Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

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73type2
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Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by 73type2 »

Has anybody converted their 6V wiper motor to 12V by replacing the armature? If so, is their a South African source for the 12V armature? Here is my SWF wiper motor.

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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by retrovan »

could not find any in SA so used resistors and its still working fine.

volkspares. used to have them, if you ask Ivan from volkspares to get the armature or resistors he will get them for you.

https://www.bbt4vw.com/en/catalogue/3-e ... 6v-4-ohm-/

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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by Wentzel »

Hi,

I built a circuit to act as a current limiter for my dad's 58 beetle and it has been working fine on 12v for a few years already. I found the circuit on-line at a classic car site and will see of I can find it again.

Found it have a look here:
http://www.vw-resource.com/wiper1.html

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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by Haans »

I converted. The car to 12v ,....got gatvol of all the "issues",....with mods to the stroke of the 12v wiper and all seems fine to me.
Ps it only works when you drive in the rain right ?

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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by 73type2 »

Thanks all for the responses. There was a later 12V wiper motor in my 1963 Beetle when I got it, but I like the original look of the 6V wiper motor. I'll follow up on the suggestions above,
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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by 73type2 »

Wentzel wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 7:41 am Hi,

I built a circuit to act as a current limiter for my dad's 58 beetle and it has been working fine on 12v for a few years already. I found the circuit on-line at a classic car site and will see of I can find it again.

Found it have a look here:
http://www.vw-resource.com/wiper1.html
I read through Rob and Dave's article and it looks like I'm going this route as well. Seems quite simple and the components are cheap and locally available. mantech.co.za has everything I need to make up the circuit.
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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by Wentzel »

It is a small circuit and can be hidden easily. Hope it will work for you for some time.
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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by 73type2 »

Yes, when I saw the circuit I recognized it from first year electronics, so I felt quite silly that I never thought of it.
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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by fig »

In my experience, a 6V electric motor can easily handle 12V, it just spins twice as fast.

I've been running my 1963 Dormobile's 6V wiper motor on 12V for more than 20 years and 270k km so far without any issues. I was warned the faster speed would wear out the linkages, but that hasn't happened.

To convert a 6V starter motor to 12V, just replace the solenoid with a 12V one and ensure the bendix has the correct number and pitch of teeth for your flywheel.
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Re: Beetle 6V to 12V wiper motor conversion

Post by 73type2 »

Thanks Fig. Yes, I'm still running my 6V starter with 12V without problems.Installing that little current limiting circuit is cheap enough to be worth a try.
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