 2020 5:48 am

Wvvwrider95 wrote: So I bought my rebel wiring kit a while back and have put off this project for a long time due to my incompetence when it comes to wiring. i thnik i have made some good head way as in mounting my fuse box and running my wires to their perspective locations. I am at a loss though as to how im hooking the majority of them up.

Do I need to run relays?
I want to run Glow shift Speedometer, Tachometer and Fuel gauge. will i run into issues with doing so?
Is there anywhere to find a wiring diagram for complete idiot? LOL

Alot of the instructions just simply dont make since to me. Thanks in advance for any and all help. also heres a few pics of said project

My advice is don't worry so much about the instructions, focus on your individual components that you want to use. When you swap gauges, your engine senders need to match them, so the gauges are accurate, but the wiring basically stays the same. You'll only need to use relays if whatever your powering is too much to handle for the switch you're using. If you're staying in the stock amp ranges, you don't really have to add relays unless you want to. Just take it one thing at a time (headlight switch, ignition switch, gauges and senders... front lights, turn signals...) If you bounce around and think about the whole project you're gonna get overloaded with it. If you run into anything shoot me an email at the shop and I can help out. It's not as bad as it seems. If I can do it, anyone can. I'm self taught on this stuff and have no fear of this old wiring anymore. Worst case you pop a fuse, replace it and move on. My thinking always is "it's not working now, so I can't make it worse" haha. Shoot me an email at the shop or call if you need help 423-263-5399 or [email protected] Man I wire cars with hand tools out of my carport, so no disrespect to any electrical engineers out there, but when you call me you're not going to get talked down to because you don't know something and I'm not going to expect you to quote Ohm's law and know a bunch of formulas, haha.

Fri Oct 30, 2020 5:49 am

ovalman57 wrote: x10 for Jeremy and Rebel wire. I knew I didn't want a stock harness as i'm including modern elements in my bug (1957) and wanted something cleaner and easier to keep track of. I did have electrical knowledge but never an entire car and Jeremy was extremely helpful and answered everyone of my questions. I created a spreadsheet layout of the fuses to keep track of my used and unused fuses and laminated it to keep in my glovebox.

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That turned out really good man! I still say I like that wire loom, looks like a snake skin, haha.

Fri Oct 30, 2020 5:52 am

Pooter wrote: I used one of these on my 73 Super beetle, and went pretty well.

The only thing i'm having issue with now is that the Hazards only seem to work with the ignition on. I have an always hot wire connected , but it seems to be irrelevant to the operation of the hazards with the key off.

Does Rebel (or anyone here) have a good schematic of the 73 super style rocker Hazard Switch?

I did a 78 Super convertible years ago with the rocker switch in it. If I remember correctly it still used the same old terminal numbers and functions (30 for constant hot, 15 for keyed, 49a for load, 49or + for power out to the flasher...L for left, R for right...) Check your wire on 30 and make sure you've got a constant hot on it. If you want, shoot me some pictures to the shop email of how you've got it wired and I'll help you get it going. If you send me a good picture of the back of the switch with the terminal numbers showing, I can just make a diagram. [email protected]
Thanks,
Jeremy

Fri Oct 30, 2020 6:36 am

[quote="Jeremy1984"] Wvvwrider95 wrote: So I bought my rebel wiring kit a while back and have put off this project for a long time due to my incompetence when it comes to wiring. i thnik i have made some good head way as in mounting my fuse box and running my wires to their perspective locations. I am at a loss though as to how im hooking the majority of them up.

Do I need to run relays?
I want to run Glow shift Speedometer, Tachometer and Fuel gauge. will i run into issues with doing so?
Is there anywhere to find a wiring diagram for complete idiot? LOL

Alot of the instructions just simply dont make since to me. Thanks in advance for any and all help. also heres a few pics of said project

Just got caught up for the week building harnesses and thought I'd give a little more advice on the wiring. I'm sure other guys can use this too. So what I tend to do (because I wire and tech support a bunch of stuff, VW's, Ford's, Chevy's, Dodge, 6v, 12v...) Forget that you're working on a VW. All you're doing is wiring a headlight switch for now. The switch you have most likely is a VW switch and has terminals 30 (power in), maybe X depending on the year (power in), 58b (dash lights), 56 (dimmer power), 58 (tail lights). So just take the wires in that headlight switch bundle and connect them to the terminals (matching terminal function to the label on the wire) once that switch is wired, just move on to another.

Let's take your gauges. Stock or aftermarket, doesn't matter, they all take a keyed hot (gauge power), dash lights, sender wires and some grounds. The red gauge power wires is keyed power into the cluster. The sender wires are really the ground side of each individual light or gauge. So the tach sender wire goes back to the ground side of the coil. The oil pressure (gauge or light) sender wire goes back to the oil sender in the engine. Where you can get into an issue is that the sender needs to match the gauge or light (because all of this stuff has set ohm ranges that need to match for them to read accurately). So you couldn't just grab an aftermarket fuel gauge and wire it to your stock VW fuel sender in the tank and expect it to be accurate. You'd probably get a reading, but who knows how accurate it is, they need to match. Things like dash lights, high beam indicators, turn indicators (there are small exceptions to that) don't usually care, they're just hot and ground. Some are 2 wire bulbs that need their own ground, some are single wire bulbs that ground in the housing of the gauge or speedo.

Turn signals and brake lights: Again, it really depends on your parts being used. Most bulbs (headlights, single filament 1156, and dual filament 1157 bulbs wire the same way) but your turn signal switch needs to match your rear bulb setup. So you can't just use the simple left, right, flasher type VW turn signal switch, meant for separate brake and turn bulbs in the rear, and swap out to a single 1157 bulb in the rear and expect it to sort all that out for you (brake/tail/turn). You can do things like change the switch, add in another bulb, or wire in a cheap trailer converter box to sort them out and make it work though.

Long story short (kinda short, haha) is the main thing is to wire your parts for how they work. The wiring can be adapted to make it work, but the wires are just conductors to get power where the switch tells it to go. The switches are doing all the voodoo involved. There's little tricks involved, but I've learned them over the years and still learning more, and I'm willing and able to teach anyone who needs it ,and If I don't know I can probably figure it out.

The hardest part is getting started man. I'm pretty confident that I know what I'm doing and there are still projects that I take on where someone started on it and I'm forming a plan of attack and I think to myself "why do I take these jobs in again?" then I remind myself I love old cars and I can get this thing right and back on the road. If we were on a different forum I'd show you some pictures of the 55 Chevy I'm about to finish, before and after stuff. After this one he's bringing me his Chevelle. They're all just a sum of their parts though. Just take it one thing at a time, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Thanks,
Jeremy @ Rebel Wire

Fri Oct 30, 2020 7:58 am

Jeremy1984 wrote:

Let's take your gauges. Stock or aftermarket, doesn't matter, they all take a keyed hot (gauge power), dash lights, sender wires and some grounds. The red gauge power wires is keyed power into the cluster. The sender wires are really the ground side of each individual light or gauge. So the tach sender wire goes back to the ground side of the coil. The oil pressure (gauge or light) sender wire goes back to the oil sender in the engine. Where you can get into an issue is that the sender needs to match the gauge or light (because all of this stuff has set ohm ranges that need to match for them to read accurately). So you couldn't just grab an aftermarket fuel gauge and wire it to your stock VW fuel sender in the tank and expect it to be accurate. You'd probably get a reading, but who knows how accurate it is, they need to match. Things like dash lights, high beam indicators, turn indicators (there are small exceptions to that) don't usually care, they're just hot and ground. Some are 2 wire bulbs that need their own ground, some are single wire bulbs that ground in the housing of the gauge or speedo.

Turn signals and brake lights: Again, it really depends on your parts being used. Most bulbs (headlights, single filament 1156, and dual filament 1157 bulbs wire the same way) but your turn signal switch needs to match your rear bulb setup. So you can't just use the simple left, right, flasher type VW turn signal switch, meant for separate brake and turn bulbs in the rear, and swap out to a single 1157 bulb in the rear and expect it to sort all that out for you (brake/tail/turn). You can do things like change the switch, add in another bulb, or wire in a cheap trailer converter box to sort them out and make it work though.

Long story short (kinda short, haha) is the main thing is to wire your parts for how they work....

Thanks,
Jeremy @ Rebel Wire
Great post, Jeremy. At least very helpful to me.

Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:37 am

I much appreciate the help, I did purchase one of the deluxe harnesses from you and I'm about to install it into the 74 super beetle this weekend. I do have a question about the main wire feed what looks like a 10 gauge wire what size of fuse should that have on it, and would that connect to the starter where the Positive cable from the battery connects to.

Also what wires and posts do connect to the starter, I believe it’s the purple wire from the ignition switch, the red wire from the alternator, the main feed wire to the fuse box and the large cable from the battery. But I’m not sure which connect where on the starter.

Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:00 am

jetmech wrote: I much appreciate the help, I did purchase one of the deluxe harnesses from you and I'm about to install it into the 74 super beetle this weekend. I do have a question about the main wire feed what looks like a 10 gauge wire what size of fuse should that have on it, and would that connect to the starter where the Positive cable from the battery connects to.

Also what wires and posts do connect to the starter, I believe it’s the purple wire from the ignition switch, the red wire from the alternator, the main feed wire to the fuse box and the large cable from the battery. But I’m not sure which connect where on the starter.

Sorry just saw this, I was posting pictures of a harness I just installed in a 67 Single Cab. The main feed is a 10ga. You can use the fusible link that comes with the kit, or replace it with a 60 amp maxi fuse and that does connect to the main battery post of the solenoid, or the main battery positive, either one will work. At the starter you'll have your main heavy battery cable, the alternator charge wire, and the main 10ga fuse panel feed all going to the battery stud of the starter solenoid. It's just being used as a junction for battery power. The purple start wire goes to the small 1/4 spade terminal on the starter, to engage the starter. Let me know if you run into anything else.
Thanks,
Jeremy

Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:02 am

Jeremy1984 wrote: Pooter wrote: I used one of these on my 73 Super beetle, and went pretty well.

