Rewiring a Beach Buggy

[Loopy]

Just picked myself up from the floor after being quoted R6500 to rewire my buggy.... my question is how difficult will it be to rewire a Beamish Bug? I have bought the column switches for a Citi Golf (Indicator, Wiper and Ignition) and have some aftermarket gauges that I want to install (Volt, Oil Pressure, Rev Counter, Fuel Gauge and Speedo, all Autogauge branded). I have looked at some of the wiring diagrams available on the Net, but get more confused the more I look!

The wiring on the buggy at the moment works, but looks like a rats nest, so I would like to fit a new fuse box/panel along with the new wiring. I must be honest that I am a bit leery of buying a Chinese made loom, as up to now my experience with the Chinese made items has not been the best.

Any advice will be appreciated, or if somebody can point me to a decent auto electrician that will not cost me half my body parts to do the job.

[Ron&Gill]

Solder everything!

[Retrobug]

Solder everything!

and use heat shrink insulation instead of tape!

[Wentzel]

Volkspares used to sell a made up harness with wiring diagram that I used to red-wire a Beetle. The diagram was understandable and I didn't have any problems. If the existing wiring is working you could trace it and draw yourself a diagram that you will understand and work from that.

[SoutieRSA]

Howdy,
I have a full wiring diagram for a '72 bug in pdf format that I can mail to you, it might help. PM me your email address, and I'll send what I have.
I can also mail you the relevant pages out of the Haynes manual that I have in pdf (Typical wiring diagram - 1959 and earlier models,up to 1973 and later, including Super Beetle)
Lemme know...
Regards,
SoutieRSA

[buggyfan]

http://aircooledvwsa.co.za/viewtopic.ph ... 1&start=90

bottom of pg6 and pg7 for wiring diagrams as used by SOUL

[Loopy]

Thanks to all, appreciate it. It's actually funny, the more I get involved with the repair/rebuild thing, the more I get the idea that it would be the best to spend some money on yourself and go for some basic training in the automotive field, ie like electrical, mechanical and some metal work. Is there places one can go to, or is it a question of learning through trial and error?

[IMPI]

Hi my experience in the rewiring field on buggies
1 buy proper brass terminals (those red and blue pre insulated terminals are
2 buy the proper crimping tool to suit
3 use wire more or less the same colours as the factory
4 copy a pre 67 harness for wires (it is very simple)
5 insert an earth wire for every electrical component buggies are made from fiberglass and as this doesnt conduct electricity you will need to earth everything
6 using the golf stuff with an early design of harness is slightly trickier but not to difficult get the plugs that goes into the switches as well
7 the WUrth company makes all those lugs and stuff for wiring but sells in boxes of 100
8 to get nice coloured wires get a few harnesses from a scrapyard.

Common VW wire colours
white main beams
yellow low beam
grey or grey with red stripe tail lights and parks in front
black live when ign is on
red always live and current for solenoid and charging cirquit
black red stripe brake lights
black yellow stripe or white stripe flickers
blue or green charging and oil llight

hope this helps

[Louisben]

Once apon a time there was a man who rewired a fiberglass buggy,
He used a multi core cable and all the necessary wire connectors, I think it was a 37 core cable and the wires were numbered so he had to keep track of what wire went to what component by keeping a log. The components that need bigger size wire used 2,3 or 4 cores as the size of the wire in the multicore was 2,5mm.
There were lots of spare cores left over ( for future use, lol), this worked well, looked neat and was cheap, you need about 4m of multi core and need to strip about 1,25 m on each end to reach all components at front and rear of vehicle and keep the neat unstripped cable under the carpet or wherever you want to run it, make sure you use the right size fuses to protect your wires and make that priority no1 because this will prevent your wires from burning! Just a thought

[inshah]

Volkspares used to move a made up outfit with wiring chart that I used to red-wire an Insect. The outline was justifiable and I didn't have any issues. In the event that the current wiring is working you could follow it and draw yourself an outline that you will comprehend and work from that.
Electrical Engineering.