Why Are Old VW Beetles Still So Popular?

[zoobyshoe]

Some of those 12 volt Beetles had positive ground.

The Brotherhood of the Beetle Geezers says otherwise:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=189792&highlight=positive+ground

 

[jim hardy]

The Brotherhood of the Beetle Geezers says otherwise:

well,
my not very credible internet source can beat up your not very credible internet source.
http://www.restore-an-old-car.com/positive-ground-cars.html

Since the beginning of the horseless carriage, both negative and positive ground polarity have been used by car manufacturers. The fact is, electricity doesn't care how it gets from point A to point B. It can flow either positive to negative or negative to positive. Some engineers chose one way, some chose the other.

Among the many positive ground cars is the most produced car ever built, the Volkswagen Beetle, which didn't switch to negative ground until the mid-sixties. All British vehicles imported after WWII were positive ground, many stayed that way until the early seventies. The Ford Motor Company used negative ground polarity on the Model-T, then went to positive ground with the Model A, and back to negative ground in 1956.

EDIT you may be right, though. One reference i found says they switched to negative ground when they went to 12 volts, 1967.

I did help a friend troubleshoot a VW based dune buggy. He'd let the smoke out of two aftermarket stereos by not noticing his was a 12volt positive ground. I am guilty of assuming it was built that way before the body conversion .
Moral of story: look before you leap.

Have you run across the horn wiring yet ? Steering column gets grounded through the horn switch ?

old jim

 

[RonL]

well,
my not very credible internet source can beat up your not very credible internet source.
http://www.restore-an-old-car.com/positive-ground-cars.html

I have destroyed my fair share of DelcoRemy voltage regulators, because of a lack of electrical knowledge, that centered around correct grounding

 

[zoobyshoe]

well,
my not very credible internet source can beat up your not very credible internet source.
http://www.restore-an-old-car.com/positive-ground-cars.htmlEDIT you may be right, though. One reference i found says they switched to negative ground when they went to 12 volts, 1967.

I did help a friend troubleshoot a VW based dune buggy. He'd let the smoke out of two aftermarket stereos by not noticing his was a 12volt positive ground. I am guilty of assuming it was built that way before the body conversion .
Moral of story: look before you leap.

Have you run across the horn wiring yet ? Steering column gets grounded through the horn switch ?

old jim

I have an old Chilton's manual that covers "all models including super beetle 1949-1971" which states, "The electrical system is of the negative-ground type...". I think your internet source was confusing the switch from 6 to 12 volts with a switch from pos to neg, which never happened because it was negative ground as far back as 1949, anyway.

There is no telling what someone may have done to their own Beetle. Dune Buggys and Baja Bugs are the most hacked Bugs, can't expect anything on them to be stock.

Yes, I had a long ordeal trying to get my horn to work. I was fortunate enough to uncover the biggest obstacle in my way early on in the process, which was, that there was no horn. Some previous owner had removed it. That solved, it was still quite an involved process to find out why it wasn't getting juice when the horn button was depressed. The horn wiring circuit went through a lot of radical changes from one year to the next: they kept trying new things:
Horn Wiring Hell:
http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqhorn.htm

 

[OmCheeto]

... The horn wiring circuit went through a lot of radical changes from one year to the next: they kept trying new things:
Horn Wiring Hell:
http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqhorn.htm

That last "Interesting Side Note" kills me.
Sounds like half of my science projects.

On a somewhat related side note, when you touched my mother's mid-50's vintage oven and refrigerator at the same time, you would also be "lightly" electrocuted.

 

[zoobyshoe]

That last "Interesting Side Note" kills me.
Sounds like half of my science projects.

On a somewhat related side note, when you touched my mother's mid-50's vintage oven and refrigerator at the same time, you would also be "lightly" electrocuted.

Yeah, we had that same thing with a lamp and the radiator. We used to dare each other to see who could stand being electrocuted the longest.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Beetle Evolution:

http://cartype.com/pics/3814/full/evolution-ad.jpg

 

[EnumaElish]

VW camper brought back as an e-van http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...eveals-electric-concept-SOFA-instead-bed.html