TheSamba.com :: View topic - What the hell is wired into my car? New Era!?

Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:30 am

I found this under the hood. I'm not quite sure what it is. It is in my 53 oval, right behind the spare and to the right of the VIN plate. The wires lead back to the fuse box and some up to the dash somewhere. What the hell is this? Obviously "New Era" is not German. Any ideas? Electrical is not really my department...

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=250736[/url]

Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:49 am

flux capacitor

Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:58 am

Looks like some sort of SPDT relay box. Follow the wires and see where they terminate. Maybe you or someone here will be able to deduce it's purpose once that is known

Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:05 am

Had a similar relay on a '60 with a direct feed to the lights from the battery.

Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:16 am

Perhaps for driving/fog light use?

Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:48 am

Its a headlight relay. I had one on my '50 when I got it. It is for people who are unable/unwilling to address the real wiring issues and try to "bandaid" it with something like this. If your wires are good, connections tight and clean, you don't need that.

Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:31 pm

Ok so I am hooking wires back up to my engine and I now have a question related to this light relay. I traced the black wire that is coming out of the top middle of the relay (other wires go back to head lights and fuse box) to the engine. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly where this wire went to so I looked at pictures I have of my engine to see where it goes. However, the conection is made on the back side of the regulator which is out of sight. I'm not sure if it goes to the black and red on the right (battery?) or to the blue to the left (generator indicator light on the speedo?) My gut tells me it is the black and red as this would hard wire it to the battery as you guys mentioned, but I want to be sure. (electrical makes me nervous :roll: ) Obviosly this is not shown on any diagram so that doesn't help.

Please help! As soon as I know, I can fire up my engine! Here is a picture of my 25hp. Thanks!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=209548

(you can see the wire running behind the coil.)

Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:42 pm

Get rid of the relay. Hook it back up like the factory wiring diag shows, ther eis no need for that relay. Just my 2 cents.

Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:50 pm

I'm going kinda far back into my past with this one. New Era manufactured early farm tractor components. They were located out of Michigan. Long way from Wolfburg.

Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:05 pm

I figured it out. Thanks for the help. The relay will disappear, but not right away.