'55 original build - Black Sabbath

[Hazza6542]

Had a play with more wiring today. Rear heart mounts are rusting away so can't really test em properly, will have a play tomorrow though. The rear 3 screw terminal was nasty, $1.85 St jaycar fixed that.

Headlights caused some drama. The fuse box snapped and crumbled and the terminals aren't contacting properly so not so easy to test stuff but I make it work. Headlight 1 went in and worked easy, but the second wasn't doing anything. Bad ground. Fixed it up then suddenly they both go really dim after knocking the 2 fuse box. Grounded them both separately and worked perfectly!

Then as I packed up for the night, bumped the headlight and they both went out! Too dark to check, job for the morning.

Some other pictures.

Semaphores both work, but now that the fuse box cracked I'm too lazy to set up something temporary. Damn those fuse boxes are expensive, especially when I've gotta shop em to Aus.


Link



EDIT

Too dark to work outside but there's lights inside! Decided to try and fix this fuse box, and hey it's not bad! The screw on terminals were loose and not contacting well with the tab the fuse sits into, so after soldering them in place and gluing back together the rest of it, some tape to hold it extra steady and filing everything down to a nice shine and drilling out the holes for fresh contact the multimeter shows full continuity throughout. Happy days.

I'll still buy a new fuse box for when the car is done, probably grab a 6 fuse, drill it out to mount in the same position and use the two other fuses for accessories like the stereo and fogs maybe.

[Hazza6542]

So I'm getting no power at the ignition switch, no power at any wire coming from starter. I've got the + from battery bolted to the ignition power so that's a clean connection.

Pulled the wiring out of the car to test the wires for continuity, no problems there so I'm thinking it must be a ground? Not sure why though, because if I test for power at the + lead connection to loom I'm getting well over 12V.

That half of the loom is back in now, no cracks in any of the black tubing around it so not sure where the problem is. Multimeter time, just can't understand why no power at the end of the wire when there's power at the start of it and the wire is clean with no breaks in it???


EDIT:

Huh, well I put the wiring back in and worked first go. Nothing different, didn't move the ground so no idea but hey it works again.

EDIT:

Spent hours figuring out why one headlight would hi beam but not low. Long story short, check the globes first...

[Mitchvwnut]

Looks awesome!! Interesting it has nothing stamped under the tag.
I can also help you out with a NOS 4 fuse box in Australia 👍👍

[Hazza6542]

Semaphores painted, hard to keep a patina look so went for a satin black paint and might hit it with a butane torch to nasty it up a bit. They're drying now. Sunday I should have flashing semaphores with the parking light for indicator in the fronts. Will replace the sealed beams with sealed beams that have a built in parking light. Hearts will be parkers, then dual filaments for brake and indicator. Might change it to heart indicators if I get orange lenses for them.

Sunday I should hopefully have the stereo wired in and turning on, still not sure on speaker placement yet. Not going with the door cards again so maybe kick panels but I need a carpet kit first, so chassis has to get done soon.

[Mildoval56]

Keep it up mate, you're setting a cracking pace!

[Hazza6542]

[Hazza6542]

Got time for the semaphore wiring today, decided to really clean things up. This is somewhat walkthroughish.

Set everything out nicely.

Try and find a decent way to hold the soldering iron...

Pull the bulb tab from the lens, remove the solder and take out the old wire.

Put in some new wire, hookup wire from jaycar fits nice and crimp it back in place and solder it in.

Snug the wire into the little tab.

Tuck the wire in where the old was, a small screwdriver with some cardboard on the end will poke it in without hurting the wire.

To stop the coil pin grounding on the top post, I cut some hole into some heat shrink for the wire to pass through and put it over the post.

I soldered the end of the hookup wire cos it's real thin and doesn't like to get screwed down in the post well. Soldered end makes it easy to tighten down.


More to come, should be flashing by the end of the day.
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55 build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=680057

[Hazza6542]

Hmmm, well I have flashing semas, but the indicator dash light is giving me grief. I want it to flash, which it does but it stays on solid when not indicating. I have two wires from the switch for both L and R, one goes to the sema coil and the other to a relay. I'm using the stock blue dash wire to power the bulb. Everything works but to get the dash light working, the the dash light wires from the relay power both relays and I essentially have hazzards.

I know the dash light is solid because it's hot from the dash lights and doesn't have a ground in the speedo so must be grounding at the relay or somewhere else through the system.

I've read through the flashing semaphore thread, and used Splitdog's written schematic, and I've only just now realised while writing this that some simple diodes will fix my issue! However, now that I've overcome that, I need a new challenge. Can I make the dash light flash in sync with the semas? I feel like if I stopped it getting power from the dash lights (blk wire) and grounded it separately inside the speedo I could achieve this.

I've got the front parkers set up with orange bulbs for front indicators and they work great even with the high beams on, very handy. When the dual filament rear holders arrive I'll have the hearts going with their orange lens' as they should arrive around the same time.

