wiper switch

I believe '66's came with a rotary switch (VW part #141 955 517). Are you sure the one you are replacing is original?

My 66 has a pull-out style just like the original poster described, I have no reason to believe it's been replaced because it shows the same wear that all the other instruments in the car do.

My chassis # is 116539652 though, which puts me at very very early in 66. There are several other parts of the 66 that were different by the time

67 came around so perhaps the rotary style is from later in the year.

ETKA seems to show that:

Chassis numbers (-67) 4010995 - 117999000 have pull-out type switch, execept for the De Lux versions between chassis numbers 1142000001 -

1152600000 have rotary type #141 955 517A. Chassis numbers 118000001- have rotary type.

I said "seems", because it is sometimes difficult to me to understand all the numbers and "no longer available" anti-information.

Thanks for the replies. My chassis is a late '66, I have the '67 door handles for example. The part number on the replacement switch is -517B, Wolfsburg West lists it as -517C. I don't know what the part number on the bad switch still in my car ends with. I will pull it this weekend hopefully and see. And no, I cannot guarantee it's original, but it looks like it's been there a while though.

I am interested to hear what owners of other 6V '66 Bugs have for a wiper switch, pull or rotary. Also, owners of '62-'65s who are pretty sure their switches are original, which do you have?

Charlie Houston TX '66 Bug "Whitey"

My old '64 had the same pull-out style, and I'm positive it was original because the only thing non original in that car was the seat covers and paint job.. was one of those steals from a little old widowed lady. ;)

On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 22:39:27 GMT, "Charles Myer" left Mt Vesuvius in a state of jealous awe as he began spewing from the mouth thusly:

My '66 had a pull-type of knob which sure looked original to me. As a side-note my wipers on that car would not self-park but I liked that. It was like a part of the car's personality. Sometimes I'd intentionally stop the wipers at the top of their travel if I was driving in rain that was just enough to justify using the wipers every

20 seconds or so, just because I could. On my '63 that I drive now it also has the pull-type of knob for the wipers and it also looks like original equipment to me.

-- Travis (Shaggie) '63 VW Camo Baja...

corrodes the vessel that carries it.

That's how the wipers on my 64 were, I generally made a game of trying to stop the blades as close to "bottom dead center" as I could get.

My current 66 has self parking, but there's some wiggle room because they can actually stop anywhere from the bottom of the window to about a 30 degree angle. :P

At some point in the car's past, someone rigged up a little volume control type knob and mounted it under the dash to the left of the steering wheel, and wired it into the wiper circuit. I guess the intent was to give the car variable speed wipers.

Doesn't work too well, it only seems to have an effect while the car is at idle and the varience isn't even all that impressive. Soon as I rev up the wipers revert to full speed.

If I ever restore the car I'll weld the hole up and get rid of the "feature".

I guess I'd never even noticed the push/pull switches before this thread started, the bugs I've owned from that era all had rotary switches. I was down at the VW boneyard a couple of days ago and all the early bugs had rotary, a lot of bugs were missing their switches and I'm wondering if those missing switches were mostly push/pulls, since they currently seem to be harder to come by.

prior to this thread, I didn't even know about the rotary ones either. ;)

shame there doesn't seem to be an exhaustive, authoritive reference (printed or otherwise) for that sort of thing.

There are several. The most authoritative (IMHO) is Garwood's "The Car of the Century". Vol I and II.

I don't know about this specific switch part, but Garwood researched each and every minute engineering change to the Beetle year-by-year. Where possible, he included part numbers and the chassis number when the change occurred.

Each year also has a tabulation of the paint colors and what interior colors were used with them.

Speedy Jim

...................I have them. They're only available at RMMW and are $110 plus shipping last time I looked.

Perhaps the original switches were push/pulls, but the replacement part from VW was a rotary. Just a theory. I still haven't pulled the original to check its part number, it has been ungodly hot and humid here in Houston and summer is the time I do as little work on the car as possible. Thanks to all who replied. I'm trying not to obsess about which way a switch moves but I had to get all the details I could.

Charlie Houston Tx '66 Bug "Whitey"