Where are the relays How can I check them?

[cincifiat]

I'm not an electronics guy so I need some help. I keep reading these posts hearing that things could not be working because of the relays. Does someone have a car diagram to show the location of the relys on the car? I looked at the wiring diagrams and I can see how they are hooked up but I really don't know what to look for and where to look.

In addition how can I check to see if they are bad.

I have no horn. I hooked the horn up to the battery and it worked but no sure how to check the button on the steering wheel or the relays (where ever they are)

I also don't have wipers. That is not a major problem since I only drive when it is good weather. But coudl that be a relay and can I bypass that like the horn to see if the motor is good? Also to get to the wiper motor can I just unbolt the cowl and pull it out from under the windshield without damaging anything?

Need any help you can provide.

Ray

[maytag]

Lots of stuff there Ray.... let's see if we can help.

On my car, the relays are mounted on the left-side inner fenderwell. More or less straight across from the carb. They are a bank of little "cubes" (my car has 6) mounted closely together.

A relay can be thought of as a remote-operated switch. You're using a minimal control-voltage to switch heavier loads. Nearly ALL relays (particularly of this vintage) will "click" or "thunk" audibly when they actuate.

I am not looking at a wiring diagram, nor am I anywhere near my car, so I can't honestly confirm that there is a horn-relay mounted there, though it would stand to reason. Have you traced the wires back through from the horns?

The wipers have a relay that will have several contacts, (or maybe several relays?) as it has different speeds it controls. Again, I'm not looking at it, but I think the wiper relay is (or are?) located under the dash, way up behind the instrument cluster. somebody correct me.

Yes, you can pull the cowl out from under the windshield to get to the wiper motor. When you replace it, be careful with the gasketing. Tnhese cars have a frequent issue with the wiper motors, which is why they are becoming less easy to find used, and more expensive new. a previous owner replaced mine with one from a VW Scirrocco. ??

[manoa matt]

The relay location depends on the year of the car. Early cars had them in the engine bay on the drivers side inner fender. Later cars had them on a metal panel mounted below the glove box.

If you don't already have one, you need a wiring diagram. Check the Spidercenter.com website in the "hot downloads" section for the originals, or google "Brad Artigue" and you'll find some good ones he drew up in CAD.

The wiring diagrams will give the locations of the relays on the car, what wires attach to them, and what device they control.

[DUCeditor]

I'll go out on a limb here and possibly get skewered... But when the horn relay failed on my `77 (and I learned about this when I was pre-checking my car before a state inspection and found the horn was not working - I took another one from the group of six that looked the same and moved it to the horn relay position. (I believe that one initially controlled the cooling fan)

Later I looked for a replacement relay at a favorite catalog Fiat parts emporium and was stunned by the asking price. The answer was to buy an entire air horn package from the same source. It came with a relay and was less expensive than the relay was by itself.

Was there a risk in moving them about as I did? Possibly, if a high current had been sent to a circuit designed only for a lower load it could have done damage to the wiring. But in this case nothing untoward happened, I passed the inspection, a then kept that relay in the horn position for a week or so until the replacement arrived.

Many years ago when a friend from the Ozarks was helping me resolve a difficult problem on an old ford truck he shared with me a secret: "I'm just too stupid to know I can't."

Yup. And ever since that day, when faced with a difficulty such as this, I've tended to respond "Me too!"

-don

PS - Hey Maytag, is that a Duc you're riding in your avatar pic?

[maytag]

PS - Hey Maytag, is that a Duc you're riding in your avatar pic?

Nope. The bike in the pic is none other than Miguel Duhamel's Formula Extreme Honda from '05, which he also rode in the Daytona 200 in '06. I got to ride it (under Miguel's helfpul care) just 2 weeks after the Daytona, as they were changing to their '06 bikes after that race. What an AMAZING bike. The forks alone were worth 5% in lap times over my own club-level R1 Superbike. Fantastic machine.
But I spent most of my racing days on various Ducatis. Lots of pics of beautiful parts.... if that's the sort of "porn" you enjoy, like me.

So as not to hijack this thread:
I've found that most relays can be crossed to something, all you need is a knowleadgeable parts guy with a fefw minutes on his hands. They'll stroll the back row and come out with SOMETHING that'll fit. And if not, then cut the wires and install a new socket and modern / cheap relay.