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Topic: electrical nightmare  (Read 11853 times)

Offline Bugnut

  • padded cell.
  • Joined: Aug 2005
  • Posts: 2953

electrical nightmare

« Reply #15 on: August 08, 2006, 01:02:17 AM »
I feel your pain I still have a toggle for my horn,cant get my interior light to work,and have real cool foglights wired to nothing. :lol: Not to mention no High beams.

Offline Ret.Bugtech

electrical nightmare

« Reply #16 on: August 08, 2006, 12:19:37 PM »
OK Mr Electronic Dude,   I can't belive you cannot fix those little things or are you like most mechanics who's personal cars are rolling wrecks. I won't mention any names :lol:  :lol:

Offline Bugnut

  • padded cell.
  • Joined: Aug 2005
  • Posts: 2953

electrical nightmare

« Reply #17 on: August 08, 2006, 02:46:35 PM »
The high beams I blame on that 67 high beam switch,I'll replace it someday.It dont really bother me that much. The dome light is just  cursed or something I cant seem to track it down. The horn and foglights I have to say would be me being lazy. I keep telling myself I'll wait till I restore the car but when will that be? :lol:

Offline VWGirl

  • Rossville,GA/ Micanopy, FL
  • Joined: Jan 2006
  • Posts: 642

electrical nightmare

« Reply #18 on: August 08, 2006, 07:51:16 PM »
well my mexibeetle is full of blue dye... so hopefully it will be fixed soon... and be back here in less than two weeks...

in the meantime i have brakelights again on my car and it charges just fine with the gennie light on... so i will continue to drive it as little as possible and check my belt daily... hell i may just replace it to be safe... but if i stop messing with the car then it will stop breaking... then when i get my other car back i can take it apart

Offline Bugnut

  • padded cell.
  • Joined: Aug 2005
  • Posts: 2953

electrical nightmare

« Reply #19 on: August 08, 2006, 11:38:56 PM »
like most mechanics who's personal cars are rolling wrecks. I won't mention any names :lol:  :lol:[/quote]

You lookin in a mirror godfather? :lol:

Offline Ret.Bugtech

electrical nightmare

« Reply #20 on: August 09, 2006, 12:45:27 AM »
Can't tell !   mirror is broken :lol:

Offline copperjewel

  • Joined: Sep 2002
  • Posts: 523

electrical nightmare

« Reply #21 on: August 09, 2006, 04:58:02 AM »
:shock: Good Lord!!!

Offline Ret.Bugtech

electrical nightmare

« Reply #22 on: August 09, 2006, 09:43:46 AM »
Its OK Moe,   You let "Grasshopper" go down garden path until he reach fork in path. Which path must he take to complete journey for knowlege and learn the meaning of respect.
   You must say:  "Grasshopper" I hold two Dasher pistons in my hands. One will lead you on the path of  knowlege. The one that remains will relieve you of your worldly goods and lead you into the Great Pot Hole of life from which there is no return. Choose well my Son :lol:  :lol:

Offline Bugnut

  • padded cell.
  • Joined: Aug 2005
  • Posts: 2953

electrical nightmare

« Reply #23 on: August 09, 2006, 05:13:11 PM »
Master forget to mention when grasshopper not looking,master will whack you over the noggin with both dasher parts! :lol:  It's funny How much crazy stuff I can wire up but for the life of me I cant remember ever wiring up foglights to anything.I bet if they were neon I'd have them wired up.

Do old school fogs require a relay or was that unheard of back then?
I might get motivated and wire my horn up,that would leave the toggle free for the foglights I guess.

Offline Jason

  • Ringgold Ga
  • Joined: Apr 2005
  • Posts: 576

electrical nightmare

« Reply #24 on: August 10, 2006, 07:35:02 AM »
All they need is a hot wire with a fuse link in it.

Offline VWGirl

  • Rossville,GA/ Micanopy, FL
  • Joined: Jan 2006
  • Posts: 642

electrical nightmare

« Reply #25 on: August 11, 2006, 08:51:33 AM »
well, yesterday as i was driving to work, i got about halfway on the interstate, babying the car at about 65mph the whole time i have been driving... and i hear a change of pitch coming from the engine... since my gennie light is always on now i decide the belt might have broken and maybe it's getting hot now... so i immediatley pull over and shut it off... i walk to the back and inspect to find that the belt is not broken, but there is quite a bit more oil back there than when i had JUST put oil in it 15 miles prior... and of course its smoking... but i think that was just cause the oil was dripping on top of my hot muffler... anyhow, someone (a few someones rather) from work saw me and stopped and gave me a ride to work... i made an appointment with AAA (after telling the guy that he could make an appointment and him going to verify with his superiors as if i didnt know what i was talking about) to pick up the car at lunchtime... so i had the car towed home... i don't know that i will start the car again... not sure what kind of problem i had... i will probably end up pulling the top end on this car before i start it again... and probably re-ring it and deglaze just for the hell of it (depending on what i find when i open it up)... there was no metal on metal crashing going on... and perhaps i am just paranoid... but better safe than sorry eh?


