Club 80-90 Forums

Please would someone be able to tell me what the connections on the pic below are for. The red arrow points to an electrical tab on the distributor, and the yellow arrow points to a loose connector/wire, the other end of which goes towards the carb. Both of these have never had anything connected to them that I know of. Thanks.

1985 T25 1.9DG Petrol

The tab on the dissy is earth , only brown wires are earth (neg) on a vw
The wire you point to is black, and there fore live , ignition live , which should go to the choke and should be connected to the other black wires in a kind of piggy back loom so they are all live together .

Really need a big picture of the entire engine bay to be more help

Mocki wrote: ↑07 Aug 2022, 17:59 The tab on the dissy is earth , only brown wires are earth (neg) on a vw
The wire you point to is black, and there fore live , ignition live , which should go to the choke and should be connected to the other black wires in a kind of piggy back loom so they are all live together .

Really need a big picture of the entire engine bay to be more help

Thanks very much. A bigger pic is below, ignore the arrow, that was for another question/thread. Any idea where the earth then on the dissy would usually connect to. And any thoughts on what the unconnected black wire would be for? I just can't see/find where it may have come from. As both of these have never been connected to anything in several years then I really don't want to get it wrong and mess something up. Thanks again for help so far.

pbar wrote: ↑07 Aug 2022, 18:23

Thanks very much. A bigger pic is below, ignore the arrow, that was for another question/thread. Any idea where the earth then on the dissy would usually connect to. And any thoughts on what the unconnected black wire would be for? I just can't see/find where it may have come from. As both of these have never been connected to anything in several years then I really don't want to get it wrong and mess something up. Thanks again for help so far.

As i said, the tab on the dissy is a earth point, nothing needs to go on it .

The live you show is from the carb , it requires a ignition live , piggy backed off the other live you have there connect it to where the red arrow is

I am sure you are right on both counts.

That male spade on the distributor body is definitely an earth point, which is redundant on most vans.
This is because the distributor is clamped to the engine block using steel brackets.
(Metal to metal contact provides the link)

As for the floating wire - it looks from here like it has black heat shrink tubing on it.
If it is a sleeve, it would be good to look at the colour of the wire insulation inside.

If it has been like this for years, and the van has been running fine, then I would not worry about it.

I can see a few crimps to the left side, so someone has worked on the wiring previously.
Perhaps to replace tired old tarnished wires.

The wire you pointed to may have been replaced / bypassed to repair a historic fault.

Thanks to you both, read and noted

As regards to the earth, would the van not have had this connected when leaving the factory then, is it simply 'spare' on this model.

And the live - yes I could alter it to connect it to the other live, but I'm reluctant to do so, surely I should leave the original connector and put it back to where it came from? The mention of altered wiring is a valid point though. Originally, as this would be a switched  live then, a switched live for what, I mean, do we know what this wire would have originally done on the carb?

There are two items related to ignition live on the DG (Pierburg 2e3) carburettor.

1 - anti-dieseling / anti run-on / fuel cut-off solenoid.
2 - auto-choke (bi-metallic strip) heats up and opens the choke flap.

Edited - to avoid confusion.

Originally, as i said earlier the loom would have had one live in and two female spade and a male spare out making the correct amount of ignition circuit lives for the carb, they choke and the solenoid .
I can’t really say it many different ways

Just for info Steve, the 'wire' you arrowed is actually a hose, so I don't think I shall connect the wire to that

Thank you both for the replies/advice, very intersting these engines, love finding out more about them. I think I shall leave well alone for now, and at least my curiosity as been eased. Cheers!