Aircooled VW South Africa

Anyone know of an expert in Wiring my 67 Split Bus Kombi. could buy a Harness from Wolfsburg West , but figured someone must be able to do this locally for the same. any help would be appreciated.

Welcome to ACVWSA Jay B. Please remember to introduce yourself in the new members thread.

I have yet to find anyone in SA who will make a new wiring harness using all the original colour coding. I would recommend getting one from the US suppliers. However, you may have difficulties with those as they are specific for US-spec wiring, which is not the same as the Euro-spec we had on SA buses. Also, RHD harnesses may me different to LHD.

Rewiring a car yourself, although quite intimidating, is actually quite straightforward. Just get a factory wiring diagram (downloadable from thesamba forums) and connect according to that. It will show all the solour codes of the wires as well as all the terminal numbers for electrical components. You can easily do it over a weekend. So long as you can remember what you learned about electricity in high school, you are capable of logical thinking, and you keep your wits about you, it's a simple and satisfying project.

Thanks Fig, appreciate the feedback...........

Hi
I plan to do the same to my 67. Bought wiring at Sparxx as a job lot. They should have the colors u need but only do 30m rolls. As an electrical engineer it is the one thing i feel comfortable doing.

Most of the times even after sandblasting the bus your main harnass from the front to the back is reusable as it is one hell of a job to fit new
so then you can just get an auto electrician to do the coupling up for you with new wires for the lights horn etc

Of all the cars I have resurrected, I only replaced the full wiring harness on one of them. I used a Volksapares harness, which was total crap, and I wouldn't recommend using those.

One of the first things I do when I start working on a new (to me) car is to remove all the non-standrard wiring and then reconnect all the original cables per the wiring diagram, while cleaning up all the connections. In most cases this gets everything working again. The reason there's always a spaghetti mess of additional wiring in old cars is because auto electricians will seldom spend the time required to properly diagnose faults; they simply add a bypass cable and get things working again asap. Most electrical issues are caused by bad (ie, corroded) connections.

If I do have to replace any sections of cabling, I keep complete wiring harnesses from scrapped VWs for this purpose. Usually only the exposed parts of the harness are rotten (especially cables that have been exposed to heat in the engine compartment). I cut off all the exposed worn ends, then cut open the sheath and usually you'll find the wiring in there is still like new, having not been exposed to light for 30+ years. I then use original wiring with the same colour codes as the original that I'm replacing, and connect them using the double male, plastic covered connectors that you will find behind the dash on 70s Beetles and buses. When I'm done the only sign that any wiring has been replaced will be the connectors in incorrect places, but those are still VW factory connectors.

Alvetro, the problem with replacement wiring available in SA, including the wires in your pic, is that they are one colour only, whereas many of the cables in ACVW wiring harnesses have two colours. I daresay you can get two-tone wiring from somewhere in SA, but I haven't found a source. As an elec eng you may have better luck.

Hi fig

The picture may not be very clear but the smaller gauge wiring is in fact two tone wires called tracer wires. You can get the wiring colors and gauges necessary but you have to buy a minimum of 25m rolls. Only economical if you gonna do more than one loom. As for suppliers sparxx.co.za out in brackenfell have a wide selection as well as WURTH but they only do 100m rolls for the smaller gauge. If there was enough interest it may be economical to build a few and share the cost.

Hi Alvetro and Fig. Have you worked out the cost of a complete loom? I have to/want to redo my 76 Brazilia.

Cyndi