Itinerant Air-Cooled

1970 Karmann Ghia, Gretchen.

Ok, thought I had things set but I found a mystery wire, and since it's been a few months, my memory fails and I hope I have the wiring correct on the starter so wanted to put up a photo and confirm I'm not going to melt anything or set anything on fire once I hook up the ground.

Here's the mystery wire.





It goes back into the body near where clutch and accelerator cables come through.





I suspect it wants to go on the flasher can or whatever it is that makes up the hot-start set-up that I didn't do but left together.







Here are the wires that come off of the hot-start can. They seem to want to all go onto the same post of the solenoid as the positive battery cable connection.





And then the wires from the back-up switch on the transaxle are fed out of the engine compartment between the tin and the dust seal once the engine is in there. That doesn't seem right, but not sure where else they would feed.





And last but not least, what's up with this? A complete mystery to me. Anyone know what this is for? It's coming into the engine compartment from the passenger side behind the air-cleaner pedestal.









thanks,
neal

I don't have a Ghia, but I do have a Beetle and besides, VW wiring is pretty much the same across all the models. Here's my guess(s).

The pictured red wire in the beige sheath with the spade connector comes from the 'start' position of your ignition switch and originally connected to the starter. At some point, someone installed the 'hot start relay' which requires moving the 'start' wire from the solenoid to the relay. One of the wires coming from the relay (wrapped in electrical tape) must connect to the spade lug on the solenoid where the red wire resided originally. I can't tell from the picture, but all of them can't connect (successfully) to the same post with the nut on the starter. One of them (the correct one) has to go to the spade lug. You might want to revisit this whole set up and make sure things are connected correctly.

Next, the wires to and from the backup light switch on the transaxle should pass through the body via a grommet. I have never seen them just sneak through the engine compartment seal. Eventually they'll get pinched/shorted/broken/car won't work anymore because one of the two wires comes from terminal 15 on the coil. If that voltage is shorted or otherwise monkeyed with, the car won't run. Again, revisit this and see if there's a better/safer route for these wires to take.

Finally, that little nipple is most likely where your Evaporative Emission Control (EEC) system was connected. In a nutshell, your fuel tank vents to either a charcoal canister or perhaps (if like in my Beetle) a vapor separator up the "trunk" where the fuel tank lives. Eventually those vapors were vented back into the air cleaner on the engine. That little tube is probably part of the system that got fuel vapors from the front of the car to the air cleaner at the rear of the car. Ideally you would restore this system and save us all from global war... nope, not going there. This is probably something you can let slide as you have more pressing electrical issues to sort out first.

Good luck!

yes, looking at mine the nipple has a small hose that connects to the charcoal canister that lays in front of the air cleaner.

dtrumbo wrote:I don't have a Ghia, but I do have a Beetle and besides, VW wiring is pretty much the same across all the models. Here's my guess(s).

The pictured red wire in the beige sheath with the spade connector comes from the 'start' position of your ignition switch and originally connected to the starter. At some point, someone installed the 'hot start relay' which requires moving the 'start' wire from the solenoid to the relay. One of the wires coming from the relay (wrapped in electrical tape) must connect to the spade lug on the solenoid where the red wire resided originally. I can't tell from the picture, but all of them can't connect (successfully) to the same post with the nut on the starter. One of them (the correct one) has to go to the spade lug. You might want to revisit this whole set up and make sure things are connected correctly.

Next, the wires to and from the backup light switch on the transaxle should pass through the body via a grommet. I have never seen them just sneak through the engine compartment seal. Eventually they'll get pinched/shorted/broken/car won't work anymore because on of the two wires comes from terminal 15 on the coil. If that voltage is shorted or otherwise monkeyed with, the car won't run. Again, revisit this and see if there's a better/safer route for these wires to take.

Finally, that little nipple is most likely where your Evaporative Emission Control (EEC) system was connected. In a nutshell, your fuel tank vents to either a charcoal canister or perhaps (if like in my Beetle) a vapor separator up the "trunk" where the fuel tank lives. Eventually those vapors were vented back into the air cleaner on the engine. That little tube is probably part of the system that got fuel vapors from the front of the car to the air cleaner at the rear of the car. Ideally you would restore this system and save us all from global war... nope, not going there. This is probably something you can let slide as you have more pressing electrical issues to sort out first.

Good luck!

Yer gonna put me outta bidness. All I can add is the red wire should have a black stripe if it is late model ig sw to starter bound.

Amskeptic wrote:Yer gonna put me outta bidness.

Nah! I hate traveling for work.

No black stripe. Thanks everyone. I stuck that wire onto the open spade of the relay box. I think that's right.


neal