Problem with new fuse box

[Dale M.]

Think of the wiring as a water system....

Battery=Water Tank
Switch= Water Valve
Wire=Water Hose (pipe)
Light Bulb=Sprinkler

See nothing mysterious about electricals....
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[legotech7]

Thank you Dale M. lol.. the thing about water......... I have difficulty swimming...Good analogy though.. Soon as I get a chance to look at it, I'll post..

[jspbtown]

Are all those fuses supplied power from the large lugs on each end?

Wiring is simple really....you need a + and a - to everything. So make sure everything is grounded...thats your -.

So for a switched device you run power to a fuse, from the fuse to the switch, and from the switch to the device.

[legotech7]

jspbtown no power is supplied fro the ends. I just copied the transfer of the fuses from the old fuse panel to the new as you see it in the pictures. When I applied the power from the battery, the head lights turned on straight away, with out using the light switch. And nothing else worked. Applying my test light to each circuit, all had power. All this with out turning the ignition key on. I hope this makes some sense. I didn't bother to check if the ends to the new panel where supposed to be used to connect power to them. Should have I?.. I just thought the screws where just to attach the cover that came with the panel.. I'll be in the garage tomorrow, and see what I can find.. Thanks all...

[legotech7]

Doing a little more searching, I found this. Its clearly marked battery positive on one end . I think this is where I made my mistake. So as you see those hot wires are in the wrong place?... How might I correct this?. I'll keep asking in an effort to not keep making any more F ups! Again , thanks everyone....

[jspbtown]

The "accessories" box makes no sense.

If one side the fuse panel has power from the large lugs then not sure why thee would would two wires coming from a fuse.

[Dale M.]

Wrong fuse panel for your application.... One row of screws is a ground source for accessory or what ever and one row of screws is a fused 12 volt source.... Ground is fed from one main terminal on one end of fuse panel to a row of screws and 12 Volts is fed to fuses that terminate on other row of screws....

You have a "distribution" panel and not a "inlne" fuse panel...

What are symbols molded into panel where yellow circles are.... Also think diagram for battery is wrong, as hard as it is to see there appears to be a plus (+) symbol on main fuse block supply post that battery is shown as connected to its negative post...

Where did you source fuse block from, need to see full product description...

Could be a really good fuse block for initial wiring with correct concept on how to use it...
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[legotech7]

Gentlemen, I got the panel from a local source that assured me this would work. If its the wrong panel, with one do I really need? Would this box work better?

I feel like I'm spitting in the wind here! Couldn't find any information about the other box. What to do, what to do!...And of course , how to do it...I hope this isn't frustrating anyone... Cause it sure as hell frustrating me..

[MrGoodtunes]

I'm wondering what the 3 yellow ovals are for at each end of the "wiring diagram" for your fuse box? I'm also wondering what all is connected from where the diagram shows battery positive going to the top mounting screw?! And I agree with jspbtown that the diagram's accessory indication is flaw'd or meaningless.

Some fuse boxes have certain terminals connected by a conducting bridge running between fuse terminals underneath. Can you see anything like that on the back side of your box, maybe by removing a back cover? Here's the back side of a fuse box I found in the Samba gallery, as a example:

[Dale M.]

Gentlemen the 12 fuse panel block is distribution panel not a inline fuse panel it supplies fused 12 volt and ground... THE yellow ovals in previous post is to indicate polarity (12 Volts (+) and Ground (-)) in each row of screws.... And the "accessories" (in graphics) could be anything like a light circuit or a radio or honking big amplifier for the sound system to go over open exhaust...

Also to connect two fuses to same source (daisy chain) you may want to use one of this style terminal in first two positions...

Or maybe one or two of these...

_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[Dale M.]

[legotech7]

Thanks Dale M. and everyone else for your input. I will replace the panel with this one, since its fairly cheap ( 8 bucks on amazon ) soon as I get it. Easy if you have prime! And post results

[jspbtown]

I understand that wiring can seem challenging but you need to try to get a grasp as to how it works versus just throwing things at what you have trying to replicate things. Its really a recipe for disaster.

Like I said in my previous post...buggy wiring is really simple. Everything needs a ground (-) and a positive (+) to work.

So lets take a simple light bulb...you take a wire from the negative side of the battery and connect it to one tab on the light bulb. You then take a wire from the positive side of the battery and connect it to the other tab on the light bulb and viola! The light lights.

