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I know about the TorsionLevel brake light conversion that uses a standard two-pin hydraulic switch and relay and I know about the mechanical conversion that works with an under-dash switch that the pedal arm actuates but what I want to now is does anyone make the simple adapter that would be used with the three-pin VW switch to retain the original wiring? I know what the connections are too but looking for the adapter itself, not how to make one.

I have not seen or heard of anything like that being made unless one of the regions might have done something years ago before reported problems with the VW switch became an issue and switch was used less often. Have you ever seen one and for grins, have you or anyone compared the pinout of the VW switch to an original?

Having said that, while you don't want to make an adapter it would be simple to do and may be the best option if something was made years ago but is now NLA. A bare plug for the VW switch is available at Jbugs and probably other VW suppliers. No idea if the plug comes with terminals or if they would need to be bought separately.

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Thank you, Howard. Yes, I know it’s simple but when I have such limited time available when I go to my shop, stopping to make things just gets in the way of any progress. No worries, though, as I am only thinking ahead for when I get back to work on this car.

As for having seen one, I did see them advertised somewhere years ago which why I posted my question and you’re right, it may have been a regional project. These VW switches are cheap, easy to find (for now) and easy to install so I don’t mind some amount of failure. Of course, failure would also depend on the quality of the switch used.

The adapter simply had the three wires in the appropriate colors from the 3-pin plug that you showed with each terminating in a .156 round female bullet connector. An ideal adapter would skip the wires and have a way to plug the three wires directly into the plug but that would take some custom design and fabrication.

Other than acquiring more NOS parts and a little work here and there, I’ve not done much on this car recently. Today, however, I decided to get busy and remove the seat upholstery that SMS says they need for some reason.

In the process, I discovered that the rear frames are not usable as they are with the cushion having much rust around the lower front and side piece and the backrest having a broken rod. To fix these, is it better to get complete replacement cushions or is it possible to just replace the bad pieces?

Seat cushion lower rail



Backrest rod with broken rod



Should have a loop at the end



Also, the backrest had these springs in the lowermost corners. Is it one spring rusted apart or two and how do they fasten?

Also today I decided to try raising the rear TL as the back bumper is nearly dragging on the ground but unfortunately it appears that the crank has overrun the limits somehow. One day it was working, then it wasn’t! If nothing is damaged and once the lift is free to get it up to where I can see it better, I’ll try to sort if out.

I’m under the car today for another task and while it’s high up on stands for the afternoon I thought I would also check into the TL issue. Does the crank look out of place? I don’t want to try to power-reverse it until I’m sure. Maybe hard to tell in this photo but the parking brake cable goes to the rear toward the bottom of the photo and is currently touching the crank. I would look back at earlier comments but no WiFi and my cellular is virtually nonexistent so I hope this even posts!

Parking brake cable does come fairly close but should not touch. The important thing to look for is where the transverse bars are positioned because they can reverse if something goes amiss in the electrical. If that happens and compensator manages to escape damage TL works backwards as far as raising and lowering.

Here is a birds eye or top down view of the compensator and transverse bars. Note the sort of "V" shape cast into the connecting lever at bottom of compensator. The V should point to the passenger side which would place the short drivers side bar at the front of compensator and long passenger side bar at the rear.

Thank you, Howard! Mine is to the rear so definitely reversed. I’ll have to very carefully jumper the motor in the proper direction to try to reverse it.

A failure in the control switch or short in the wiring to the solenoid or a sticking solenoid could cause it to reverse but more than once the reason has been because of some home made manual switch setup that bypassed the limit switches.

No manual switch here. I have a factory NOS one for it but it's not installed. I’ll try jumpering tomorrow once I find/borrow some cables. I don’t know if the motor has the power to switch it back and not sure if having the wheels hanging as they are will help or make it more difficult.

In the meantime, I recently got a replacement brake access hole cover from Gerry after I noticed it was missing. However, today my main task was to remove the front seat and while doing so I saw that the plate was still there, or at least partially there but with a hole through it the size of the one in the floor. Wanting to remove one of the screws as a sample and trying to get a big screw driver into the slot, there were unexpected consequences! The lower hole is where the screw was.

Replacement plate



Rust in the floor took out a large hole when I tried to remove the screw



I did get the seat out, though, but sustained an injury (nothing serious) so had to come back to the house but it was about time to do so anyway.