I finished my restoration 4 years ago and have been driving regularly every summer.
This morning on my way to work I was pulling into our parking lot, downshifted to 2nd, started to accelerate and the engine went dead. I had enought speed to put in the clutch and coast to my parking spot and that is where the car sits now.
I trouble shot it at lunch time and found the fuel pump is blowing fuses. It runs at first and then kicks out as usual before I start it. As soon as I start it the engine runs for less than 2 seconds then it blows tha fuse again. I'm going to trailer it home after supper.
All in all, for a 36 year old car that's not too bad for the number of miles I have put on it.

keep us posted - ideally a replacement fuel pump is all that is needed.

jim

A couple of other things share that fuse. I know this is a slim shot in the dark, but just in case: If your heater fan happens to be turned on, turn it off and see if the fuse will hold.

http://4nets.com/baldwinpowersports/914fuses.htm

Could also be a shorted wire, so as you're browsing around be looking for any hot wires with damaged insulation.

Quite common, actually ... The lever is very close to ground and if bend just a little, it'll shorten and blow the fuse ...
Same goes for a heater blower that is dead. It can shorten out that circuit ...
Andy

I'll throw in an too.
The fuel pump is pretty bullet proof electrically. I don't think it would be the fan lever though since it is on the solenoid side and the fuse is on the contact side of the relay. Try pulling the heater blower relay and the rear window defogger relay. You may find that the car starts and doesn't blow the fuse. Drive it home and investigate those two ccts.

AAR is on the circuit as well. Make sure your AAR connection isn't grounding. That happened to me.

Are you talking about the heater blower on the engine or the one in the dash?(fresh air blower)
It was a cold morning and I had the heater lever pulled (even though I don't have the blower in the engine compartment installed) and the fresh air blower on high.(wiggled over tight to make contact on high speed)
Might be time to rebuild another heater switch?
BTW What is the other fuse for on the relay board?

They're talking the red handle by the shifter. Push that down and try it. They're not talking the dash switches.

The other fuse is the rear window defroster. If you don't have the defrost option, then it's called the Spare Fuse Holder™.

Here too! the symptoms were the same. start, run, die!

If you pull the red lever on the floor it will activate the heater blower relay. That will provide 12V to the missing blower motor. Where is the wire for the blower motor? Any chance it is finding it's way to ground? If you don't have the blower motor installed you should probably remove the relay so you don't risk energizing that wiring harness to the blower motor.

2nd fuse - don't really know about that one. Doesn't show on any diagram I have. Looking at the traces on the relay board it taps power from T14-8 (switched power for the main power relay solenoid, blower motor solenoid and ignition) and presents it on pin 9 of the 12 pin connector.

bold ass guess on the second fuse. In Haynes it disappears from the diagrams after 72. Original 6 owners - does your fuel pump get fed from pin 9 of the 12 pin connector on the relay panel?

bold but WRONG

The second fuse on the relay board does *not* go to the rear window defroster!

The rear window defroster relay (#52 on the diagram) gets it's power from the same 25A fuse as the Gasoline Pump Relay (#75) and the Heater Blower Relay (55) ...


The second fuse gets power from fuse 8 on the front fuse block, coming to the relay board via a black (!) wire to Pin 8 on the connector. From there it goes straight to Pin 9 on the rear connector without ever connecting to anything else.
Curiously, Pin 9 on the rear connector as no description in any of the diagrams, which leads me to believe it might have been used on Sport-o-matic equipped cars ...
The second unused Pin on the rear connector (Pin 10) also comes straight from the front connector (Pin 11). The wire is brown/white and is listed in the manual as going to "#86 Sportomatic (optional)" ...

I assume that Pin 9 was fused power for something Sportomatic related while Pin 10 was ground.
Andy

Agree with your analysis ('cept I think you meant fuse 9 ).

So what could be associated with the sportmatic that would be powered all the time?

When I removed the blower fan in the engine compartment (4 years ago) I taped up the wires and left them in there on top of the engine. After 4 years the electrical tape unraveled and the hot wire fused itself to my air cleaner when I hit that bump going into work.
If it wasn't for the posts on this site I would have removed and replaced my fuel pump then who knows what else.
This is just a small testament to the value of this site and the great group of enthusiasts we enjoy here. A possible 4 hours of work, fuel pump ( a trailer ride home) and a lot of frustration was limited to a trailer ride home, 5 fuses and 5 minutes work.
Thanks guys.

Nice call Rand.

Awesome! You're back on the road. I like using heat shrink tubing to protect unused wire connectors. Just cut a piece that's a little too long and shrink it over the end. I find that electrical tape has no good long term applications, as you found out, so I rarely use it.

Good question ...

I don't know anything about the sportomatic, except i had it in my first beetle ('72 1302) and it was a blast to drive ...
Andy

PS: Maybe Gustl can help here as he has a Sporto /6 ...

well, there is a micro switch for gear selection, and it may be powered via that pinout.

I suspect that it may have been a future lead for possibly the fog light or trunk light or some other costly item that was deleted to save on build costs....lol

I am shocked that they did not delete the wire...copper is not cheap.

Rich

Right on. Gotta love this place. Tipping one back to my fellow 914worlders.