Crappy Chinese ignition switch! Beware!

[1967250s]

Hey Sambanistas, A friendly warning to all who have installed a new igntion switch that may have been made in China. I've gone thru this twice now- didn't have a choice. I have a 72 Deluxe. The black wire coming off the switch caught fire and melted . No fun driving down the road with smoke coming out of the column!!!! Fortunately I was able to get off the road and repair it there. No fun pulling the steering wheel in sme parking lot and trying to solder wires. Guess what the new chinese ignition switch did the same thiing!! You can see that the new wires are real shiny and soft. Crappy quality!
Had to jury rig the switch with a jumper with clips and zip tie it to my column. The chinese wires are sub standard copper and wire coating is not heat resistant like to OG stuff is. Since I'm an aircraft technician, I'm going to replace the wires with aircraft grade 14 GA wire. Of course , make sure there is not a short somewhere down the line from the switch before firing things up. Anyone else have this problem? Good luck All...........

[webwalker]

It would help us if we knew where you got this part so that we could ID and avoid it.
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"Consistent maintenance with quality products is the cheapest warranty you'll ever need."
1977 CE1 Transporter Deluxe, Subaru EJ22, Skills Cooling, Steedle HD 091 w/ GuardT .82 4th
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[1967250s]

Actually bought it at a reputable parts dealer, Olympus auto parts in Alexandria, VA. They usually have good parts. Does VW still make he original?

[VDubTech]

This is nothing new. Do a search for ignition switch and you'll see that there were already warnings up about the chinese switch, and which one to buy and which one to avoid.
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=279077&highlight=