Identifying lever on dash

[balljoint]

What's that little handle/lever thing next to the fuse box?

[Cusser]

What year is your RHD VW? What country was your VW built for? Could it be for a manual choke?
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[glutamodo]

It's the Knuten Valve.

That's a nonsense joke-term...

Seriously, I think it most likely be for a heater blower fan or auxiliary lights (fog lights)

Just having a random switch under the dashboard tells the average viewer very little. You need to open the hood and remove the wiring cover and see where the wires on this switch actually route to.
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[Denny B]

I noticed it's a RHD car but the hood release is on the left side. Is this normal?
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[balljoint]

That is a pic off the net used for reference.

My car is german built 65 and just has an empty hole...nothing to trace. I have no idea what market it was built for, but destination was to the Caribbean.

I also have what I believe is a 68+ RHD dash (3 vents on top) pictured below with the same hole....so it seems it was common to RHD cars.

Every bug I've seen here (RHD) has the hood release on the Lhs.

[finster]

australian beetles had the bonnet release on the right but uk market cars kept it on the left.
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[mukluk]

Have a look in the appropriate year owner's manual (link here). If you don't see the switch or matching hole in there, then it's been added after it left the factory. In such case, as mentioned already, the only thing you can do is trace the wires to determine what it's for. When the switch/whatsit has been removed, leaving only an errant hole, its purpose is now whatever you wish to use it for (or not).
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[bluebus86]

No ash tray, no radio hole, very interesting

Bug On! They are interesting after all!
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[mukluk]

[viiking]

I realise this is a pre-68 forum but I have a RHD '68 and can maybe shed some light.

The hood opening as far as I know has ALWAYS been on the LHS on the beetle, regardless of RHD or LHD contrary to finster's recollection. Mine is definitely on the LHS. It would make no sense for the Germans to tool up to change something that is not used that often.

Given the shark-gill outlets on the heater channel I believe this is a pre-69 pan.

My guess is that a maybe a previous owner has modified the dash. The speedo is not the old numeral speedo but something after 1968 or an after-market speedo. The fuel gauge may not be an original but one added to a later model dash - maybe.

The hole on the RHS as per balljoint''s picture especially with the grommet still in place is the entry/exit point for the electrical harness from the indicator stalk. When switching from the LHD to RHD, the factory was lazy and just moved the whole steering column to the RHS leaving the indicator on the "wrong" or LHS of the steering wheel. OK for the rest of the world but a bugger when every other RHD car had the indicator on the right and you had to use the same hand that you changed gears with to indicate as well. The cabling from the indicator was then run up to the underneath of the dash where the hole was and into the trunk. I have that exact hole and the cabling through it. It was even more noticeable on the '68 and later models that had the key switch on the right hand side of the steering wheel like mine.

I can also not see a dip switch for the lights on the floor so I assume this is accommodated on the indicator stalk. So getting back to the original question, it can be an auxillary switch, but also might be something as stupid as a high-beam switch, especially if someone has modified a dash to use pre-68 components or the car was not fitted with a floor mounted dip switch. Just a wild guess.
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[meranda]

Balljoint's picture shows the hole for the indicator levers wiring ,see my 98 photo,but mine has another grommet which I can't think what it is for. The original post photo looks like it might be a potentiometer and therefor would be an after market wiper delay.

[bluebus86]

[finster]

viiking - my comment was based on this thread, particularly joel's post and perhaps I should have indicated lack of concrete certainty with a ?.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=583357&highlight=rhd+beetle

I agree that it would be too much disruption for wolfsburg but perhaps more feasable for local plants. I wonder what south africa did?

ps the most extreme example of this I have encountered was on a lloyd 600 I restored 18 years ago. for rhd models the factory didn't bother with a new dash pressing so the glovebox was in front of the driver and the speedo was over on the pasenger side!

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[balljoint]

Like I said the light blue pic was just found on the net and it does seem the radio and ashtray was blocked off so who hows what again was modified.

I thought the hole would have been for the wires for the indicator harness as well but on my car there is a second hole where the wires pass through on the left side of the column.
The 2nd pic of the later dash I posted does not have this hole though.

So with the age of these cars and lack of info WRT RHD vehicles on here we can only assume what is what.
I'll just fill in the hole by the fuse box and leave the harness run on the left side of the column where it's out of sight.