The headlamp relay on my 70 failed a few years ago after about 12 years
of ownership. I walked in the garage and -- "What!" -- the headlight
doors were open.
That kicked off a very frustrating experience. The factory SM wiring
diagrams are a rat's nest of wires and it was tough to figure out just
what made the system work. I traced the wires, though, and redrew the
schematic to make some sense of the circuit.
Equipped with a better understanding of the components and their
functions, I set about locating each one for testing purposes. Well
that relay is a real bugger to find! I spent quite a bit of time
searching through the SM without success so I went to the car. I spent
a bit of time there with my feet up in the air and my head under the
dash.
Eventually I found the relay. It's at the bottom LH side of the dash.
It's above the parking brake mechanism, not mounted to it. It has a
funky shaped bracket and is held to the lower "U" channel of the dash by
a Phillips screw IIRC. I think I disconnected the battery, the dropped
steering column trim plate and the a/c system left outlet tube to get at
it. It has a couple of screw terminals so it's best to unfasten and
lower it before trying to "unplug" it.
I autopsied my relay to determine exactly what went wrong. It turned
out that the tiny, tiny copper wire wound up to make the relay coil had
broken.
I found a 72 Plymouth Fury in a junkyard and it had the relay I needed.
The bracket was shaped differently, though, to accommodate the different
dash design. To solve that little problem I bent back the tabs holding
the relay guts to the case/bracket and put the "new" guts in my old
bracket. Good as new and still going strong, just like the Energizer
bunny.
Pete in PA
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