Wiring help (Watson kit)

[schadenfreude]

case in point the silly ash tray ground in my 68
what a joke that is, (GONE)

[Vinnems]

A ground bar is a good idea, since I have a big hole where my original fuse panel was. Should fill it with something.
Oh, and this kit isn't meant to work with existing wiring. If you go to their site and read their crappy walkthrough, first thing they do is straight tear out all the wiring.

[Vinnems]

OK, just got off the phone with Watson. Since I have a dual circuit master cylinder with two switches, he said I have to split the brake wires and have them both go to the corresponding switches. Questions:
1. The switch has three prongs. Following the wiring diagram, it looks like one prong on each (black with red stripe wire) is simply routed to the back of the car to the test computer thing. Can that just be left out?
2. Since the brake light switches are wired so they connect to each other, does that mean if one of the switches is bad, that the tail lights won't work? Watson guy was wondering why they would use two brake light switches instead of one. This is the only reason i can figure, because if one goes out it means one circuit in your MC is out possibly. Anyone learn me on this?

Need to go buy more connectors (not enough provided ) but I'm pretty much done with bag C. I'm going to draw a better diagram on how to wire this all up so those of us with late model Beetles will have a better chance. fcl's diagrams are good, but there's some other stuff that needs to be done.

[ashman40]

[Vinnems]

OK that diagrams really helps. Thanks for that, ashman.
In Watson kit terms, the red/black wire would be the white wire, the black wire would be orange, and the red wire isn't really there, but if you say 81 acts like a third brake light, a light blue wire is included for an actual third tail light that I can just use.
I don't know if the original VW wiring is like this, but the brake light wire from the fuse box is also wired into the dome light in the car, which is wired to the door jamb switch, in the Watson kit. I guess it runs at the same amperage or something.
Oh, and for those wanting to know what they are getting into better, here is the complete wiring diagram of the Watson kit:
http://www.americanautowire.com/PDFLink/92964974%20500408%20IN.pdf

[ashman40]

[Vinnems]

This is confusing me. Can anyone explain what this is saying?

MOMENTARY GROUND Plug the connector end into the relay (location S), route wire to the turn signal switch and connect to a momentary grounding switch such as the original steering
column high beam switch. This switch contains two wires to the momentary switch. One of these wires is connected to the latching relay (location S).
The other wire is connected to ground. See the circuit diagram for connection details.

Is this saying to connect splice this wire into the ground wire on the steering column? Here's a link to the diagram for this specific part:
http://www.americanautowire.com/PDFLink/92965059%20500420%20IN%202.0.pdf
Also, I'd like to thank Watson for not including enough end terminals, so now I have to go track don't some more. Very professional.

[ashman40]

The headlight dimmer switch is part of the turn signal assembly. I believe the writes for this is the brown/white wire, but you should confirm. When you pull on the turn signal lever it will close to contacts. This its the momentary switch referred to in the diagram. I believe it grounds through the steering assembly. Some model years may have a dedicated ground wire for the turn signal switch. Don't confuse this with the brown grounding wire for the horn.

This brown/white wire is grounded for as long as the turn signal lever is pulled and the contacts are closed (momentary switch). This brown/white wire is the "trigger" for the dimmer relay. The 5-prong dimmer relay pictures in the diagram is common to generic installations, but you will find them at most any FLAPS.
_________________
AshMan40
---------------------------
'67 Beetle #1 {project car that never made it to the road }
'75 Beetle 1200LS (RHD Japan model) {junked due to frame rot}
'67 Beetle #2 {2019 project car - Wish me luck!}

[Vinnems]

EDIT: OK, let me see if I can salvage this.
So I have a stock wiring harness coming to help me in connecting all the missing wires. And thank god. For some reason, I guess because Watson doesn't think they are important, no wires are given to hook up the hazard switch. They give you a wire to power it but you're on your own for connecting it. Jeez, this is a $350 kit and I've already put in an additional $50 in wiring and connectors, which I'd have to buy more of but I got a stock kit coming (another hundred or so dollars). They don't even provide enough connectors to do what the instructions say.
I take back anything good I've said about this kit. Just buy a stock harness and follow the wiring diagrams. Save yourself $150 and the aggravation of it all.
Ashman: SO I'm still confused. Should I connect the brown white wire to S on the dimmer relay, like in the original diagram? Because the Watson kit includes a separate wire from S to the turn signal switch, but the way you word it makes the wire seem redundant since my brown/white wire will reach the S circuit.

[Nepenthe88]

[Vinnems]

OK, almost done with this kit. Two things I'm confused on now:
1. My turn signals. The big bulb I got, but the little bulb I'm confused on. It's connection is two little prongs, like half the size of a typical connection. How does this work? And how do I ground this light?
2. Grounds. Is each bulb ground separately? The 71 diagram is confusing on this. Just shows a thin line going from each bulb to the housing. How am I supposed to ground these?

[ashman40]

[Vinnems]

Ashman, Watson is very unhelpful when I call. I pretty much am given the answer "you're on your own."
For the hazard switch, check this diagram:
http://www.americanautowire.com/PDFLink/92965061%20500421%20IN%201.0.pdf
The one wire just connects the hazard switch to the fuse box. Wiring up each bulb is something I'm supposed to figure out
Going to draw my own diagram tomorrow to make better sense of things.

