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Date:         Thu, 09 May 1996 12:33:41 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dworkin@ari.net (H Steven Dolan)
Subject:      Re: Horn/Rearlights

Gene,

Sounds more and more like you need to invest the ~$100 in a Bentley's. Seriously, I know (from discussions on this list) that they are expensive, but in the long run you will save a ton on electrical work by owning the Bentley manual appropriate to your bus.

In answer to your specific questions:

No, the resistance between the horn button contacts when not depressed should be infinite. The horn is the wierdest part of a VW. In violation of every law of good electrical design, VW chose to interupt the *ground* as a switch on all the VW's I have ever worked on (NB: I am a strictly aircooled kinda guy, the newest bus I have direct experience on is a '79 {subliminal hint: buy the bentley}). Try this, and see if it works:

First trace the wires from the horn to the fuse box. Make sure they are complete.

Second, take a VOM and check for +12V from the fuse box connection to ground (anywhere) and from the wire at the horn to ground.

Third, connect the +12V wire to the horn. Connect the other side to ground. Deaf? OK, then your horn is good.

Fourth check continuity from ground to (1) the other wire near the horn (2) the wire as it comes out of the steering tube. If all these are good, your horn button is bad. Dissasemble it, compare it to the pictures in {subliminal hint} your bentley's, looking for missing insulators, clean it up and reassemble it.

Your reverse light switch is located at the front passenger side of the transmission, just behind the shifter horn. There is a really good picture of it in the (yeah, you guessed it{subliminal hint}) Bentley's tranny chapter.

Please don't take this as a flame, it is most certainly not meant that way. >From the calibre of your questions, there is no stupidity there, only ignorance. We wuz all ignorant once, honest. I have been "into" VW's for 15 years and I still post questions. Stupidity is the willingness to remain ignorant. The lesson it took me the longest to learn is that cheap tools cost more (sometimes in medical bills!) and that an hour spent studying the procedure before starting will almost always cut two hours off execution of that procedure. I have a complete set of Bentleys for all the air cooled VW's (except the Vanagon) and would sooner give up my drop light than my manuals. All the descriptions you will recieve will, in combination, be less clear than one picture of that reverse light switch in position. Get the manual, keep it with you for a week, read it at lunch, dinner, before bed, in the john, everywhere. The electric diagrams especially, as they are not immediately self evident. The "current track" system that VW went to in '71, while necessary, is not very clear, and it is real helpful to know the color and size of the wires you are looking for.

Steven Dolan Alexandrian, VA

'73 FI'ed Westy


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