Unknown Relay In My Bus

Post by **Sluggo** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:44 am

I have a relay attached to the base of my vent/heat handles in the dashboard. I really don't think it's stock. It's very badly located. I have no idea what it does.

Terminal "S" goes to a wire connected to nothing.
Terminal "H" goes into the harness under the Bus.
Terminal "B" goes to fuse #8.
Then the last terminal is grounded.

Any ideas?

Manfred · Post by **Manfred** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:44 am

What goes to fuse 8?

Gypsie · Post by **Gypsie** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:38 pm

Aux heat fan?

manual choke device?

Hmmmm....curiouser and curiouser...

Post by **Sluggo** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:46 pm

Found these at Samba.

'77 Manual
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/77bus.php

Fuses.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/man ... 7II-40.jpg

Fuse #8 goes to the emergency flasher & interior lights.

Looks like I'll need to track down that wire that goes into the harness. Definitely added by a PO.

The same manual says that front vent wings were not available on all models!?!?

dtrumbo · Post by **dtrumbo** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:53 pm

Sluggo wrote: Fuse #8 goes to the emergency flasher & interior lights.

Looks like I'll need to track down that wire that goes into the harness. Definitely added by a PO.

Fuse 8 is a handy spot to scab always-on power. I'm with Gypsie. A hack-fix for the heater blower is my guess.

Post by **Sluggo** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:57 pm

dtrumbo wrote:
Sluggo wrote: Fuse #8 goes to the emergency flasher & interior lights.

Looks like I'll need to track down that wire that goes into the harness. Definitely added by a PO.
Fuse 8 is a handy spot to scab always-on power. I'm with Gypsie. A hack-fix for the heater blower is my guess.

Good call! I'll have to check it out but the blower wires were all fried and a piece of tin can had replaced the fuse in the inline holder by the blower.

hercdriver · Post by **hercdriver** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:02 pm

dtrumbo wrote:Fuse 8 is a handy spot to scab always-on power. I'm with Gypsie. A hack-fix for the heater blower is my guess.

I hate to highjack this thread, but it's pretty close to a problem I'm trying to track down.

I've got to pull the positive cable off the battery otherwise the battery is stone dead the next day. The P/O installed a radio and alarm. I'm thinking they tied into fuse 8, which seems to be always hot? Sound plausible?

On a side note. My headlights work fine with the engine running. When I turn the ignition off they seem to load shed. The dash lights stay on but the head lights go out. Is this typical?

dtrumbo · Post by **dtrumbo** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:57 am

hercdriver wrote:The dash lights stay on but the head lights go out. Is this typical?

Yes, by design. Power is supplied to the headlight (as opposed to the marker light and dash light) portion of your light switch only when the key is in the 'on' position. This gives your battery a break when the key is in the 'start' and 'off' positions.

Try unplugging the added wire to fuse 8 and see if your battery-drain issue goes away. It might be tough muscling your way through a week without tunes, but you gotta do what you gotta do, huh?

hercdriver · Post by **hercdriver** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:14 am

I can live without tunes with a good battery. This problem has fried a new battery to the point that on a full charge, I get 9.9 volts on it (it won't crank anymore). Alternator is putting out 14.3 so I can rule that out.

Post by **Sluggo** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:10 am

dtrumbo wrote:Try unplugging the added wire to fuse 8 and see if your battery-drain issue goes away. It might be tough muscling your way through a week without tunes, but you gotta do what you gotta do, huh?

Ditto

Post by **Sluggo** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:25 am

The wire into the harness actually went along side the harness to........NOTHING!

[albumimg]2814[/albumimg][albumimg]2813[/albumimg]

There was another wire coming from fuse #8 that also just dangled live.

Found another relay.
[albumimg]2815[/albumimg][albumimg]2816[/albumimg]

Saw it before but just got to investigating it. The switch wire was an old lamp cord attached to the HORN WIRES! The power wire tapped into fuse #9. The switched-on power ran to a wire that went under the bus and up behind the spare tire! I had seen the wire when I pulled everything but I'm just starting to trace wiring now.

Luckily, they seem to have left most of the original wiring alone. Just added things to the fuse terminals.

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Unknown Relay In My Bus

Unknown Relay In My Bus