On my 1981 Westy, that dimmer rheostat failed while I was driving.
Smoke came out of the dash. A wire on the 58b dash light circuit had
shorted to ground (dash metal). AFAIK, 1980 - 1984 Vanagons do not
have a fuse on that 58b dash light circuit. From 1985 and on, it is
fused.

I took apart the headlight switch and for "fun", soldered in a piece
of solid #14 bare wire to bypass that rheostat. The dash lights are
always "bright" but they're not that bright so thats ok for me. I also
wired in a fuse to that 58b dash light circuit.

Link to image of my switch taken apart, showing the "ball" Ken wrote of:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1673667.jpg

And here's more of the switch repair:

https://tinyurl.com/y7hz838e

On 8/28/18, David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net> wrote:
>>
>> on, then yes you can repair that.  If it is a problem with the dimming
>> part
>> of the switch that controls the interior and instrument lights, as far as
>> I
>> know, there is no way to easily repair that.
>>
>

--
Neil n

Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>

1988 Westy Images <https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/New1988Westy>

1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>

Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>