Date:         Wed, 11 Oct 95 10:07:52 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         snuggles@VNET.IBM.COM
Subject:      Weird Electrical Problem (is there an electrician around?)

hey now,

i now have right rear tail lights...sorta. first, a big thank you to Michael
Heron for selling me the light assemblies and ALL the rear light wiring cheap!
much cheaper then i could ever hope to buy them from anywhere else. it's much
appreciated and is typical of the list...very kind.

i've been reading bob's electrical work with increasing interest. hopefully he
or someone else could help me. i know very little about electrical work.

my right rear lights were nonfuctional and along with it the liscense plate
light. what had happened was the metal plate in the assembly was so rusted that
i believe there was no ground. i was going to replace the whole assembly but
when i went to pull out the old one i couldn't figure out how. i think there
are screws or bolts which anchor it to the frame but these were rusted in. the
plastic housing seemed okay so i decided to leave that in. went to remove the
metal backing and it kinda fell apart as it came out. kinda rusty huh?

i removed the metal backing from the assembly that michael sent me. studied it
and became familiar with what wires went where. mine, tho in pieces, was
exactly the same. so i hooked it up, and guess what...it worked. sorta. there
are two scenarios here:

1) when using a double filament bulb everything works fine. brakes, reverse,
running, and liscense plate lights. BUT there seems to be a short or something
because as soon as i put the lens cover on...it won't work anymore. btw, this
bulb goes in the brake/running light slot.

-HOWEVER-


2) if i put a regular bulb in this slot everything semi works. of course i
don't have brake lights on that side but i do have running lights. however,
the other two bulbs also light very dimly and the liscense light is almost
non-existent. but no short with a regular bulb. i've got running lights and
some turn lights. which is better than nothing...but then the weirdness starts.

the following happens only when the headlights are on and a regular bulb used:

a) the brake light stays on except when i am using the brakes. and they work
fine. this freaked me at first so i checked it out. headlights off, brake light
off.

b) the engine continues to run even when i turn off the ignition and remove the
key. very strange. when i turn off the lights, the engine stops.

all this disappears when the headlights aren't on. the double filament bulb i'm
using is kinda blackend. i'm figuring that's the culprit. it might be bad in
the first place. gonna buy a new one and see if that helps. then gonna see if i
have a short somewhere in the orignal wiring. like a i said, all works fine
when i can get the double filament bulb i'm using to work.

now....are all these electrical weird happenings particularily harmful? i'm
correcting the problem as fast as i can *BUT* i must drive the bus at night.
i feel much better with a partially working tail light than a non functioning
one. you know how cops like vw vans........

thanks!

jonathan ('74 Bus- Viola Lee)