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ashman40
Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2007
Posts: 15982
Location: North Florida, USA
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 Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 6:10 am Post subject: Re: New Member With a Question (Electrical) |
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| Hammerhead69 wrote: |
The turn signal “ring” has power going to it according to the test light. The turn signals were working before moved it out of the way to get to the switch. The odd thing now is when I touch one of the contacts where a wire attaches to the back of the ring to the steering shaft (where the nut holds on the steering wheel) the horn blows.
Do I even have the correct ring? Mine is pictured below & every other one I’ve seen on Google searches looks different for the ‘71.
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First off, that is not a '71 Beetle turn signal switch assembly. It looks like a '68-'70 switch. In '71 VW moved the horn (-) circuit to the turn signal switch assembly. You can easily see this as a large brass "wing" on the face of the turn signal switch assembly. Maybe you have a '70 Beetle steering column?
In a '68-'70 steering column the horn (-) wire runs to the steering shaft bearing. These bearings are wrapped in plastic to insulate the bearing from the column housing. You can see a wire coming off the left side of the bearing like this:
The stock '68-'70 bearing comes with a wire attached. This wire runs down to the horn (-) terminal.
When you say there is power at the turn signal switch... where are you testing? The '70 turn signal switch assembly has two switches... turn signal switch and headlight dimmer switch (seen as the two brass contacts at the left side of the switch). Are you testing the wiring to the turn signal switch?
Starting from the fuse box, test for 12v at the OUTPUT of the turn signal fuse. Follow the wire to the E-Flasher switch #15 terminal. Next, check the "+" terminal on the E-Flasher switch. Then the 49 (+) terminal on the flasher relay. Are you seeing voltage at all of these points. Take the measurements using a voltmeter. Is there a significant voltage drop as you move along the path?
_________________
AshMan40
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'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!} |
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Hammerhead69
Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2021
Posts: 84
Location: Georgia
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| Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 11:30 am Post subject: Re: New Member With a Question (Electrical) |
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| Thanks for the reply. It’s kind of a moot point now though. I looked at the wires under the dash & sure enough they were spliced so someone replaced the switch with this older version for some reason. I’ve ordered a switch for a ‘71 & hopefully that’ll take care of the problem. |
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Hammerhead69
Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2021
Posts: 84
Location: Georgia
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| Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 2:52 pm Post subject: Re: New Member With a Question (Electrical) |
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| Ok. I got the new blinker switch on today & the turn signals & dimmer work. I now have 4 wires left over: a light gray one, a dark gray one, a gray one with a red stripe, & long skinny brown one. I read somewhere that the gray ones aren’t used but what is the brown one? |
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ashman40
Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2007
Posts: 15982
Location: North Florida, USA
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| Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 3:31 pm Post subject: Re: New Member With a Question (Electrical) |
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| Hammerhead69 wrote: |
| Ok. I got the new blinker switch on today & the turn signals & dimmer work. I now have 4 wires left over: a light gray one, a dark gray one, a gray one with a red stripe, & long skinny brown one. I read somewhere that the gray ones aren’t used but what is the brown one? |
Here is a pic of an aftermarket turn signal switch.
The original US-spec switch would have only come with the three black wires near the outer edge. The aftermarket switches wire the inner three terminals with grey wires. These inner wires are not used on US Beetles. The wires can be looped up and tucked away. Keep them in case your primary wires fail you.
The extra brown wire is likely the horn wire. Your new '71 turn signal switch should look something like this:
Note the large brass "wing" at the top of the turn signal switch. The extra brown wire connects to this "wing". The loose end of the brown wire connects to the horn (-) wire. The brass "wing" makes contact with the brass ring on the underside of the steering wheel (shown above). The wire from this ring passes thru the steering wheel to the horn button.
Does your steering wheel have this contact ring on the underside? This ring was introduced in the '71 model year. The '70-earlier steering wheels did not have the contact ring as they passed the horn current thru the upper bearing to the steering shaft.
Careful here... if you just installed a '71 turn signal switch into a '70-earlier steering column... there are other changes to be made. The horn (-) circuit is very different from '70 to '71-later. In '70 the steering shaft+steering wheel was part of the horn (-) circuit. In '71-later the steering shaft + steering wheel are part of the ground path and on the opposite side of the horn button/switch.
_________________
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!}
Last edited by ashman40 on Sun May 23, 2021 8:53 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Hammerhead69
Samba Member
Joined: April 29, 2021
Posts: 84
Location: Georgia
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| Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 11:31 am Post subject: Re: New Member With a Question (Electrical) |
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[quote="ashman40"]
| Hammerhead69 wrote: |
Does your steering wheel have this contact ring on the underside? This ring was introduced in the '71 model year. The '70-earlier steering wheels did not have the contact ring as they passed the horn current thru the upper bearing to the steering shaft.
Careful here... if you just installed a '71 turn signal switch into a '70-earlier steering column... there are other changes to be made. The horn (-) circuit is very different from '70 to '71-later. |
I ordered a new steering wheel from Airhead Parts, they say that it fits the Bug sedan ‘62 thru ‘71. I also ordered the horn contact turn signal cancelling ring & they say it fits the Bug sedan ‘71 thru ‘77. That switch you show looks identical to m y new one. |
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