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Hi I'm Sam with
California Pacific JBugs. In this video we're going to begin the installation
of the Wiring Works 1968 to 1969 VW Beetle complete wiring harness. This
portion of the video will cover removing most of all the wiring, and then
running and hooking up the majority of the main wiring harness.
First remove the rear
seat bottom and disconnect the battery. In the trunk, disconnect the turn
signal and ignition switch wiring harnesses from their connections at the fuse
box, relays, and main harness connections. The wires for these switches come
from the bottom side of the dash on the cars left side of the trunk near the
speedometer. Do not cut these wires as they are part of their switches, and
these wires will be reused.
Coming down the front
left "A" pillar the dome light harness can be disconnected from the
door jamb switches, the ground tang near the speedometer and the fuse box. Do
not pull the dome light harness out as it will be used to pull the new harness
through the roof. Remove the wiper, headlight and emergency switches from the
dash. Pulling the glove box insert out makes it considerably easier to access
the switches when removing them.
Disconnect and remove
every wire from the fuse box, headlight switch and relay, emergency flasher switch
and flasher relay, wiper motor and switch, speedometer and brake warning
indicator light. The various wires and harness to the master cylinder and horn,
turn signals and headlights, can all be cut away at the body. The remainder of
those harnesses and wires can be removed when the new wires are being
installed.
Next, at the engine, we
disconnect the wires at the generator, carburetor, coil, tail lights and
license light. The wire or wires from the distributor to the coil can be left
in place. With the engine compartment wires disconnected, we can cut down the
main harness so it can be used to pull the new harness through the body. Cut
the splits in the harness down to just the main portion keeping about a foot or
two of the thick red wire.
Inside the car, we
remove the left rear quarter panel so we can access the wiring harness that
runs behind it. Disconnect the various wires from the main harness to the
voltage regulator, the starter wire, and if the relay is still in place, the
black wire to the rear window defroster relay. Leave the other defroster wires
in place as they are not included with the harness.
Remove the driver's seat
and pull back the carpet that runs along the driver's side heater channel and
the front inner left quarter panel. Also remove the left kick panel under the
rear seat cross bar. The main harness is held to the heater channel with the
metal spring clips that can be rotated out of place, or gently pried out. With
the main harness free from the body, we cut the harness at the quarter panel leaving
enough left so we can to hold onto it as we pull the new harness through. We
can remove the front portion of the main harness from the inside of the car, pulling
out from underneath the dash, and through the front heater channel.
At this point most all
of the wires should be removed from the car, the important exceptions being: the
ignition switch and turn signal switch harnesses, the dome light harness, the
starter wire, battery cables, which are in place but not connected, and the rear
window defroster wiring.
Now prep the main
harness to it can be run through the body. The middle of the harness had a
split where the wires under the rear seat are. These wires can be tucked into
the splits and bundled up tightly, then wrap the split with electrical tape,
just enough to keep the wires protected. The loose wires at the front of the
harness need to be taped up as well so they can be pulled through the body. On
the front portion on of the main harness leave the thick red wire loose as it will
be attached to the old wiring harness.
Back at the rear of the
car, we are going to attach the new harness to the old harness, by looping the
two thick red wires from each harness together, and then taping the connection
with electrical tape. The new harness can now be pulled through the body. An
assistant is helpful here to guide the harness in from the rear, and to make
sure that the wiring split at the rear is aligned properly. While pulling the
harness in from the rear quarter panel, keep pulling until you see the taped
portion in the middle of the harness.
Now, un-tape the old
harness from the new harness, so you can run the new harness through the body. The
harness is going to be pulled through the hole at the lower edge of the quarter
panel, and once it's pulled through the original grommet can be slid back in
place. If your rear window defrosters wires are still in place, make sure it is
pulled through the grommet as well. Unwrap the electrical tape around the
middle portion that we taped up earlier, and pull out all the loose wires.
There will be seven loose
wires from the harness its self, and of course the rear window defroster if
that's in place as well. Run the harness underneath the rear heater duct and
then into the groove in the side of the heater channel towards the front of the
car. At the front of the heater channel, run the wiring through the hole in the
heater channel, and into the trunk, at the grommet in place at the bottom side
of the trunk. Install the spring metal clips to hold the harness in place to
the heater channel.
Back underneath the rear
seat we can hook up the voltage regulator, with the thick red wire with the 3/8
spade which is going to connect to the B+ terminal, the thin blue wire with the
1/4 inch spade connects to the #61 terminal, the thick red wire with the ring
terminal connects to the D+ terminal, the green wire with the 1/4 inch spade
connects to the DF terminal. There is also the brown wire which is going to
ground it out at the mounting screw at the rear of the voltage regulator. The
thick red wire with the 1/4 inch spade from the front of the harness is the
power to the starter solenoid; it will connect to it later.
The black wire with the
1/4 inch spade from the front of the harness connects to the #86 terminal on
the rear window defroster relay. The rear window defroster wire is a white wire
with a 1/4 inch spade terminal usually in a black sheath. If you disconnected
it earlier, it is going to connect to the #87 terminal on the relay.
In the engine compartment
the wiring harness splits into three portions. There is a short harness with three wires that will go to the left tail light harness, a longer harness that will
go to the right side that also has three wires. The longer harness is routed behind
the engine along the firewall, and there a couple metal tabs that hold the
harness in place to the firewall.
The engine portion of
the harness is routed to the fan shroud. A factory fan shroud will have tabs to
hold the wiring in place, as it runs past the coil towards the generator. The
engine harness had two loose wires, a black wire which will plug into the
positive side of the coil, and a blue wire with a green stripe which plugs into
the oil switch.
The generator has three wires: a brown wire with a ring terminal, that is attached to a small screw at
the back of the generator, a thick red wire that connects to the threaded D+
post on the generator, the green wire connects to the threaded DF post on the generator.
At the front of the car,
in the trunk, unwrap the wiring harness and rout it up towards the back of the
dash using the metal tabs that will hold the harness in place.
The black wire with a
red stripe, the black wire with a white stripe, and the black wire with the
green stripe, will be set to the side for now. The thick black wire from the
main harness connects to the fuse box on the back rear terminal on the cars
left side.
The white wire, one with
a black stripe and one with a green stripe, connects to the fuse box on the
middle terminal on the third and fourth terminal from the cars right side.
There are two thick red
wires, the longer red wire with a black sheath will plug into one of the three,
#30 terminals on the headlight switch. The other thick red wire plugs into a
shrouded terminal connector which then plugs into the thick red wire with a
black stripe going to the ignition switch harness.
The blue wire connects
to the cars lower right side speedometer indicator warning light bulb. The blue
wire with a green stripe connects to the cars lower left side speedometer
indicator warning bulb.
The thin black wire is
for the rear window defroster relay. If your car still has the defroster
switch, it is typically located to the cars right side of the speedometer; you
plug it into the switch there.
With that we finish the
bulk of the main wiring harness installation. We will finish the installation
of the rest of the harness in later videos.
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