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Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:24 am

We know that in '49 they swapped the position of indicator lights in the pods. with the oil light being on the left early, and on the right after (and yes, the other lights swapped sides too).

I am trying to ID this pod. It is purportedly a KDF era pod, but has details of a later pod. Green light on the right. Brass ground fork (I know that '46 and '47 pods had a steel ground fork). Unfortunately it is broken off so I can't see any date code that might have been there. It is missing an extra brass block terminal that is above the wiper dome light switch (when the fork is on the other side as in '46-'49. So it has a lot of the features of a late '49 and up, but a Cogwheel VW logo....!

Is it possible that in '44 the green light was on the right, sometime after they swapped sides, then in '49 they swapped back again? Anyone have any pics of or docs of KDF era pods that show the light positions? TIA

Also, is anyone reproducing the large black knobs for these?

Tue Jan 19, 2021 9:57 am

progressive refinements (page 244) has the warning lights swap happening jan 1950 chassis 1-0140537, body 89 656.
could it be possible that they were using up the batch of cog-wheel bakelite panels at that time...?

in the owners manuals section https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/type1.php
there are manuals for a 46 (see pages 37,38) a nov 49 (page 24) and feb 50.
interestingly the feb 50 manual still shows the lights in their old position!

these guys do knobs
http://www.repuestossam.com/en/beetle/split/s042.html

Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:16 am

I have a pod date coded 12.49 where the lights are already swapped, but I know that is the date/month the pod was made, not the manufacture of the split that it was installed in by VW.

I looked at pics of past early pods I restored, a '46 and two '47s and a '48 and none had cogwheel logo'ed pods.

Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:27 am

NOS black split dash knob / switch batch. - in thesamba classifieds

Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:29 am

ZENVWDRIVER wrote: NOS black split dash knob / switch batch. - in thesamba classifieds

Ad
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2155625

Those are the wrong ones for a KdF, they should be larger

Wed Jan 20, 2021 7:05 am

this lady might know...

Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:04 am

EverettB wrote - "Those are the wrong ones for a KdF, they should be larger "...

zen wrote - "Oh"

Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:38 am

finster wrote: this lady might know...

That is one of my favorite split era factory pictures. Cool testing fixture and all of those pristine pods. I often look at the people in those early pictures and think about the fact that just five or six years earlier, WW2 had just ended.

Wed Jan 20, 2021 11:13 am

splitjunkie wrote: finster wrote: this lady might know...

That is one of my favorite split era factory pictures. Cool testing fixture and all of those pristine pods. I often look at the people in those early pictures and think about the fact that just five or six years earlier, WW2 had just ended.

I think about those people when I am restoring stuff. Like did they ever think that 70 years later, someone would be trying to make their "work" look like new again.

For this pod pic, I also wonder if it was actually in a VW factory, or at the place that made the pods (the Circle K logo that is on them). Today, every manufacturer/supplier would be responsible for functionality tests like are going on in that pic, but maybe back then, VW would set up the resources to test a supplier's part before using it in production.

Wed Jan 20, 2021 12:00 pm

johnshenry wrote: splitjunkie wrote: finster wrote: this lady might know...

That is one of my favorite split era factory pictures. Cool testing fixture and all of those pristine pods. I often look at the people in those early pictures and think about the fact that just five or six years earlier, WW2 had just ended.

I think about those people when I am restoring stuff. Like did they ever think that 70 years later, someone would be trying to make their "work" look like new again.

For this pod pic, I also wonder if it was actually in a VW factory, or at the place that made the pods (the Circle K logo that is on them). Today, every manufacturer/supplier would be responsible for functionality tests like are going on in that pic, but maybe back then, VW would set up the resources to test a supplier's part before using it in production.

Good question. There is a pile of what I assume are pods wrapped in paper to her left. Now are those from the vendor and she does the testing or are they tested and wrapped to go to VW?

Wed Jan 20, 2021 12:33 pm

And it would seem odd that VW would build a test jig for something made by another company, but again, things were just done differently then.

Wed Jan 20, 2021 1:59 pm

On the subject of KDF era dash pods, the one in the picture below, a Kubel item, sold on German Ebay recently, 31st December 2020 to be precise, by somebody in Boden, Germany, which sold for the sum of 5,728.90 Euros, plus delivery!

I can just about remember the time when you could buy a complete Kibel for that price! Little did the person taking this off a Kubel know what price it would fetch in the future.

Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:15 pm

johnshenry wrote: And it would seem odd that VW would build a test jig for something made by another company, but again, things were just done differently then.

It's just QC. The medical diagnostics manufacturer that I used to work for did incoming QC on a lot of the parts we had made for our products.

Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:32 pm

I don't think a Kubel would have had a 100km speedometer.

Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:52 pm

Martin Southwell wrote:

Well it looks to me that the green/oil light is on the right there, concur?

If so, then those are the "late split: positions which, *if* that is truly a KDF era pod, would confirm that they did flip the indicator positions some time in the early 40s, then back again in late '49. But I wouldn't believe it unless I could see a pic of the backside of that Kubel pod and see a cogwheel logo. Maybe unlikely (and would suck for the person who paid $6+ for it apparently), but they could have just faked it with a common standard split pod.

Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:42 am

These photos should help you make up your mind! Note that there is even a KDF key.

Thu Jan 21, 2021 4:52 am

The pictures of this Kubel-dash....it all looks fake to me. I would not trust these parts for reference.

Thu Jan 21, 2021 4:53 am

Repro "fat" face-dial on the speedo, black plastic big knobs....

Thu Jan 21, 2021 5:40 am

Hi JH.
Just looking at your photo where the toggle bolt mounts it to the dash. Is that brown paint scraped off? I assumed they were raw bakalite not painted?

Thu Jan 21, 2021 6:50 am

Blue Baron wrote: I don't think a Kubel would have had a 100km speedometer.

maybe it was a RennKuebel?