March 12, 201214 yr My father has a 1982 VW Diesel Pickup. Its having a weird electrical bug... What is normally suposesd to happen: Turn on key to start the glowplugs Dummy light/s and dummy light for glowplugs come on Dummy light for glowplugs shut off when ready Start car Off you go. What is happening now: Dummy lights come on for a split second Followed immediately by the Ebrake dummy light coming on The truck wont start Once key is removed the Ebrake light stays on, even when the Ebrake is released. Have to take the positive terminal off the battery to shut the light off. Anybody know whats happening?
March 12, 201214 yr ill look around online for you....im pretty good at that lol what model is it? i understand its a vw diesel truck but i need the model to really help.
March 12, 201214 yr I believe that is just a little too old to have a ratehr large metal fuse somewhere on the dash to the L of the steering wheel IIR hidden by a cover or jsut underneath the dash. tdiclub.com is the best site I've found but most of it is the later stuff. But I'd certainly go there and look.
March 12, 201214 yr This sounds almost like a bad battery or altenator. The E brake light here is a clue.
March 12, 201214 yr Author As for a model: its the same thing as a mk1 rabbit, just in pickup form. Dave: I'll have to look and see if theres a fuse or something there. Nipper: The battery and alternator are both good. Tested a bunch of things: Starter from this truck worked when put in another car. Grounds are all in place and in good contact. Battery terminals have good contact. Tested power from battery to glowplug leads when key is on: power going to plugs. All the fuses under the dash are in order. My dad talked with someone on the phone and they mentioned that it could be the "interlocking relay alarm safety" which has something to do with the seatbelts? lol Thanks everyone for the insight so far.
March 12, 201214 yr after grounds (a notorius older VW issue) i was going to say a main relay of some kind. That may be an interlock year. http://volkswagenownersclub.com/vw/forum.php? try there
March 12, 201214 yr is it one of the models that wont start unless you have your seatbelt on? edit: does it crank but doesnt start or does it not crank at all? also have you tried putting a screwdriver to the starter to see if it will start? (if it doesnt crank) maybe ignition switch is bad.... cant seem to find anything on that interlock thing you were talkn bout....quite a hard search but i did read that those are prone to all kinds of electrical demons lol Edited March 12, 201214 yr by 95legwagon
March 12, 201214 yr Author Gonna check out this interlock relay when the weather clears up. Looks like its behind the fuse pannel. The seatbelts don't have to be on to start the car... Also we replaced the ignition switch too, since that seemed like what was going on. (We've been fighting this gremlin for about a week now) The engine wont crank at all.
March 13, 201214 yr Don't know if you already have one of these, but they are a great resource. Kind of spendy though... http://www.bentleypublishers.com/volkswagen/repair-information/vw-jetta-rabbit-diesel-1977-1984-repair-manual.html I had one for a gas mk1. it was great for tracking down problems. Ben
March 13, 201214 yr Try this, if not let me know i will DL it for you and look into it http://volkswagenownersclub.com/vw/showthread.php/27040-VW-1977-1983-Diesel-Service-Manual-and-Repair-Guide... It is a bit torrent, not sure if it works as i dont have a torrent program on the laptop.
March 15, 201214 yr Author I think I have one of those Bently manuals around here somewhere... Thanks for that link Nipper, I have that saved now. Only problem is it doesn't have a table of contents or index. :\ I've been at work the past few days and my father continued to diagnose the problems. He got it to randomly start after moving some wires around, but the glowplug light on the dash stayed on while running. Then he shut it off, tried to start it again, and it was back to just throwing up the Ebrake light. Fun times.
March 23, 201214 yr Author Turns out it was something really simple. We ran a ground from the battery to the alternator, and it would start every time. However the wire eventually burned up. So we instead ran a ground from the existing connection of the battery to frame ground; to the transmission. Working good. This is preventing the drain on the battery that was happening.
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