Ignition Switch Troubleshooting

by Barb and Eric

If you have a volt/ohm meter you can hook it up to the positive wire going to the coil. Try this first with the engine off, but the ignition on. Check the voltage at the battery and then try the coil wire again and have someone turn the engine over a couple of times. If you see a two or more drop in the voltage, check through the wiring system until you find the area of voltage loss.

We ran a wire from one of the running tail lights to the coil when a fellow had a complete failure of this set of points in his bugï¿½s ignition switch. Kind of wierd to see him pull up, turn off the key, then turn off the running lights to shut down the engine. This might work for you if you have to drive your bus and can not fix the ignition switch.

Often the ignition switch is destroyed by the owner driving their VW around with heavy fobs and/or lots of keys hanging down.

This swinging weight does in the switch, just like hanging a bowling ball on one side of your head as an ear ring would mangle your neck over time. The heaver the wieght the faster the destruction. Which is why we have seperate VW keys on their own little rings and our house keys on another. Less wieght=less damage.