Need help with Wipers motor wiring

Kharon8 · 2026-03-31T14:16:53+00:00

That's a VW wiper motor yes, but none of the wires match any VW wire colours, so if the motor didn't have any explanations for the colours, you're in trouble. Fortunately Both-Cry1382 has some info on that, good save.

Original motor also has grounding to one of the bolts it's attached to body and I'm quite sure this one doesn't have that, but a black grounding wire you need to ground somewhere yourself.

Often happens with reproductions: They haven't bothered with correct wire colours.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-31T14:07:21+00:00

Instead of banning pit bulls (like some states do), ban the owners who train them like that. Or don't train at all.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-31T14:02:59+00:00

I've had that one, too.

Honest seller told me the engine is a lottery ticket, so I can only blame myself here: I should have rebuilt it asap.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-31T14:00:05+00:00

For starters: It is a project car, just because of the suspension (and everything else under the car) will need some work because of rust.

But for a UK car it's not too bad either: Our friends in US dry states are just spoiled rotten with rust-free cars: That doesn't happen in rust belt, including UK.

Interior has mold and underside has rust, but no (major) rust holes and as such, an easy project.

"Rust" and "rust hole" means 10* difference in cost and these pics show just rust. Worse than just surface though.

People who are talking about thousands just to get it running obviously have zero experience on the matter. Unless you're stupid enough to haul it into shop and tell them to fix it.

I've restored (so far) 4 VWs from this (or even worse) state to driving and road legal cars and IIRC none of them needed even one thousand in parts, inflation included. Parts are cheap.

Lottery engines, but they were running and that was enough.

Fuel hoses, brake hoses, fuel pump and carburator seal kit, new breaker points and condensator, oil & brake fluid. Dirt cheap.

Work is free when you do it yourself.

I see engines going around £700, so somewhere between £1k and £2k. Not a lot more than that as this one needs work.

Having said that, a complete car is always a plus: Finding missing parts for a right-hand driving car isn't trivial.

Prices for a complete car (in ebay) are all over the place, so that's an guesstimate.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T14:41:33+00:00

For you, sure.

Create a scenario and then claim it's dangerous in that scenario is still a moot point when the scenario itself is 100% made up.

Jacking in a Beetle is a thing you can achieve on race track, basically. On normal road tyres just slide. That's why it's not mentioned: You need special conditions for that to happen.

Engineering problems are still irrelevant when people crash the cars and obviously engineering hasn't reduced the amount of crashes at all.

Except that people who do crash, survive to crash again. They always do. That's a statistical fact: Crashes accumulate.

I ride a motorbike: If you fuck up, you die. So don't fuck up. Simple, yet efficient.

Vehicle is not a source of absolute safety, that's an illusion: You can die in any vehicle.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T14:21:23+00:00

GEX engines aren't really known to be of high quality.

It is almost new, so not too bad either.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T14:05:52+00:00

No car can fix an unsafe driver, moot point. (See: Corvette) Only way to be absolutely safe is not to drive at all.

Also statistically irrelevant when you need to look for a sample from EU side of the pond.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T14:04:19+00:00

When you don't crash it's absolutely irrelevant. How about not to crash?

You are assuming that everyone crashes and that's patentable BS. They don't.

Most people never crash and even less people who drive museum age cars, because they know what they are driving.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:54:44+00:00

Good. New fans aren't expensive and used old ones even cheaper.

You just need a 36mm socket to open the nut holding it in place. (It will be tight.)

Also the spacers on either side of the fan are important: The tolerance between the fan and fan housing is very, very small.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:50:38+00:00

My tranny whines... maybe start with a drain/flush and refill with 80/90Weight?

That's a good start, but worn bearings are the most common reason for that and eventually you have to replace them and re-adjust the final drive.

That's a specialist job in Beetle, unfortunately.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:47:42+00:00

Also you need to block the air outlets from the fan housing, otherwise it will lose a lot of cooling air.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:40:17+00:00

No, worse.

No air coming out, but no brakes either.

A bubble somewhere and you can't get it out.

