Starting a stripped out van

[MrMet]

I'm in the process of a complete overhaul on my 1981 Aircooled and it's going to take a lot longer than first expected (now there's a surprise!!!). At the moment, everything is stripped out of it as I'm having to do a lot of rebuilding work, the inside is completely empty, including the whole dashboard, fuse box, wiring loom, steering wheel, pedals, the lot. I wasn't planning on doing this, but after opening a can of worms I decided it was the only thing to do.

Now, if i wanted to sort something temporarily so that I could start the engine every now and again and stop that dying too, what would be the bare basics that I would need to hook up to get it going. Obviously I'd need to put the battery and connect that up to an ignition switch of some sort, but what else would be needed? Can someone explain the simplest way to do this please?

[Ian and Lins]

Not sure if this helps, but I have seen somewhere that VW used to market the engine as a power pack for,say, generators. This would presumably just need the very basics of electricity & fuel systems.

[ghost123uk]

You don't need an ignition switch.

You only need = Sparks, Fuel supply and a Trigger for the solenoid to get it running.

Just connect a +ve supply to the coil and use a bit of wire to the thin (spade) connector on the solenoid and just put that in contact with the +ve of the battery briefly (like turning the key to "start") to fire up the solenoid.

Not sure why you need to fire it up though, esp as it is Aircooled, unless you are planning to have it off the road for months on end /through the winter ?

[MrMet]

Cool, thanks for the advice

The vans already been off the road for a good few months and it could still be a while until it's back up and running properly, so I just want to make sure that the engine doesn't sieze while I'm working on it. I could be over worrying, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[BOXY]

Just take the fan cover (basket) off and turn it over by hand with a socket & extension.