Date:         Sun, 20 Sep 1998 22:04:54 EDT
Reply-To:     KBrennan@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Kim Brennan <KBrennan@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Verify Analysis (opinions wanted)
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

On Friday night, when I went to make use of the Syncro to go to the movies, I
ran into an odd problem. The engine started (and it ran fine), but the
headlights wouldn't turn on. (We took another vehicle to movies).

On Saturday I took the van for a short hop to the parts store and realized
several other things (in addition to the headlights) weren't working. The AC
fan didn't come on. The Fresh air fan didn't come on. The wipers (front and
rear) didn't work, the wiper washers didn't work.

Most everything else did (turn signals, interior light, radio, etc.)

So I started looking into something common that all of these 'failed' items
had that the non-failed ones didn't. All the failed items were on pretty much
the same ground ...except the rear wiper and washer. But the grounding checked
out. Then I noticed a really odd behavior.

If the light switch was on (headlights and fogs didn't work, but running
lights were on) and then I hit the high beam switch AND HELD IT, all the non-
function stuff worked!

Looking over the circuit diagram, I saw that the high beam switch could act as
a bridge between two of the 'hot' lines...and further than everything that
wasn't working was on the "X" line. The "X" line is pulled from the regular
hot line ("30" in the diagram) via the Load Reduction Relay. However, I pulled
that same relay from my Fox and got the same results (everything works on my
Fox). So it wasn't the relay...

The relay has a line that goes through the light switch but the switch all
checks out...

Additionally the line to the light switch also goes to the ignition switch.
Now, if I'm reading this all correctly, the hot line on the ignition switch
(Red wire) should put voltage on the Black-Yellow wire ("X" circuit) when the
ignition switch is in the on position. Mine doesn't. So, if I'm right in my
analysis, it looks like I need a new ignition switch, right?