Headlight Dipper Relay

[Gomez]

I have a 1964-5 Squareback 1500 N it has been converted to 12volt all exept the Dipper Relay,
I need help finding the replacement part in 12volt
Do the newer ones fit
On the botton of mine i have these numbers next to Female spade connectors
J,30,F,S,56,56a
Can any one help
Thanks
Gary

[glutamodo]

I'm not a type 3 expert, so maybe Everett or someone more in the know than me can answer better, but I do like figuring out wiring challenges so I looked this one up. If you didn't know, by the way, there are a bunch of factory wiring diagrams available here on theSamba:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/wiringt3.php

And from them I did some cutting and pasting so I could figure this out all on one page. From these following diagrams it appears what you have is a relay from a 1500S not a 1500N. But I think there's a lot of variation on what cars had what back in the mid 60s. I'm assuming you had wires hooked up to all of these connections on your car.

(if this is hard to read, click on the picture and it will enlarge)

What this looks like is a dual function relay. With this setup, on the 1500S diagram that matches the relay in question, the main headlight current is supplied via the relay instead of the headlight switch. All the headlight switch does is to "enable" the relay to allow the headlights to come on.

And I'm also not sure why there is that extra 30 terminal on both of the 64-65 diagrams. Do these cars have a passing light "flash" ability when you pull back on the highbeam switch when the headlights are off?

Starting in 1967, the cars were 12V in the US, and at that point they went to using the relay depicted in the bottom diagram. If you cannot find a 12V counterpart of your current relay, YES, you can instead make that common late style relay work. (now, if, in fact these early relays allowed for the momentary passing "flash" light function, you will not be able to retain that without doing quite a bit of extra wiring.) But if you want to just have the electrical high/low function, the later relay will work OK - To do so, you'd have two choices:

1. Add a second general purpose, or horn relay to take over the enabling function that is lacking in the later relays.

2. Make it so that your headlight current passed through your headlight switch just as other models did. The potential problem is that the dash switch may not be designed to handle the current of the headlights - although 12V lights do draw less current than the 6V ones did, but how much less depends on how high wattage bulbs you put in there.

So option #1 may be the best bet. you'd have to make a couple of extra wires to make it work. I'd go and buy one of these horn relays:

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VWC%2D431%2D951%2D253%2DH

and one of these headlight relays, or find a used one on the classified ads here or from a junkyard:

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VWC%2D111%2D941%2D583

Wiring: You would need to connect your existing "30" wire to that same number on horn relay. It looks like the large red 30 wire may have a smaller red wire built into it that jumpers over from "J" to "30" - this extra connection you can just disconnect and wrap it up with good electrical tape. Then you'd need to make a heavy gauge jumper wire from horn relay terminal "87" to the "56" terminal on the new H/L relay. Connect the horn relay terminal "85" to a ground (you'll have to make this wire yourself and find a good ground point to connect it to) . And the white/black stripe wire that came off of the old relay terminal J would go to the terminal "86" on the new horn relay. You'd swap "56a" and "S" directly from the old H/L relay to the new one. If buy a new one or find a newer H/L relay in a junkyard, it will probably have the terminal "F" labeled instead as "56b", and that's where you would connect that wire to.

Hopefully this helps.

( Now, after I went and typed all of that, someone will probably tell you how to find a direct replacement relay... )

-Andy

[Gomez]

Thanks for your help i think that just about covers it
I should of just come here first
Gary