'78 80 (Fox): battery light stays on

[Tom Nas]

At 00:12 13-8-01 -0700, Ti Kan wrote:
>Check the condition of the thin blue wire from the alternator and trace
>its connectivity all the way to the instrument cluster.  Is the alternator
>charging ok?  What's the voltage at the battery when the car is running?

I think it's charging- it read something like 14 V at the battery. The 
strange thing is that the charge light stays on _even when you pull the 
key_. Wiring short?

>Bad contacts at the turn signal lever switch?  This is the sort of
>stuff that a wiring diagram and a multimeter would come in real handy.

Indeed.

>Robert Bentley still sells US-spec Audi Fox service manuals, much of which
>should still be applicable to your car.

Thanks, I'll see if I can find one on the 'web. I guessed that the workshop 
manual, much like parts for this car, was NLA.

>It would be cool to convert to a manual transmission.  If you can't
>locate a type 82 car as a complete donor, you might still be able to use
>many things off of a VW Dasher (I guess it was called the Passat in Europe?),
>or a type 81 4-cylinder car, or a VW Fox (the Brasilian-built one, was this
>model ever sold in Europe?).

Nope, I saw a couple in the US but never here. I could try using a type 81 
transmission, they're pretty common in scrapyards. I guess it would require 
some transmission tunnel surgery, right?

>   Perhaps it would even be possible to source
>parts from the US...  Just thinking out loud about the possibilities here.
>The 4-speed boxes (type 014) was used on the Audi Fox, early Audi 4000,
>Dashers, and early VW Foxes.  The 5-speed box (type 013) can be found on
>many Audi 4000 (4-cyl) and later VW Fox models.

And I guess the early-80s Passat (Quantum)?

>   All these cars used cable
>clutches, but the shift linkage is specific to each transmission type
>(the 4-speed and 5-speed have different shift patterns too, with the
>4-speed having the reverse gear up and to the left like most VWs).

Thanks for the suggestions, Ti. I'll change the ATF first, I guess if it 
has bits of metal in it the transmission is shot. If it is, I'll start 
sourcing a manual transmission.
Got any do's and don't's on autoboxes? It's my first non-manual car, still 
on a learning curve... how solid are these transmissions, generally?

Regards, Tom