So now say you want to switch the bulb on with switch. The switch just interupts the current. You can do it on the negative side (in this example) or the positive side. In your buggy example you would do it on the positive side. So you cut the wire that comes from the battery in half, take the half that comes from the battery and connect it to one tab on the switch and then the other half of the wire that goes the light connect it to the other tab on the switch. You now have a switched circuit.

Now add in a fuse. The fuse protects the circuit so it should be placed on the positive wire in our example. So sticking with our example you would disconnect the wire that goes from the battery to the switch and connect it to one side of the fuse. From the other side of the fuse you run a wire back to the battery. So now the positive charge goes from the battery, to the fuse, to the switch and ultimately to the light.

There.....that is the basics of wiring in a buggy.

So lets try that in an actual application. The master cylinder has two switches attached to it. They are essential "on/off" switches that are activated by fluid pressure, but they are no different in function to any on/off switch. Now i the original VW application they work in tandem to activate a brake warning light that you likely do not have so you only really need one switch (keep the other one there as a built in spare). So using my example above you would take the positive from the battery, run it into a fuse, then from the fuse you would go to the switch on the master cylinder, then from the switch on the master cylinder you would go to a terminal on the rear brake light and then from that terminal you would jump over to the next brake light. Of course both brake light bulbs would need a ground (-) wire as well. You have just wired your brake lights.

Now there are of course other little thinks to consider like do you want power to something all the time or just when they buggy is in the "on" position? Thats called "keyed power" and you would get it from the key instead of the battery. And maybe your headlights where you would run power from a fuse, to the on/off switch, then to your dimmer switch, and then to the headlights, but it is all the same principal.

So as you go through this process try to understand the function of the wires and not just copying someone else's garbage wiring job. Wiring can be the most rewarding part of a buggy build even for a novice. Body/ paint/ complex mechanical can all require skill that takes years to learn. Wiring is just taking your time, being meticulous, and wanting to do a good job.

[legotech7]

jspbtown, Thank you so much for that explanation. The way you describe it, it does seem fairly simple. Like some folks especially me, I usually need a visual or a diagram to help me see things more clearly. I do appreciate the lay out and will try to follow. That's why I love this site...

[EVfun]

How much wiring is on the buggy? Some people build buggies with most of the features of modern cars, others are fairly basic. I fall into the second camp, it is kinda what a buggy means to me (to each their own -- that's what makes this sub-forum great.) I take the wiring down to dead simple. In the back you have the battery to ground and to starter and the alternator output to the big wire on the starter. I use a battery positive cable that comes with a smaller wire too, and I run that to a 1959 down Bug headlight fuse box. That is 2 fuses and 3 terminals (1 in, 2 out.)

I put that back by the battery so almost every wire is fuse protected. For the output I run a large yellow wire to the light switch and a large red wire to the ignition switch. Anything that has an ignition switched power supply is off the ignition switch. Anything that can be turned on with the car off is connected to the light switch power input. VW like to put brake lights, turn signals, and wipers on 1 ignition switched fuse, those are now hooked to the ignition switch (accessory terminal if it has one.) All the vehicle lights are already fused before power gets to the switch. The horn may also use that power source.

From there you can build up a more complex system. Perhaps you have seat heaters that need their own fuse. Perhaps you want to use a later light switch with 2 power inputs and give each one its own fuse so the headlights and rest of the lights each have separate fuses. Wiring is just a loop. From battery, to fuse, to switch (sometimes those are in reverse order), to item being powered, and back to the battery negative terminal. Most often that return is through the frame, that is why the battery negative terminal is hooked to the frame.
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[clonebug]

[EVfun]

[clonebug]

[legotech7]

Thank you gentlemen, your ideas are much appreciated. With some very nice examples. I will be fixing my dilemma soon, but plan on redoing the whole wiring some time next year. I probably won't be adding too many extras to mine as I like mine to stay pretty basic, simple, but who knows!...to be continued...

[legotech7]

Well folks, wired the new fuse box , and everything is working as it should for now, with better documentation.... Still have to make it look neat, its a bit chilly in the garage so I called an early day. Once again, thank you everyone for all your help on this. I'm sure something else will come up, and I'll be on here again screaming for help. Good day all....