RE: Perfecting a '71 Sunroof

[Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org>]

On 3 Jun 2007 at 17:34, Adriel Huntington Rowley wrote:

> 
> On 3 Jun 2007 at 8:27, Adriel Huntington Rowley wrote:
> 
> >> That would explain why pulling the blue wire would affect the engine.  I
> >> found the V.R. (it is original according to the P.O., and it is the shiny
> >> one) and a blue wire.  I grounded it on the body, and it did not turn on
> >>the
> >> generator light.  
> 
> >Did you do this with the engine running? Did you touch it to a good 
> >clean grounded body part?
> 
> Well, I tried it with the engine running; no difference.

Somethings wrong here, because this should light the gen light, 
unless the bulb is burned out. However, you've pointed out that 
you've seen the bulb light, so I don't know what's wrong.

> I passed inspection, except the generator light.  I have around 12 volts
> starting, all the way to 14.28.  So, I would take that the wiring is faulty,
> because the generator is producing, and the regulator is keeping the voltage
> under 14.5.  Thus, I only did procedures one through three.

If it goes up to 14.28 when you bring the rpms up, then it's working 
correctly. There is no sign here of a wiring fault.

This makes me wonder if your idiot light cluster is just lacking a 
good ground. If the unit isn't pushed all the way in correctly, the 
spring fingers won't make good contact with the dash, and this 
sometimes makes funny things happen.

If there is no good ground, then the TS lamp current might find its 
way to ground thru the gen light. I haven't thought this thru well at 
all, so this might not make any sense.  

> I am now thinking of carefully labeling every wire on the fuse box, and
> clean it up.  But how do I go about it since sandpaper is verboten?

If you want to assure yourself that each connection is good, just 
wiggle each connector half with respect to its mating half. Just a 
tad of relative motion will break any oxide film and assure a good 
connection. If you want to clean it up, brush off the loose dirt with 
a stiff nylon or fiber brush, flush it with something like LPS-1 or 
WD-40, then let it dry. You could spray a little LPS-3 on it to 
prevent future corrosion, but that's probably overkill.

Don't let yourself get carried away with the "Cleanliness is next to 
Godliness" bit. Save that for the living room where your 
wife/girlfriend/significant other is more likely to appreciate it. 

;-)

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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