Tomorrow's job is gunna be hard with time and plenty of other things I've got on but I'll find a way! I got resistors to make the coil run on 6V, more than 30 seconds on 12V and they start to smoke a bit, can't have that. I should be able to splice in from the switch before they go into the black harness shroud material stuff and mount them nicely.

Mounted the relays with cable ties and some adhesive cable tie mounts on top of the stereo. With the gold non insulated terminals it looks pretty nice.

The lights going before I wired in the left side and the problems began.


Link

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55 build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=680057

[Hazza6542]

Heart lenses and brackets ordered, should have all lights working once they arrive. Will have to swap master cylinders while I'm at it and rip out the pedal assy.

Got the wiper shafts going again. They were really tight and wouldn't budge, butane torch got em heated enough to get rid of any rust, then attached the shaft where the wipers attach to a drill and held the threaded shaft with an 8mm and with a bit of juice they're spinning freely again! Only problem now is the smoking wiper motor from the other beetle. It never used to smoke, and it's been rebuilt and greased already. It's a dual speed motor so I might swap in a head light switch or maybe the old wiper switch with the push button but it doesn't look original and can't figure out what I'd use it for (would have to be wiper related, possible turning intermittent on and off? Just thought of that while writing, not bad actually...).

The other issue is replacing the hole that the choke cable sat in. To fit anything else in I'll need to drill it out and don't really want to in case I ever go back to original motor. Will have to think on this one.

The original rubber boots aren't terrible but will get new ones anyway.

The assembly is really solid, no rust and all smooth now.

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55 build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=680057

[uk 6t6]

[Mark Evans]

Or just put another switch in place without hooking it up with a stock knob...
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'63 Ragtop

[Hazza6542]

[Mildoval56]

Were'd you order the parts for your heart tailights? I'll have to do the same 🙄

[Hazza6542]

For the lens:

http://www.repuestossam.com/

The brackets:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1774203


That will give me everything I need to feel safe from other drivers not knowing what a semaphore is. I'll do the red LED strip in the rear grill again for the 3rd brake light at night.
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55 build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=680057

[AlteWagen]

[Hazza6542]

[AlteWagen]

If you have the stock choke cable you can see that the shaft the knob screws into is about 4-5 in long. I just cut the cable off at the end of the shaft, drilled a hole in the tip of the toggle switch and used two small pieces of rubber hose on each side of the switch to be able to push/pull. The hole in the switch was a bit bigger than the shaft to compensate for the arc, worked fine. I didnt take any pics as it was back in 1990 or so.
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Grapes of Wrath $200 Engine Rebuild
Official Dual Carb Thread
Cylinder Head Quick Reference Sheet

[Hazza6542]

[Hazza6542]

Been thinking over how I'll do the front indicators and I think I've got it. Almost like a trailer conversion kit people use for snowflakes with indicators, but using relays. If I use a change over relay for each side, I should be able to pull this off.

If I have the normally closed line to the parking lights then they'll work all the time no worries, and then when the relay gets switched power from the indicator stalk (which I can tap into for each side from the flasher relays) then that should switch contacts in the relay and turn the parkers off.

I could leave it at that and let another wire running to the indicators run them, but that's easy. I think I might be able to get it all working with one wire.

Going to sleep on it and I'll be back in the morning with a plan I'll edit in.

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55 build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=680057

[Hazza6542]

I've got it. I only need to run 1 extra wire, didn't consider that the RH lights don't have their own wiring but just piggy back off the LH lights. So split the parking wires at the passenger side light, run a new wire to the drivers side wire and then we're good, I can neaten that up easily and you'd never know. Then the relays, those 5 pins will work but I've changed it up a bit.

The parking wire will power both relays and then the Normally Closed terminal will power the lights so that no extra switching is required. The indicator wires currently running to the flasher relays will now be the relay switches on the 5 pins so that when I indicate, the power transfers to the Normally Open terminal, cancelling the parking light for the respective side. Power will then go to the flasher relay for that side which then goes back into the parking wire and the parkers flash in sync with the rest of the car. No worry about current going back into the system through the relay as it's now disconnected at the 5 pin relay so no need for any diodes anywhere.

I hate electrical work but love when it works out. I'll draw up a diagram later, this should work perfectly without buying a trailer converter (probably easier but not as fun).

Other idea has been using my old motorbike indicators from the '61 that were mounted on the bumper as indicators inside the headlamps. Reason for this is they give off a more noticeable orange flash when the head lights are on. When both are on it's not confusing as they're not flashing and people will probably just assume it's normal for an old beetle. Only problem is they're not the nicest look, it's mostly hidden behind the glass but still not great. I'll get some photo's and edit everything in.


Should work like this. Example has left indicator on. Drawn in Word so not amazing but makes sense. Should have it wired in properly tomorrow. Photos show the light on a battery with about 7V left in it.

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55 build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=680057