I installed a BA6 in my 1973 Wild Westerner!

[vwwestyman]

Inspired by impending cold weather (but nice temps this weekend) and a 5 gallon jug of Fluid Film heading my way, I've decided to finally install the BA6 that has been sitting in my garage for a couple years.

I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of removing the old heater pipe with very little cutting.

I'm taking lots of pics and plan to post them later. (I want to get as much done as I can before the sun sets!)
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Edit: Removed a pic for a question I had but is no longer relevant.

In it's place are links to a couple threads I've referenced.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3516966

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652034

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=532195
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Ok, some pics of what I got done today.

First, removing the old heat tube. I was pleasantly surprised that it seems that the distance from the back Y to the front distribution box seems to not have changed. I was plain surprised to see that at some point in the past, the heat tube and distribution box had been connected with a piece of tin in the past. I was happy that all I needed to do to remove the tube was cut a small welded tab up front, and a single weld in the back.

Comparison of the length of the tube with the heater.

This bracket may need dealt with, as it seems to interfere with the combustion fan.

These tabs were made to hold up the two passenger side mounts. They are both bolted to the frame rails.

Front mount.

Rear mount.

I may have to wiggle them around a bit to make it fit just right. I based my measurements on posts I found here in the forums.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Got a lot more work done on the heater install.

I pulled the seats and rubber mat, and was reminded that I have to do something with the darn surface rust that is all over from the bus sitting 10 years unused in the rainy side of the PNW mountains with bad window seals.

I believe I'll rust mort them for now, then look into something like Master Series later in the winter. You can see it in a couple of the pics. I had just a little bit of rust mort left in the current bottle, so I put it on three rows, you can see that too in a couple pics.

I fabricated the middle, driver side mount and got it bolted up.

Location from above.

Mount. (I painted the other two, too.)

Recirc fan bolt locations from above.

From below.

I used the duct recommended here:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6892454#6892454

I realize the factory opening was to the left, but this is what worked for me. I'm thinking something like a dryer vent cover will do well for a cover to keep things (like bits of burlap from the seat!) from falling right in.

Fuel pump location. I was able to use an already-existing hole with this spot. The gas lines are now covered with the corrugated electrical sleeve stuff for chafe protection.

Here is the heat sensor mounted to the distribution box. Somehow I ended up with the pipe from a Vanagon setup, so I cut the nipple off, cut a hole, and used JB weld as tootype2crazy did.

_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

With the heater mounted up, I had to massage the control cable bracket from the distribution box up a bit to be able to clear the combustion fan. And by that, I mean I pushed it up a little! Doing that, they both fit, if barely.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Well, one of my foster sons was sick yesterday, so I had to take off from work a little after noon.

Which gave me time to work on the project!

No pics this installment, because it was just hooking up wires.

I did have some problems getting the fuel T installed-the original clamps I tried using didn't work, so I had to work to keep fuel from dripping all over the place so I could go to the hardware store and get different clamps.

I got it to fire, though! However, something is not quite right.

With the bus engine not running, only the recirculation fan runs. Is this correct? I had thought that the BA6 turned both fans on. When the engine is running, both fans run.

But here is the issue. The safety switch engages after a few minutes. It always has after the first run--it would let the heater go for several minutes before tripping, whether I was testing it on the floor, or now in the bus. I was hoping that I maybe didn't have one wire hooked up correctly while testing on the floor and that was the cause.

Indeed, I did have the red and black wires mixed around on the flame sensor initially. This was causing the recirc and burner fans to run all the time. As soon as I switched the wires, that stopped. It is now hooked up per this pic:

Anyway, after the initial trial where it ran a few minutes, if I let things sit for a while and cool down, it'll turn on for just a minute or two before the safety switch engages. It needs quite a bit of time before it'll allow itself to be reset.

Because it isn't even allowing itself to run the full time for ignition before tripping, from what I understand this indicates that the flame sensor may be faulty. Is that correct?

Couple other questions, to make sure I have things hooked up properly.

First, near the safety switch are two pairs of wires, each pair crimped onto one female connector. One has two red wires, the other has a black and a blue/white wire. The red one is currently connected to fuse 9 and the black/blue/white is connected to fuse 10. Is this correct?