The only thing i'm having issue with now is that the Hazards only seem to work with the ignition on. I have an always hot wire connected , but it seems to be irrelevant to the operation of the hazards with the key off.

Does Rebel (or anyone here) have a good schematic of the 73 super style rocker Hazard Switch?

I did a 78 Super convertible years ago with the rocker switch in it. If I remember correctly it still used the same old terminal numbers and functions (30 for constant hot, 15 for keyed, 49a for load, 49or + for power out to the flasher...L for left, R for right...) Check your wire on 30 and make sure you've got a constant hot on it. If you want, shoot me some pictures to the shop email of how you've got it wired and I'll help you get it going. If you send me a good picture of the back of the switch with the terminal numbers showing, I can just make a diagram. [email protected]
Thanks,
Jeremy

Thanks, sounds like I may have 15 & 30 switched!

Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:17 pm

Question. I just switched from a generator to an alternator. Joined the blue and

green wires. Joined the three big red wires. Now the generator light doesn't

come on. My battery is not being charged. Changed the light bulb just in case

with no effect. Where should I start looking to solve this deal? Might the

alternator be bad?

Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:27 pm

Did you swap to an aftermarket internally regulated alternator, or just a stock Alternator with the external regulator? If it’s an aftermarket you just need to run the blue indicator light wire that used to go to the 61 terminal of the regulator, move that to the single spade terminal of the alternator. Then run a heavy charge wire from the battery post of the alternator to the battery post of the starter solenoid. You wouldn’t need the D+ and DF wires anymore. You might need to also move the main fuse panel feed to the battery post of the starter solenoid as well. If it’s an aftermarket setup

Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:42 pm

Thanks for the prompt reply. Around things electrical I am like a Neanderthal

discovering fire. I did the aftermarket internally regulated alternator. I

changed the connector on the blue wire and clipped it to the alternator. and

screwed the red wire on the other post. Not sure what you mean with the 'main

fuse panel feed'.

Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:49 pm

You should be good just to tie the wires together that went to the B+ terminal of the old regulator, extend the blue out like you’ve got it to the spade terminal
Of the alternator, and run a new heavier wire from the battery stud of the alternator around to the battery terminal of the starter solenoid. That should do it. Key on the indicator light gets power on one side from
The stock black wire at the bulb and a ground from the alternator (bulb comes on) fired up and charging it loses its ground (bulb goes out). You don’t need the D+ or Df wires at all anymore from the old regulator

Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:54 pm

On it thanks, I will advise.............if I don't electrocute myself. LOL

Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:58 pm

Lol, I’m used to ripping all that stuff out and replacing it so I had to think about the stock setup for a minute. Just finished a 57 oval with a generator and starting a 71 super convertible with an alternator now. Let me know how it goes

Tue Feb 09, 2021 2:31 pm

Likewise, nothing but praise for Rebel Wire Harnesses. I have been using their kits for the last 15 years and have yet to run into a single issue. Jeremy always goes the extra mile for us VW people and custom made a under back seat harness for my Heinz 67 beetle. Now he will be doing one for my 1965 911 and my 1933 Dodge pickup in a vw pan.

Tue Feb 09, 2021 7:47 pm

I know it is something simple like a ground somewhere. Either that or a crap alternator, (which wouldn't surprise me). The frustration was starting to set in so it is now in the hands of my mechanic. My patience only goes so far. I am fascinated, however, by the interconnectivity of the whole system.

Fri Feb 12, 2021 1:30 am

Well...it was 'user error'. Turns out the blue and green wire connection I made wasn't tight enough. Redid it and the generator light came on. You just never know.

Tue Mar 09, 2021 10:02 pm

Jeremy1984 wrote: Hey guys, I've started doing this on a couple of other forums, as I do all different kinds of tech for Rebel Wire. I thought it might be a good idea to start a Rebel Wire questions thread and put some diagrams, wiring tech, pictures, etc on here to help out. I've used the wealth of knowledge on this forum many times: members knowledge, wiring diagrams, and other things to build up my bag of tricks and maybe I can help some people out, plus having a working knowledge of the Rebel Wire kits from building them and doing tech everyday. So if anyone has any questions or needs anything just let me know. I can also be reached here through PM, or at the shop, [email protected] , 423-263-5399. I'll start this off a photo of a VW wiring job that I cleaned up. I didn't take enough pics when I was fixing it, but you can get the idea of what I was up against.

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I'm not so much a forum/social media guy, but I'm usually pretty good with troubleshooting and always willing to help out. So if you guys will bear with me I think we can all help each other out and get some of this stuff rewired!

What size expandable wire wrap did you use?