[ashman40]

[Vinnems]

OK, so I spent a good part of today redrawing the Watson street kit to better fit the Supers. I'm going to go over everything one more time to check for errors before posting it here for more scrutiny. The one thing I still can't figure is the hazard lights, BUT I THINK I'M CLOSE!
Had an epiphany when I was reading the Watson directions and it said to hook up light blue wire to front turn signal bulb. Then it hit me that in the stock diagram, the front bulbs are wired to the turn signal while the rears are wired to the emergency switch!! Watsons kit assumes that the car is wired in such a way that the column turn signal switch ran to both the front and the rears, which just isn't so on the VW Beetle. That's why also they have the emergency flasher in Watson's diagram containing four circuits that simply went to each turn signal bulb. So I drew this up real quick, and it's where I'm left with one question:

How does the emergency switch and turn signal switch come together so that front and back turn signals work in unison? I know it's not 31, because that's just a ground. Is it connecting 15 to 15? Or, most likely just looking at the diagram, is it running 49a from the emergency switch to the relay, and than running that to 54Bl on the turn signal switch? Is it connecting the +s? It's real easy to play connect the dots with the wiring, but I need to know what makes what work.
And if someone can tell me why VW wired things up this way, my brain would appreciate it. I mean, 15 on the emergency switch powers the fuel float thing? The brake warning light has power off the wiper motor switch? Is just because the wires ran by each other? Kudos to them if it was to save wires, but really, skimping on wiring costs is a bit much.
EDIT: Found out via PM that the Watson fuse box has a single relay for both the turn signals and the hazard lights, so the original hazard relay isn't used. At a loss now on what to do. I'm really hoping there's an easier way to put this together than what fcl had to do.

[ashman40]

You need to confirm if BOTH the "TURN" and "HAZARD" connections from the fuse box (red and blue wires in your diagram) are "flashing" outputs from the flasher relay. Is the power from theses two sources constant 12v, or flashing 12v? My guess would be that BOTH are flashing power which comes from the flasher relay but are protected by .

As I see it, there are two ways you could wire this up:
1) 1-to-2-to-4. If you are using the STOCK turn signal and hazard switches... use this option.
One flashing power input, split into L & R and then split again into LF, LR, RF and RR. This is how VW wired the turn and hazards. If you have the original VW T2 connectors (4-way junction) you can easily splice the turn and hazard circuits together with two outputs for L and two for R.


2) 1-to-4. If you have a hazard and.or turn switch with four outputs, you might consider this method. This is what the Watson wiring diagram is suggesting.
One flashing power input (blue and red wires), goes into a switch and from there FOUR wires come out. Once for each corner. The turn signal and the hazard switch each produce four wires. You splice them together before going to the four corner lights.
To get the four outputs from the turn signal switch you will need to use the three (3) extra wires that make up the EXTRA turn signal circuit (grey or black??) Just as the main switching circuit has one input and two outputs (L & R), the extra switching circuit has the same.
In your diagram, the blue wire would connect to BOTH switching circuits in the turn signal assembly and there would be FOUR outputs.


NOTE: your diagram is incorrect that the input at the turn signal switch that connect to the L & R outputs is the 54BL terminal not the #30... not that it matters because I don't think they are labeled on the turn signal switch.
On the stock Hazard switch, it is the 49a terminal that will be connected to the L & R terminals when you pull the switch to the ON position.
30 and 15 alternatively connect to the "+" terminal depending if the switch is ON or OFF, respectively.
_________________
AshMan40
---------------------------
'67 Beetle #1 {project car that never made it to the road }
'75 Beetle 1200LS (RHD Japan model) {junked due to frame rot}
'67 Beetle #2 {2019 project car - Wish me luck!}

[swhitcomb]

[Zacharysayre]

[Vinnems]

Found this topic on Shoptalk. Wish I knew of the forum. They have a dedicated electrical section filled with folks who have installed the Watson kit in a bunch of cars. Here's how this guy wired up his emergency flasher:

[ashman40]

Excellent diagrams. They all look good to me except one...

I have one question related to the turn signal wires and the wiring of the turn indicator in the speedo:

In the above pic, the left and right turn signal wires (violet & blue) are spliced together and run to the single bulb in the speedo. This bulb is connected to the 12v+ wire (brown?) that powers the fuel gauge and the other two indicator bulbs at the bottom of the speedo. The indicator bulb is looking for a ground signal to turn the turn indicator lamp ON. Your two wires only provide a 12v+ or OPEN signal to the turn indicator lamp. This shouldn't work.

One solution is to add a separate relay between the two wires and the turn indicator lamp. This relay would be powered by the 12v+ coming from the turn signal wires, but when the relay energizes it sends a ground signal to the turn indicator bulb in the speed, turning it ON in time with the corner lights.




Also, by splicing the violet and blue wires together, don't you connect the left and right side turn signals together was well? Do you have a diode on each line to prevent power coming from the other from back feeding towards the turn signal switch/hazard switch?

This may just need a pair of 1A diodes. Simply orient them with the stripe towards the turn indicator. This will allow positive current to flow from the wires to the turn indicator, but NOT allow current to flow from the turn indicator down each wire.
_________________
AshMan40
---------------------------
'67 Beetle #1 {project car that never made it to the road }
'75 Beetle 1200LS (RHD Japan model) {junked due to frame rot}
'67 Beetle #2 {2019 project car - Wish me luck!}