trouble shooting electrical problems

[bill hauck]

RIght rear tailight: The emergency flasher works but the tail lights do not. the "grey" feeder wire is hot but when attached to tht T shorts out.

Problem with the bulb holder?? Problem elsewhere??

also turn signals worked and then quit. any suggestions??

[SeeBlauKafer]

Things that come to mind:

- When checking the continuity of the gray wire, jiggle or flex it and see if it has a slight break.

- Clean the bayonet base and bottom contact of the bulb as well as the bulb holder.

- Inside the engine compartment, behind the firewall insulation on that side, you'll find the clear (yellowed a bit) connector that connects the taillight harness to the main harness. Check that nothing has pulled loose from this connector.

- Other than that check to make sure all ground (earth) points are making good connection.

Best of luck (I hate electrical problems)

[jmartini]

Check your fuses too! I once couldn't get my front parking lights to work and it was a fuse.

[bill hauck]

thanks for the info. I will try to locate the problem by trial and error. the gray wire is hot so the short might be between the hot and the bulb somewhere. Good thing I bought a bunch of fuses!!!!

[SeeBlauKafer]

Bill I almost forgot this tid-bit ... I once read in Hot VW's magazine that a guy cleaned the contacts of his fuse box and his lights increased like 20% in brightness.

For what it's worth.

[volksbugusa]

bill
your looking for a hot ground.pull everything off the fuse box and reset ,also check the blue box.
matt

[jmartini]

Yes, the blue box could certainly be part of the problem - ordinarily when they start to go you get some pretty significant noise (clicking type noises) when you have your signals on and in my case even when I would apply the brakes.

[bill hauck]

Matt and John:

by "blue box" I am assuming that this means the flasher unit, correct?? a WW item??

when you mean a hot ground, and resetting the fuses, what exactly do you mean? Cleaning off the fuse board??

I have headlights, tail lights, dash lights and flashers that work. I would think that if the flashers work, the flash unit is okay.

I need to fix the brake lights and turn signals only. maybe the horn and courtesy lights also.

[jmartini]

The Flashers and Turnsignals go through the blue box. The blue box is no longer available (VW Item), although there is an aftermarket piece of equipment that you can substitute for the blue box on a 66, here's the link:
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp ... %2D225%2DB

I put this on my last 66 becasue I couldn't find a good used blue box and it worked great - the only think I didn't like is that I couldn't hear the signal lights when they were on (click...click).

I'm not sure if you can conclude that if the emergency flashers work that the blue box unit is good from a turnsignal perspective but I would probably continue troubleshooting as if it were.

[bill hauck]

John:

my 66 was converted to 12v by the PO. I think WW has a blue box also for about $60. will see if the existing one works or not.

[jmartini]

Yes, I think there are more alternatives for the 12 volt - mine have always been 6 volt which makes it a little harder to find electrical components.

[bill hauck]

got a new 9 term. flasher relay from Airheads and all the signal/flasher/turn signal arrow problems are solved.

Now, on to the brake lights. If I get them and the dome light to work, I'll be finished with the electrical issues. Dome light has juice to it but I don't know if the switches work or not. seems hot all the time.

[jmartini]

Well there is a settlng on the dome light so that you can turn it on without the doors open. I have some issues with my dome light as well so I'm going to tear into that this spring. Let me know how that goes for you Bill.

Otherwise it sounds like your knocking things off your to-do list pretty quick!

[barnbug]

I have the same problems, so it must be the blue box....... along with wiring, rats eating the wires and eveything else. WW still the best place to get this?

[bill hauck]

I got mine at Airheads parts. a few bucks cheaper then WW