My 66 stock VW project has a few mysteries for me to still uncover.
PHOTO 1 is a component behind the dash that was just laying there ...not mounted to anything. The wires, two green, and one blue with a white tracer (you can see where the blue wire has been cut as it goes into the harness) are not connected to the fuse panel ...they go directly into the wiring harness heading to the rear of the car. There is no part number on this component. The inside of the brass part appears to be threaded, and there appears to be something missing from the inside: a shaft and knob, perhaps? There is a hole in the dash to the right of the ashtray, where this appears it might fit ....but I don't know. PHOTO 2 is a box mounted to the firewall in the upper left hand corner of the engine compartment. My best read of the part number is "Prufhex" 117 963 457 006 6 Volt Made in West Germany There is one fuse in the box, with a screw-off cap; another in-line fuse attached to the box. The large, thick black wire seems like a high-tension coil wire, but not sure where it goes once it enters behind the engine tin. This is a bone stock 66 Deluxe beetle sedan, still with the 1300 engine, and 6 volt electrics. Any suggestions / comments appreciated
Help with identification of parts, please
Help with identification of parts, please
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- Mystery box Photo #2
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Those are the remains of a gas heater (dealer installed - hence no mention in any factory wiring diagram) once in car. The switch on the dash turned it on and the box in the engine compartment was part of the ignightor system. There were a couple of models with one under the hood in the truck with a vent just under the ash tray (you can see on YouTube) and one in the back that ran to the ducts from the back of the car. You may find the remains of the heater carcus underneath around the transaxle. Have fun!
Well ...that's very interesting!! As I think I've mentioned before, I live in western Canada, where we routinely see -40C temps in Jan & Feb ....and, I've owned and driven several VW's back in the day (1959, 1963, 1966, 1968) and none of them had gas heaters in them when I bought them!! I was young(er) and carefree then, so had better things to spend my money on, however I did end up putting a front-mount gas heater in the '68 bug. Couldn't find a 12v one, so I put in a 6v unit, and installed two 6 volt batteries under the back seat ...12v for the car, and 6v for the heater. Worked good. That being said, I was not aware that there was a rear-mount model available! I'm anxious to tear into my '66 and see if the rest of it is there! Are you aware of any links to details about the rear mount gas heater???
The BA series gas heaters were made by Eberspacher - more commonly known as Espar. The bug model was the BA2. Another model is the Stewart Warner "Southwind". Finally, the one installed in most Canadian bugs in the late 50's - mid 60's was called the"Perfection". I have seen them installed behind the seat under the package tray as well. Good luck on your information quest!
Forgot to add that germansupply.com has parts for the gas heaters. Maybe they can hook you up as needed. I also found that there were heaters for the Ghia, Bus and even the Thing. It may be possible one of those was used in your car at some point in its life and as the ignitor source is in the back of the car it would lead me to believe they somehow had it in the back of the car even though everything I can find shows them mounted in the front on all installations I could find.
Yes, the part number would seem to indicate 1967 ...and thus 12 volt. However, my car is definitely still 6 volt. Would the rear mounted heater be one of those flat, x-shaped jobs? I sent an email off the Prufrex (they still exist) and asked them for info on the part #. Be interesting to see if I get a response. None of the info I've found on this site deals with the rear-mounted gas heater ..so don't know where else I might find info. From what I can see, the gas heater unit is still there, tucked up under the transmission, with the flex hoses running from it to the heater channel ducts, and a small one-inch or so exhaust pipe on the passenger side in the engine bay, behind the rear wheel. Can't wait to get this car up on a hoist to have a better look at what's going on underneath.