The ignition switch is actually five (5) switches molded inside a
plastic piece. Some of the switches are big capacity, some small. All
can wear out or burn out. The Vanagon only uses 4 of them.

One warning for people who tap into the ignition switch wiring is there
are NO FUSES for those wires. Taping into unfused circuits should be
avoided unless you add a fuse very near the tap.

For dash add-ons I think it is often better to tap into the wires on the
back of the defroster switch. Then you are using a fused circuit and one
that if the fuse blows it has no effect on important vehicle functions.

For 86+ there are available fused power posts at G2 and G5 on the back
of the fuse panel. Both of these use the fuse otherwise meant for the
door open buzzer that many people remove anyway. Fuse #18

Mark

Florian Speier wrote:
> Thanks everybody, I learned a lot again. So I will get a new switch. No, I
> was unaware and did not expect my gauges to take any significant amount of
> power. I rather assumed that the switch itself can take some decent loads as
> rather thick cables are going through it, while the feed cables on the
> gauges are some sort of .18mm cables. I ripped the buzzer out of that
> circuit since I hated it, but of course I can reroute it through a relay or
> a different point (back to the bentley to search for a better place to steal
> power I guess)
>
> Florian
>
> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>