Itinerant Air-Cooled

It is all working correctly, EXCEPT the left turn signal won't stay engaged unless you turn the wheel clockwise 30 deg. You can hear the switch click, then it stays in place and you can slowly return the steering wheel to straight. It must have something to do with the cancelling ring, any suggestions? 2mm gap on the switch to steering wheel, thereabouts anyway.

hambone wrote:It is all working correctly, EXCEPT the left turn signal won't stay engaged unless you turn the wheel clockwise 30 deg. You can hear the switch click, then it stays in place and you can slowly return the steering wheel to straight. It must have something to do with the cancelling ring, any suggestions? 2mm gap on the switch to steering wheel, thereabouts anyway.

Reposition the steering wheel exactly 180* and see if the self-canceller tab stays out of the way?
Colin

I have encountered this a few times; typically the tab on aftermarket steering wheels is too close to the cancelling teeth. A new marriage of old parts could also be a few hairs off. For the teeth to get in position to lock and await cancelling, then have to over-extend by a tiny amount. If the cancelling tab is splayed outwards from the column, the teeth can't extend enough. Before popping the wheel off, try bending the cancelling tab a mm in and feeling for a difference. For a while, mine was set so if the wheel was straight the signal had to be held down manually, but when the wheel was turned either direction, the signal would hold fine; the 1mm nudge of the tab was a working fix.

Robbie

asiab3 wrote:I have encountered this a few times; typically the tab on aftermarket steering wheels is too close to the cancelling teeth. A new marriage of old parts could also be a few hairs off. For the teeth to get in position to lock and await cancelling, then have to over-extend by a tiny amount. If the cancelling tab is splayed outwards from the column, the teeth can't extend enough. Before popping the wheel off, try bending the cancelling tab a mm in and feeling for a difference. For a while, mine was set so if the wheel was straight the signal had to be held down manually, but when the wheel was turned either direction, the signal would hold fine; the 1mm nudge of the tab was a working fix.

Robbie

Thanks for that tip. Chloe might be thanking you, too.

Hambone's inclusion of multiple lever lengths lead me to question my assembly. That, or I felt like taking something important apart… I learned more today. In trying to narrow down a "new car" sense of turn signaling like BB, Buddy was protesting with every other right turn just self-catcalling all willy-nilly whenever I released the lever. But it didn't happen every time, and it was not related to wheel position. I have to add another pointer here:

Some levers are incompatible with some housings. I do not remember if my current housing is of Volkswagen pedigree, or if it came with one of several aftermarket switches. I do know my electronics are genuine VW. See the little scrape way back there? A few thousandths of clearance for the mechanism, and I have the most positive feedback I've ever felt from an early bay signal lever! (Sorry for the over-exposure, I couldn't get the detail otherwise!)

Yes, exactly! My understanding is that these switches were provided to VW by a number of different manufacturers (SWF for one), and they were
provided as a switch-and-housing assembly and were not necessarily compatible with switch parts from a different source, even though they
had identical VW part No.'s cast into them. I've had to use different-length mounting screws, use extra screw standoffs, etc, when I played
mix-n-match with my various T/S switches, all ostensibly the "same" part. Henry Ford spins in his Grave!

Aftermarket switches are an additional complication, with an even greater variety of screw lengths, threading, sizes, etc.

kreemoweet wrote: Aftermarket switches are an additional complication, with an even greater variety of screw lengths, threading, sizes, etc.

I'm speculating, that due to the poor paint coverage/spray pattern inside my housing, that it is not original VW work. Either way, signaling has been a breeze lately.

Guess what? I now have a '69 Bus in my garage....guy wants me to replace his turn signal switch. Heh.
A Ventura part, looks stock quality. Not sure how they achieved that, maybe reworked old switches? It is new though. Even got the wires right.
I will surely let you know.

asiab3 wrote:I'm speculating, that due to the poor paint coverage/spray pattern inside my housing, that it is not original VW work. Either way, signaling has been a breeze lately.

All my OEM switches have the VW part # & logo and (at least in the case of SWF) manufacturer logo cast on the inside of the housing. Aftermarket
part makers rarely do so. My OEM parts have no better paint job in there than the one you show.

hambone wrote:Guess what? I now have a '69 Bus in my garage....guy wants me to replace his turn signal switch. Heh.
A Ventura part, looks stock quality. Not sure how they achieved that, maybe reworked old switches? It is new though. Even got the wires right.
I will surely let you know.

Photos!
Colin

Man the wiring is all hacked, go figure.

That new switch is garbage. High beam switch points barely contact, etc. Must be Taiwan, and I'm out a repair.
It was so flimsy and made without love...discouraging for $80.

So i pulled my turn signal switch apart...the two wires with melted insulation both lead to difficult to access solder points underneath the hi-beam contact apparatus..i.e. both these solder joints were hanging on by a thread and i assume thusly heating and melting. How does one get good access to resolder ?? i did not see an obvious way to dissassemble so i assume some drilling is involved ?

dingo wrote:So i pulled my turn signal switch apart...the two wires with melted insulation both lead to difficult to access solder points underneath the hi-beam contact apparatus..i.e. both these solder joints were hanging on by a thread and i assume thusly heating and melting. How does one get good access to resolder ?? i did not see an obvious way to dissassemble so i assume some drilling is involved ?

I had an eleven year-old girl with good eyes do my soldering last summer. A little soldering iron with a small straight tip properly tinned, worked perfect and the switch works perfectly.

If you need access to the plastic board wire terminals sandwiched in there, you may need to disassemble the "cage" and release the board, but best to be careful.

Thx...ill wait for a zen moment in my life to address those remotely positioned solder joints

im curious...why did VW send in 5 turn signal wires to the switch..? why not join the two left side(front and rear) at a tee and send in a sngle wire into that switch ? same with right side ? i am missing something, ja ?