[T3] NOS Bosch Reverse Light Kit - Installation Help Needed

[Sean Bartnik]

Hello all,

I picked up one of those NOS Bosch reverse light kits, with the switch that mounts on the transaxle's nose cone and the operating lever that mounts on the shift rod.  I tried to install this yesterday but I got hung up on step 1.

To power the switch, you run a wire from the fuse box down under the edge of the mat and then through the rear kick panel with the brake line into the under-rear-seat area.  Then the instructions say to pass the wire through the grommet with the brake line and this is somehow supposed to get the wire into the tunnel so you can get power to the switch at the shift rod coupler.

Well, as far as I can tell, the brake line doesn't go into the tunnel at all, it seems to run from the under-seat area through its own passage and comes out under the car pretty far to the left of the tunnel where there's a T connection for the hard lines to the left and right wheels.  I tried feeding the wire through there but  no luck.

So what am I missing?  Can you in fact get the wire into the tunnel from the hole for the brake hard line?  Is there another way to get the wire into the tunnel short of drilling a hole?  Is there another route I can take to get the wire into the tunnel?

I looked at the voltage regulator wiring but it looks like it goes through a harness between the inner and outer fenders so that's not gonna work.  I also looked at the main battery cable but Keith had replaced that with a gigantic welding cable (no starting issues here!) so I don't think I could physically fit this little wire through the grommet with it.   :D

The instruction sheet was in German but I ran it through Google Translate which seemed to do a pretty good job.  The relevant portions:

2) Connect the black wire from the harness to fuse No. 1 (terminal 15) with plug distributor. Cable installation (see Figure 4) downwards, under the mats edge to the rear and front of the partition wall to the center of the frame tunnel. Remove the rear seat and pull cable along the brake pipe through the partition.

3) From the vehicle underside of the lid frame tunnel Unscrew, pull out the black wire end and connect to the reversing light switch.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  I abandoned this project yesterday when it was late and it became clear that I was missing something.

Thanks,
Sean
’65 Variant S