so on my mexibug, they dye tested and smoke tested it and have found nothing... they think the oil galley plug is leaking (where is this on a bug motor cause i dont ever recall seeing one???!?!?!) but it only leaks when you build up pressure after driving at highway speeds for a while... which is probably why when i mentioned the leak to them in VA they had just noticed the leak, probably the first time it was driven on the highway... then they told me they had never actually seen it leak when they replaced the oil cooler seals... so since they didnt drive it on the highway, it realy wasnt leaking... which is why when the second shop replaced the oil cooler seals and didnt drive it on the highway it "wasnt leaking"...

they said they were going to try to reset the plug and put some epoxy or something around it as they cannot get a new plug for it and the car is scheduled to be back kin FL on the 19th...

i will let you all know how it goes

Offline Ret.Bugtech

electrical nightmare

« Reply #26 on: August 11, 2006, 11:31:13 AM »
The galley plug is behind the flywheel on the oil cooler side of the case .
I will tell you it is very,very rare that this plug will leak on a type-1 case. These plugs will blow out on type-4 cases ( your bus) Ask Travis about that.
  Sometimes type-1 cases will crack from the galley plug ,up the case (about 12:00 o'clock) and are hard to see when the engine is cold. I have seen my share of oil leaks from the camshaft  plug (center case below flwheel).Most of the time  these leaks don't coat the engine compartment down. They leak out the bottom between the engine and tranny cases.
  On your other car, You could start it and warm it up (if it isn't noisey) Take your oil filler cap off and rev. the engine and see you have excessive smoke coming from the filler spout. This could indicate a ring problem or burned piston.  
  Do you have any history on this engine that you can belive ?  I would think twice about just replacing the rings. I have seen a lot of engines blow up after a ring job . Its not a good idea to put rings or even piston and clylinders on a engine with high mileage and not knowing what kind of condition the rod and main bearings are in. If they are worn out, the new rings could put a lot of stress on them and "out they will come".
  When I was in VW school, all you had to do was mention replacing only the rings to "Get The Look" from our instructor. He told up that ring land on the piston could wear out before the ring would and a tight new ring COULD jerk the top off a piston through the ring land groove. He was right. I've seen it happen.  :(

Offline VWGirl

  • Rossville,GA/ Micanopy, FL
  • Joined: Jan 2006
  • Posts: 642

electrical nightmare

« Reply #27 on: August 12, 2006, 08:14:22 AM »
Well Like I have said, they dye tested and smoke tested my engine (I know how to dye test but not smoke test, so if someone wants to enlighten me on that one) and said this is where it is coming from, but only at higher rpms... so when they "fixed" it before, it was fine just driving it around the block, but when you get it up to highway speeds it leaked again.

how about i give you the # to the shop and you tell them how to fix it?


the other engine is one that the previous owner built... not rebuilt... built... everything was new probably a couple of years ago... no way to tell how many miles are on it cause the odometer has never worked... i can only guess at the number of miles i put on it and no clue how many he put on it. but i put somewhere between 12-15k on it... i doubt he put that many but who knows.

I'm not saying i a just going to replace the rings... i will check them and replace them if needed when the engine is out... BUT I replaced the rings on my type 4 in my bus when i had it out.... those rings were 27 years and 130k miles old... should i not have replaced them? i have 10-15k on them now... i also reused my piston with a big gouge in it from where the valve seat hit it... should i not have used that?

I learned how to work on VW's from a retired (though still working on at an independent VW shop) VW tech... I don't do some of the absurd things I do without running it by him first... I wish he didn't take the summers off and I would have just brought my mexi to him and billed the shop for it.

Offline Ret.Bugtech

electrical nightmare

« Reply #28 on: August 12, 2006, 11:25:25 AM »
I'm talking about type-1 on the ring thing.  Type-4 doesn't seem to have that problem of snatching a piston top off and the rings seem to wear faster than the clylinder.  Other than the valve seat problem I think the type-4 engine is much stouter than the type -1 most of the time.
   About the gouge in your piston, It would depend on how big, how deep,and what area it hit and hope it didn't crack it somewhere that you couldn't see. If I had a extra proper piston I would have used It. You are more than likely OK with it due to the mileage you have on it now. Only time will tell.
   Due to the very high prices of type-4 parts I would be tempted to do what you did. Thats one reason I don't own one of those stinking things.
   On your Mex-moble, I wouldn't dare call another shop and tell them what to do. I don't know whats wrong with your car. I haven't ever seen your car.  I would have loved to had a look at it before everybody twisted and jerked things on it. The only time I have ever heared anything about a "smoke test"is when you parked the car outside, locked the throttle at about 5000 rpms and let her sit there until something shows up. On occasions it does.  KA-BOOM !!!

Offline VWGirl

  • Rossville,GA/ Micanopy, FL
  • Joined: Jan 2006
  • Posts: 642

electrical nightmare

« Reply #29 on: August 12, 2006, 10:40:16 PM »
i almost wish it would go kaboom right about now as i could buy at least 5 decent vw's for 10 grand... but i do miss my meximelt

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