[T3] Chronic Nostart Update and Questions

[Jim Adney]

On 9 Mar 2011 at 13:09, Chris Sheridan wrote:

> I also replaced the B+ wire from the starter to the Neutral Shift
> positioning switch on the shifter. 

This must be an AT, with a neutral safety switch. That wire is never 
a problem, but the switch often is.

> Still had the same problem. Then I realized that my knee was hitting the
> shift to ignition switch B+ wire and causing a bad connection. A piece of
> tape fixed it. 

If you've still got the old wire, with its correct length and factory 
crimped connections, you might want to put it back. It's hard to 
imagine why your replacement was somewhere that your knee could hit 
it.

> But...when I was under there I found my fuel line seriously
> frayed even though it was only a couple years old it rubs against the
> shrouding...so I bought some hose and will take care of that.

There used to be a grommet in that hole, and it protected the hose. 
You can make a sleeve out of a piece of soft plastic that will do as 
well, so this doesn't happen again.  

> Questions:
> I installed my two batteries because they are non-returnable. I am not using
> an isolator, just replicating the wiring for 1 battery.
> 1) Is there any point to doing this? Isn't the whole reason for two
> batteries to have reserver power by flicking a switch between the two?

There really are just 2 reasons why you might want to do this: If 
you're having trouble starting and tend to run your battery down, or 
if you have 2 old batteries and hope to wring a little more life out 
of them. What you've done will work, but if the car starts without 
minutes of cranking and your batteries are new, then there's no point 
other than the fact that you already have the batteries.

> 2) the 2nd battery - I jury-rigged a line from the pos strap to the voltage
> regulator, except that there is no additional spade to connect 2 wires to
> the regulator. I had to use a smaller guage (14?) wire for the 2nd batteries
> connection to the regulator. I will try to obtain a piggyback connector in
> that size.

There's little point in a second small VR wire. The only thing that 
would be useful would be a large wire from pos post to pos post. At 
that point, a single small wire to the VR will serve both.

> 3) I am getting a glowing red generator light. It is directly related to
> RPMs - it goes out when I'm at highway speed but flickers back on when I
> slow down or idle.
> 
> While I'm a fan of throwing money and new parts at my daily driver to avoid
> renting cars while its down, it would be nice to know where to start with
> the glowing generator light. It appears that would be Fan Belt, Brushes,
> then Generator - in that order. However I would really like to rule out
> whether my smaller guage wire between the 2nd battery and the regulator
> could be causing my glowing red light...

This has nothing to do with the small wire. It makes me wonder if the 
field winding of your generator is partly shorted out, making it a 
poor provider of electrical power. You could remove the wire from the 
DF terminal of your generator and measure the resistance from that 
terminal and the commutator. It should measure about 4.5 Ohms.

It's also possible that your brushes are worn out.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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