REWIRING A BOND BUG

This feature first appeared in Buggin The Bug Club Magazine.

The Bug Club is a fantastic Club for Bug enthusiasts. It has many knowledgeable members who can point you in the right direction if you need help with Bond Bug Maintenance or Restoration Tip Etc. A link to join appears on my home Page.

  Before replacing the loom its wise to purchase a new set of plastic clips so you can reclamp it to the body, It’s also worth having more electrical fastenings and insulating tape. You can replace the loom with the body off but I replaced mine while it sat on the chassis.

   To replace the loom start from under the driver seat and feed the two sets of wires up through the holes under the dash cluster. Make sure before you start the loom is the right way up. You will then have a set of wires that head of in the direction of the dynamo/nearside lights/horn, 1 set that goes to the rear lights and another that goes to the regulator/off sidelights and temp/brake/oil sender units. Clamp the loom in place along with the starter solenoid (this will need to be connected to the battery with the thick black heavy duty cable). The next step is to work through connecting each circuit and then testing. Bad earths are a common problem to Bugs so check this area and clean up the crappy connections you will undoubtedly find.

  When it comes to the lighting circuit, there are numbers on the back of the switch and these relate to different wires- If you look very closely on the wiring diagram in the Hand book you can just about make out where they go.(The Diagram above Does not show it). Both on this restoration and 2 previous restorations I have found if you connect the wires to the fuel gauge in the wrong order the gauge flies up to full- So you may have to experiment until you get the sequence right on this (The green wire goes on the Battery tab).

There is a small error in the 1970s Wiring Diagram which I have noted on the diagram above- With regards to the Wiper Motor the Wire shown as Purple and Light Green should be Red and Light Green.

Good Luck...