Previous Owner Syndrome

Interesting... something I hadn't noticed before. I was going over the wiring diagram for my '66 Beetle, and I noticed that the front turn signal assemblies are not wired to have a parking/running light them, yes I know that there is the parking/running light in the headlight assembly. They look like they were meant to only have a single filament bulb for turn signals only.

HOWEVER, my '66 is currently wired for a running light in the turn signal assembly, and yes it does have an 1157 (twin filament) bulb in the holder, so it has both turn signal and running light. The little light in the headlight assembly is always on when the lights are on. Funny thing is - that when I pull the headlight switch all the way out, the running lights in the turn signal assembly go out. Also I would have to pull the light switch to the paking lights position before the engine would start. Somebody wired the ignition wrong!!!

My point?

Two words. Previous Owner. It just goes to show you that you never know what you are getting when buying an old car. Previous owner syndrome lasts long after the ink has dried on the title after you buy it!

My other point? Well, I bought a new '66 wiring harness for my car. Again, however, I will have to make modifications to it, as I am not going with a generator, but with an alternator, and it will be 12 volt not 6 volt. This in it self requires certain modifications. Yes this will be a modification to the way it came from the factory, however if it is done right then the previous owner syndrome is not repeated per say. Usually crappy mods are associated with previous owner syndrome. Especially when it come wiring issues, most VW's wiring harness are hacked up and patched beyond belief, and the results are lots of questions here. Hopefully the weather gets nicer soon so I can completely rewire my car. Not a real difficult job, but one that needs to be done right. I will try to get good pics before and after, so stay tuned.

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1966 Type I
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"Old VW"s don't leak oil, they mark their territory."vwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvw
Reply to
dragenwagen
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UGH, Wiring! Who knew.

Reply to
Karma Ghia

could be worse, mine had all kinds of neat nods like poorly wired alarm for the door popers, missing high-low beam switch and nonop turn sigs.

anton

Reply to
anton

I have owned 9 VW bugs since I was in High school. I am guilty as charged on the first one. Hey! I was just a snot nosed 16 year old making $1.35/hour. I did it the best I could. But every one since then has had the same problem, previous owners working on the wireing.

My most recent one I got from a guy that was a VW mechanic at a VW repair shop for cryin out loud! ,and it had all sorts of crappy things done . I took the motor out to replace the firewall area with some vented aluminum and found three splices in the license plate light wire. He could have just put a plug on both ends of a 3 foot piece of wire and done it correctly. The horn doesn't work, no wipers, and the speedometer didn't work either.

Seems just about all older VW's have this sort of thing on them. Wonder if any of the other older cars have this same problem.

Mike

Reply to
Mike West

Actually, no. What you will have to do is make a ring terminal to female spade terminal adapter for the hot wire at the alternator, and a pair of male to male spade adapters for the large hot and small generator light wires at the regulator. Insulate all connections well. That's it.

George

Reply to
<Gmlyle

Oh yeah the electrical connections, I know I will have to change that slightly, actually I was referring to the other mods that have to be done to convert one from 6 to 12 volt. Which are no a problem because my car was already converted to 12 volt. The new engine has a 12 volt flywheel and

12 volt starter, and the new trans is a later swingaxle that is already clearanced for a 12 volt flywheel. But yes, the new harness will have to changed slightly for the alternator connections.
Reply to
dragenwagen

Too bad they didn't put the dual filament bulb in the headlight bucket, then they could have eliminated the turn signal blister on the fender.

Reply to
KWW

P O S ... i always wondered what it stood for.

Reply to
Flea

Piece Of *Sculpture*, of course....

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

Well not exactly..... usually P.O.S. refers to something crappy, rundown, broken, pretty much useless... making it a piece of shit.... Therefore a nice way to say it is P.O.S.

I dunno why I called it Previous Owner Syndrome. maybe it'll be a new catch phrase.... like fweem or flaps.

Reply to
dragenwagen

yeah i have always heard POS being peice of s*#& .... but it fits with the name you came up with and actually makes sense .. a POS car ... is a car suffering from it .. ;)

Reply to
Flea

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