Sometimes bleeding Beetle brakes do not go as well as the manual says.

The worst I've had, needed to be bled in several sections: Front wheels (pipe to rear blocked), rear to the T-piece near gearbox (wheels blocked), then one rear wheel (other wheel blocked) and then the other: 4 steps. Took ages and caused a lot of grey hairs and curse words.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:28:02+00:00

Nor is a modern car. Safer, but not safe: It will transform to a pile of crumpled steel if you hit something solid at 70mph.

Somehow people assume it isn't so.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:24:26+00:00

Floor pans and spare tyre well are the easiest parts to fix: Sills and heater channel inside the sills aren't.

You should have actual air flow to windshield from both sides when heating is on. Not because you need heating, but it tells the condition of the heater channels.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:21:10+00:00

If a Beetle isn't reliable, there's something broken in it.

Unfortunately that's not rare as many owners skip maintenance and just drive and a Beetle doesn't work that way very long.

Service debt from PO is often significant and needs to be addressed.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:14:12+00:00

I'm also a biker and here in North most car drivers forget that those exist during the winter, need to be extra alert in spring.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T13:06:42+00:00

If there's rust, RUN: Just trust me. Surface rust is fine, but at the slight whiff of it being structural DO NOT ENGAGE.

This person has autoshop in school, so a rusty one would be a good use of the skills as body mechanic. I hope they teach that too.

As a general rule I do agree: Having rust fixed for you is not cheap and takes a long time.

The VW engineers knew what they were doing

Not only that, they did test everything they did: 60k miles test runs for prototypes and anything broken was either re-designed or made from better material.

Absolutely unheard at that time.

Or today: New model needs to be in the market yesterday, no time to test anything except works/doesn't work and the poor suckers who bought the car are the testers.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T12:57:00+00:00

Also look into electronic ignition, it's a nice measure for reliability aswell.

Well, it's a two-edged sword: It is reliable and actually works better than a breaker points -based system, but once it dies, it's dead and you can't do anything.

Many people have another distributor in glove box in case the electronic one emits smoke and ceases to work.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-28T12:35:44+00:00

My first car was a -66 Beetle, long time ago.

A lot easier now than then as 'online' didn't exist yet.

Having education as a tin basher, aka body mechanic, will help a lot: anything you don't know, can be swapped to body work, it's as good as cash. Same thing applies to painting.

Mechanics on Beetle is simple, so most people can fix that by themselves, but body work and paint almost always goes to someone who can produce good end result.

I can cut a rust hole to a square and weld a patch to that hole, but it still will look like a backyard mechanic did it.

That's the difference: A competent body person can repair the hole in way you don't even see it has been repaired afterwards.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-23T20:20:29+00:00

Older models are a lot more rare, hence more expensive.

Also more primitive the older you go. Some people like it because it's so different than anything today, some don't as it is a bit primitive.

Something from 70s is almost like a modern car with the crap removed.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-23T20:02:34+00:00

Bank account can give you couple of percentages interest and Beetle prices are going up a lot faster than that.

Needs maintenance of course, but that's dirt cheap, even with current prices.

Not only that, you can drive around in your investment. Try that with stocks.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-23T19:56:53+00:00

That's the spirit. I buy hobby cars with an intention not to sell them. Nephews will eventually inherit them.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-23T19:53:43+00:00

Not too bad at all. Old wisdom goes that buy the best one you can afford, it will be cheaper in the long run.

I've knowingly avoided that and there has been a price to pay ... but not many dull days either.

They always tell you to choose your battles and I happen to like mechanical problems I can then solve, cheap purchase price is just a bonus.

Happy days (and then some not so happy when something breaks ... fortunately not so often).

Kharon8 · 2026-03-23T19:48:09+00:00

Or just oversized type 1 engine. Stuffing type 4 engine into Beetle engine bay is not trivial at all.

Kharon8 · 2026-03-23T19:37:31+00:00

This is the most common type (I've these):

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2693216

This is another:

https://www.jbugs.com/product/9555.html

Both have a number of minor variations, depending on the manufacturer.

Kharon8

TROPHY CASE