headlight dimmer electrical question

Apr 26, 2004 3 Replies

What I've done is put in a turn signal/windhield wiper assembly from a mid 80's Golf in my 75 beetle for clearance with my Golf steering wheel. All is well so far, the windshield wipers now work, the turn signals work and my windshield washer motor works.



The question is in the headlight dimmer.



The Bentley schematic says the headlight dimmer switch for the 75 runs off one wire, a brown and white connected at S at the switch into the relay.



The Golf wiring diagram and switch shows 4 wires, a red wire to 50, a white/black wire to 56, yellow/black to 56B and white to 56A.



The brown wire and the white/black both to to the headlight relay. I'm fine with that. But what about the 3 extra wires? One should go to power and 2 should go to the headlights themselves, but in the beetle the headlights are connected to the relay.



How can I make this work?



Rob in Salt Lake


In a Beetle, the brown wire comes to the dimmer switch from the ground and white/brown wire goes from the switch to the relay. Basically the original setup grounds the S-pole in the relay when=20 you wan't to switch the lights.=20

What you need to do? Take an ohmmeter and measure the golf switch wires. You need to find 2 wires that are open (infinite resistance) when you are not pulling the switch and closed (near 0 resistance) when you are pulling the switch. Then just connect the brown and white/brown=20 wires in the Beetle wiring harness to these and have your original Beetle dimmer relay in there.

If you have more wires in the switch, you don't need them. Insulate them and fweem on.

Thanks for your response Olli.

Rob

No problem, Rob. Did you get your lights to work?

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