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Sat Dec 19, 2020 7:41 pm

Wondering if anyone out there has experience installing a hard start relay on a van equipped with a GoWesty aux. battery kit and gear reduction starter. I tried installing a relay from Bus Depot but had problems with the starter over heating (I think the starter stayed engaged, but am not sure).

Sat Dec 19, 2020 9:15 pm

There have been a few changes to the GoWesty aux battery kit and their gear reduction starters over the years, which makes troubleshooting more complex than working on a stock van.

In this case, it's probably safe to assume that if your GW kit aux battery kit uses the stock fridge relay under the drivers seat as part of the wiring for the aux battery, that's the source of your problem.

To get things working again you will need to ground the stock fridge relay locally instead of using the red/black wire that runs back to the starter solenoid as a pseudo-ground. All you need is a 7" piece of wire (16AWG is fine) with a 1/4" female disconnect terminal on one end and a #10 ring terminal on the other end.

Disconnect the red/black wire from the relay ground terminal (could be terminal 85 or 86) then cover the end of the wire with some electrical tape and zip tie it to another wire so it can't bounce around and cause trouble.

Install the new ground wire by pushing the 1/4" female terminal onto the empty terminal on the relay, then ground it to the body of the van. If the stock relay has a metal bracket, you can use the mounting screw that holds the relay to the body of the van as the grounding point.

Mon Dec 21, 2020 4:11 pm

Thanks for the info. Will give it a try over the holidays and report back.

Mon Sep 19, 2022 10:36 pm

Hey tbone5, did this solve your problem? I'm wondering if the GW Aux Battery kit and a hard start kit will work together. There's no reason I can see that they wouldn't.

--edit--
I see you've followed up here: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=754218

Tue Sep 20, 2022 1:24 pm

No affiliation, but I'm on version 3 of methods for maintaining a second battery. My recent version includes a Renogy 20 amp dc to dc charger. It isolates the batteries when the engine is off, combines them when the engine is running, but you can taylor the voltage to what your battery actually likes best. I believe it was actually less than my Yandina version which up and died out of warranty. Renogy has larger units, but the wiring becomes cables to output the amperage.

Tue Sep 20, 2022 6:40 pm

MarkWard wrote: My recent version includes a Renogy 20 amp dc to dc charger

The Renogy stuff looks good. One day I will probably get 150-200 Watts solar and a DCC50S.

@everybody: Renogy stuff is cheaper on eBay - be sure to check it out!
https://www.ebay.com/str/renogystore

Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:37 pm

what year is the van, is it auto, with cruise control ?
having tried to put a hard start relay on a 1990 carat, automatic, which has cruise control, upon testing, once the engine started, the starter continued to spin.
shut the engine down, and repeat, same result, disconnect the relay, we are back to normal, there's something in the cruise control module, that the hard start relay has confliction with.

Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:08 pm

markswagen wrote: what year is the van, is it auto, with cruise control ?
having tried to put a hard start relay on a 1990 carat, automatic, which has cruise control, upon testing, once the engine started, the starter continued to spin.
shut the engine down, and repeat, same result, disconnect the relay, we are back to normal, there's something in the cruise control module, that the hard start relay has confliction with.

crazyvwvanman Mark explains why you cannot use a hard start relay with auto transmission + factory cruise control. It's unrelated to the Westy fridge, GW aux battery kit, or GW gear reduction starter

thread:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=650283
exact post:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8011465#8011465