Second, at the control switch, in addition to the multi-pin plug, there are two additional spades. Does anything hook up to either of these? If so, what, and to which one? The only info I can find in the manual is to make sure not to plug something into the wrong one, because that'll fry the switch.

Thanks!
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Stuartzickefoose]

Sounds like it’s not firing properly. Video record it firing up. Need to hear spark clicking, fuel pump clicking, and both fans running. Combustion fans love to have just a tad of junk on the contacts which keep spark or fuel from working correctly.

Flame switches don’t go bad often in my experience

Just stick to simple stuff first

Check the plug and make sure it sparks AND glows properly. See Jason’s technique for cleaning it and making the glow portion work again when it doesn’t.
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[vwwestyman]

Certainly can't hurt to check the plug.

I can hear it starting to fire when the safety stitch kicks it off. If I manually hold the lever on the safety switch over, it will fire and seemingly operate normally until I release the lever.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

If anyone could please confirm or deny the wiring connections for me, is very much appreciate it!

To recap that question: are there supposed to be two connections to the fuse box, fuses 9 & 10? (And which goes where?)

Since I don't have a clock, am I supposed to have a connection to either of the two bonus spades on the main switch? If I am, what wire from where, and to which spade?
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Stuartzickefoose]

If I remember right, the green wire runs off the radio fuse, like 8 or 9 I think, the other runs on switched power. I’ll dig for pics.
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[vwwestyman]

Re-ran across this old pic I posted in a different thread a couple years ago when I was attempting to test out the heater on my garage floor.

When I put it all in, I was thinking that the ground (brown wire w/white stripe labeled 6 in this pic) was supposed to be connected to the heater lever ground with a piggyback connector. You know the kind that you slip over one male spade and gives you two male spades.

Perhaps it was supposed to actually be connected to the "31" terminal on the control switch?

Anyone?

1 and 3 are the two that I'm trying to confirm which spot(s) in the fuse box they go to.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Stuartzickefoose]

There is a single ground you are missing. It goes from the switch to ground and is by itself not in the harness, if I remember right.
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[vwwestyman]

[Stuartzickefoose]

I think if You look at the switch, where the harness connector there is a tab off by itself right next to the six pin connector. This is where the ground wire attaches, the ground wire is roughly 18 inches long, and a ground out to the body of a vehicle
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[vwwestyman]

So if I attach a ground directly to the 31 terminal, where does the wire marked 6 go then?
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Stuartzickefoose]

[vwwestyman]

I believe the wires marked 4/5 are for the dash lights, based on wire color. Those are the grey/red wire.

6 is brown with white stripe. I just need to know if it goes to the terminal on the switch, or the heater lever.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Stuartzickefoose]

Heater lever is my guess. That’s important, and the whole unit won’t kick if he heat isn’t on full blast.
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[vwwestyman]

So tonight I had a little bit of time to dink around with it.

First I added a ground wire from the chassis to the 31 terminal on the switch.

No change.

Following the theory of the flame sensor, I checked the function of my spare with my propane torch and it seemed to work. I hooked it up to the wires of the flame sensor, and used the torch on it. With this setup, it did seem to keep running for quite a while longer, though I think it did eventually still trip the safety switch. (Possibly not that, I had my foster kids interrupting me at about that time.)

While I had the heater running, I checked the installed flame sensor and the normally open and closed contacts had flip-flopped as they should.

I found what seemed to be a somewhat loose contact on a wire to the flame sensor in all this. So I tweaked it and tightened it up, and hooked the installed sensor back up.

With this setup, the safety switch operates within about 15 seconds of startup. From the sound of things, it seemingly is kicking things off just as the whole thing is just starting to ignite. It is always just beginning to develop that jet sound (similar to the BN4 on my Thing).

Now, my interpretation of the manual info is that it shouldn't be even looking for the flame switch signal until between 1 and 2 minutes of startup, depending on how warm the ambient temperature is.

Is there anyone out there? I feel like it is just me and Stuart, talking about what he remembers from installing one 2 years ago! Help!
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Oh yes. One more question on exactly how the thing is supposed to operate.

I'm 99% sure that the rear, factory booster fan is NOT coming on when the heater is running, unless I start the engine.

Is this correct? If not, I wonder if the operation of the booster fan was altered a little bit in the years that came with BA6?

I still have that ground wire (number 6 from the pic above) connected to the heater lever along with the factory ground.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing