Hi:

Well I finally resolved my no spark issue but in the meantime noticed this empty - but used looking - spade lug on the top of the fan housing.

Any info on what used to go there would be appreciated. '73 1.7L

Thanks,

Ron

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Only thing that comes to mind is for a ground for the 70-72 heater blower motor that mounted on engine, but your car is a 73. Other than that I have no clue. Maybe Jeff Blowsby will chime in, he makes the harnesses.

We have an engine harness (from a 1975 model) with a brown wire (ground) that terminates in this area. The other end connects to the relay board through the 12 pin connector.

Thats my take on it too. 70-72 engine transplant into a 1973 car? Its the ground lug for the heat fan mwhich comes off the ignition harness.

Not the correct ignition harness for a 1975 car, which has no ground here.

Thanks everyone - great info!

So the plot thickens. Looks like I'm going to need to investigate to find out what this car has in it. It was built October of 72 as far as I can tell from the chassis # (door jamb sticker is missing.)

So if I understand correctly, the 73s had the heater fan grounded elsewhere? My fan is over in the driver's side corner with two wires going into the harness under the relay board.

Thanks again,

Ron

Sounds right for a 73-76

If you plug that into the battery ground it will make your spark hotter .

Thanks!

have that spade lug on mine. 74 1.8

its never had anything connected to it for 31 years i've owned it.

however believe its to with how the coil is/may/could be wired in?
or there is a wire running to it i no longer have connected or was never there.
i've noticed it wired up in some other 1.8 engine bay images i was referencing for verifying vac lines.

i will see if i can find those engine bay pics i had which show it.
curious too.

here is some 1.8s with that lug being used and wired.
including a very original low miler 74 dr914 owns.
and image from fac manual.

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and here is mine.
lug not being used.
its still an original coil and reasonably original car.

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and here is one matches mine, coil etc wired up same, lug not being used.
looks fairly original as well.

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search me.
could have been a standard dealer delete and rewire on my car and this one (as its an engine ground to coil looks like in most of the images showing the lug being used?)

I was thinking D-Jet cars in my comments above, but the 1.8L cars also have a ground wire in the ignition harness that could attach there.

you are on it mr, b with the L jets.
the ignition harness wire on mine goes straight to the coil, but on one of those images of alternatives it goes to that ground lug on the engine and then another wire goes to the coil. but then there is another one, which seems to have the same ground (Brown wire) snaking back along the ignition harness wire and is doing something different.

i might take my car out with these photos and get an opinion from my mech about it.
mine runs fine, but there is something going on there with that lug for L jets.

electricity is my weakness and i had not thought about any of this until i saw this post...
now i am wondering.

but maybe these lugs are on 1.8s which might throw some light on enquiry about what engine is in the "1.7"?

For 914s, the single lug appears to be correct for the 1970-72 1.7L, and the 1974-75 1.8L. Its a convenient ground point. Bet its also found on other VW based similar engines of the era.

hmm.........might be on L jet 412s in 74?

what did they connect up to it on the 70-72s?

Since your car was built in October 1972, the engine was probably assembled with fan housings used from the 71 model run.

I would bet one of three things: what is in the parts bin today Stosh?, remember VW was constantly making changes to every part of the cars or a prior owner/mechanic has changed the harness. Any of the above can be rectified by adding a grounding lug and connecting the brown wire or disregard the lug if there is no brown wire.

It is for the heater fan ground

here is a 72 with the tab lug.
nothing wired to it. blower on this one must be earthed elsewhere.
found it in this old ad, interesting car, one owner - interesting owner too.
http://www.canosoarus.com/DougsPorsche/Porsche01.htm


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lug is there on 71 411 variant with a brown earth wire connected.
looks like wire goes under coil and to blower fan which is jammed off to the left (looking at engine from rear in 411, opposite side to where its mounted on 914).

there on a 73 412 fastback which has its heater blower directly over the top of the centre of the fan shroud with a brown earth connection to the blower fan.

so as mr. b says for early 914s, same goes for the vws - its definitely being used for the blower fan in those earlier 411s and some 412s, 73 fastbacks at least.

it also there on the 76 912E. same lug with seemingly no connection to it.
might mean its there on 76 914s which are all 2.0s?



as an aside resulting from this -
i think i just realised why the blower fan gets the aberrant single hose in the 74 1.8s.
i'm slow but my cover up excuse is we don't have 411s/412s in aus.
74 412s, one year only of L jet, look like they don't have enough room under the different L jet air cleaner to get the second hose to the heat exchangers (at least in the variants - and it probably did not matter because they all came to the USA equipped with that crazy petrol heater i believe?). they just have one hose like 74 914s biased to drivers side. vw must have rationalised and used the one blower for all the 412s and 914s for 74? 412s ceased production in 74, so for 75 they must have felt it was all a bit compromised and put the two hose adaptor on what had been the single hose motor.
i could never get that reasoning for the single hose in 74, seemed so strange. i mean it works fine but it is biased, and in my case being RHD, its no longer biased for the driver,

also stumbled on a description of how VW set up to do the 914 engines. at ht. of production they scheduled one day a week in the type 4 engine plant (hanover?) for 914 engines. 1.7/1.8s and 2.0s. this may have come about after the 2.0 4 came in.

Thanks everyone - this has turned into quite an interesting topic. Amazing knowledge base on the forum!

I'm going to check the engine # this weekend and see what I can learn about my power unit.

Now I'm curious about the coil location - mine is clamped above cylinder #4 with a very OE looking U-bracket, while most of the photos here show it strapped to the front of the fan cover. My fan cover also has the cast "coil saddle" in that area but it's empty.

I'll report back once I learn more.

Thanks again,

Ron

I've never seen a factory 914 coil any other place.

In 1982 mine was bone stock. When I rebuilt the engine I put the coil back where it was.


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i think its only strapped to the fan casting on 74/75 1.8s - which are all the images i posted are. this was the standard position for the type 4 motors in the VW applications on the 411s. 412s. i think it was in the way of the second heater blower hose in most 914s so they had the coil on the engine tin.

i wouldn't worry, your coil would be correct. coil location in standard VW spot is a non issue for 1.8s with the single heater blower hose.

i think the coil might stay cooler when its on the engine tin because after you shut down a 914, all the heat in the engine conducts to the magnesium fan casting which gets very hot if you ever done the touch test after about 5-10 minutes of shut down. cooking the coil? i mean mine is still alive, but i think it gets a lot hotter than it would sitting on the engine tin after shut down.