General Information > Upgrades (non engine related )

Mk1 Electrical Upgrades

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vanbcguy:
Crimps are actually preferred to solder joints. A good mechanical crimp will be less likely to cause problems over time than a solder joint. VW actually expressly prohibits soldering on wiring harness repairs. Heat shrink is up to you - if you use dielectric grease after crimping and then put heat shrink over top you should have a pretty corrosion proof connection. Heat shrink without something to repel water can backfire and trap in moisture.

The starter has its own relay built in really (the starter solenoid). There's the main power wire from the battery to the starter which is a big thick one, then there's a smaller wire which is connected to the ignition switch. The small wire engages the solenoid which in turn handles the couple hundred amps of current going to the actual starter motor. Nothing really needs to be done there. Glow plugs however are a different story, it's worth using a solenoid under the hood for that. The glow plugs draw a ton of power and it's all going through the bulkhead twice.

If your wipers are slow try dealing with mechanical problems first. Your wiper bushings are probably toast. Putting more current through a motor that's fighting a sticky bushing / linkage isn't going to do anything positive for it. Deal with whatever mechanical issues you might have in that system before playing with the electrical side, it'll make the wiper motor last a lot longer plus it'll reduce its electrical needs.

billybobf:
I used to solder everything.... Was a total solder nut! Then I found out what "open barrel" and "molex crimper" meant google them if you don't know. Prettiest, easiest and most reliable method of doing any wiring!

RustyCaddy:
i was having problems with getting a good ground on the starter and alternator so grounded the bodies of both directly to the battery. This seems like overkill but solved the problems that cleaning the stock grounding wire/contact to engine points didn't help.

Putting a relay in between the fuse box and heater fan motor prevents overloading the fuse box pin in the old style fuse box models (don't know if that is a problem in the later models though).

You can also hook up a relay to the running lights/headlights so the running lights turn off when the ignition is off.  And you can relay the headlights to make them pretty darn bright (people mistake the low beam for high beam sometimes, the high beam is lighthouse bright).

Broosse:
its always BOTH a learning process and a P.I.T.A. at times to wire almost any custom built car electrical wiring but if you take notes and label things it will be fairly simple to trouble shoot and maintain

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