RE: 83 urq rewiring

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> How much should I expect to pay if I ask my mechanic to completely re-wire
> my
> 1983 model?  I am pretty much sick of trying to band-aid the problems
> caused
> by the stupid, let's stick everything in the world under the dash, wiring
> system.  I am very envious of the 84 and newer models with the real fuse
> box
> set-up under the hood.  
> 
... well, I must say that my thinking on this issue has changed a bit in the
recent past.  After looking in detail at the new box, it really isn't much
different than the old one ... the biggest change being the swap from those
funky exposed metal over plastic fuses to the bladed ones ... which is
indeed a big improvement, but other than that they are pretty much the same.
I can't say I'd like to hack a hole in the bodywork above a bunch of wiring,
connectors and such to install a box that isn't necessarily sealed that
well.  I think if I were to make the change I'd find a way to mount the new
fusebox in the same location as the old one ... but my suspicion is that if
there were sufficient room to do so VWAG would have done it that way.  

Over the years I've dealt with the issues as they came (headlights and fuel
pump were the only things I've dealt with) keeping an eye on the fuses for
corrosion of the contacts.  Once you've taken care of the issues it seems as
though the electrical system of the car seems fairly stable (assuming that
you've dealt with the grounding issues as well).  

Unless you completely replaced all of the wiring harness for the car,
there's a good chance that you would have to make the car a hybrid ... as if
it isn't difficult enough to figure out the wiring of the car the way it is!
The other thing to be concerned about would be knowing whether there were
mods to the new system that you would need to know about in addition to
simply hooking up the wires and plugging the looms into the new fusebox.  

Funny, I helped my brother-in-law replace the wiring harness on his TR4A ...
now that was a piece of cake!

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)
... with 2 cars with that old style fusebox ...