Not too long ago the turn signal switch in my '74 broke. The actual cause was the steering column bearing wearing out and the resultant steering shaft sag caused one of the horn contact strips to snag and get torn off when I was taking a turn. Fun as that was I needed to replace the bearing and the switch. I ordered a new bearing from Wolfsburg West and headed out to the junk yard for a replacement switch. Poking along from Beetle to Beetle I found one that hadn't been picked over too badly and sure enough the switch was still there. Usually it is easier to pull the turnsignal and wiper switches as a unit and then separate them. Upon doing so I noticed that the wiper switch was fairly new and that it has some extra features that mine didn't. Specifically it has a circuit that activates the wipers when one pulls on the switch to squirt fluid on the windshield. Kind of neat and I remembered something I have wanted ever since owning a European delivery '72-1/2 Squareback: An intermittent wipe setting. See I had to replace the turn signal switch on the squareback too. While doing so I noticed that the wiper switch had an extra position that is one lower then when it is mounted in the column. Curious I carefully examined the switch and found that it had some extra wires. At the time I surmised that they were for the intermittent wipe setting which has since been confirmed by a European Thing list member. So the missing components in the squareback were the relay and it's body wiring.
On a side note I looked at the turn signal switch and it too had extra wires which are supposed to be for the "city lights". Now the intersting part is that all the Beetle turn signal switches I have seen have the extra "city lights" wires.
Anyway back to current quest, the intermittent wipe. The new switch has an another circuit that has a ground (brown) wire attached to it and when one pulls on the wiper switch arm there are two sets of contacts. One that closes the circuit to activate the wipers while squirting and a second that opens the extra ground circuit. There is another feature in the circuitry that closes this extra circuit only when thwe switch is in the 1st - 3rd position. That corresponds to neutral, slow and fast speed in US vehicles. The point of all this is that with the new switch in hand I might be able to alter the extra ground circuit and use it to activate the relay.
The other piece necessary for intermittent wiping is the relay itself. Again I gained some useful information from a list member about this relay, which can be found in most VW/Audi products made in the late 70's and 80's. I have actually tested one in my '74 and it worked, only I had to manually activate the relay. So now when time allows I will try to alter the wiper switch and see what happens. At the same time I will probably replace the squirter valve with an electric squirter and add a micro switch to activate it.
11-13-01: Well as it turns out I have found another, possibly easier, method to get the intermittent wipers and electric washer pump. It appears that the aluminum ignition switch housing, switches and plastic cover from a Rabbit will fit in the Thing with only some minor modifications and simple electrical work. I will be looking into this in the next few days to see if it does work. The goal would be to have an easy upgrade that would still retain the original Thing ignition key.
I have also found a very unique accessory dash mounted variable intermittent wiper switch from VW. This is an NOS example and the only one I have ever seen.
How to replace the '73 Thing ignition switch.
How to replace the '74 Thing ignition switch.
Thing gas gauge troubleshooting.
Want to see better at night? Check out the H4 headlight conversion.
This VW Thing wiring diagram is from late '73 and pretty much matches my '74 with the exception that the wire color on my '74 for the oil pressure warning light is a different color than shown in the diagram.
Click here to learn how to read current flow diagrams
Here's the color key for the wire diagram as well as the symbol key and the letter key
©1997-2003, Thomas M. Ainlay