The Official 356Talk Forum

New 6V relays exactly the same as the ones pictured are not manufactured anymore. You will need to look for it in the classifieds here, the Samba or ebay, it is going to be pricey. If you do not care for originality you can find new 6V relays.

Attached photo of fuse box of my car and it appears I have no flasher relay as per Hugo's post /photo above. Could it be that my car was made without this feature?

Nope. It's missing. Note the two screws that woukd hold it to the bracket.

Mike

It appears my 1963B does not have a flasher relay as shown by Hugo's prior photo. See attached photo. Does this mean my car did not come with the flasher option?

Your '63 B would have the later turn signal switch and have the flash function. In addition, your fuse cover is for an A car, not a B. The B has a black fiberboard cover that covers the fuse block and relays and is held in place by a black rubber strap.

Mike

I do not know if your fuse box is different and if your 63 car should have the relay. I hope somebody more experienced can help.

Jim,
No, your car was not produced without the relay, it was standard on all 356s. Under no circumstances would any 356 have left the factory without the relay installed. Judging from the photo it is obvious amateur work was performed at some point, since there are non-standard electrical connectors in view.
A previous owner simply decided he knew more about wiring the car than the engineers at Porsche, so eliminated the relay and did some 'creative' re-routing of the wires. Not the first time I've seen interesting 'improvements' with the wiring of 356s...very common on cars that were worked on during the 1970s by former hippies who had LSD residue circulating in their systems. I've even seen shortcuts like this on cars worked on by regular mechanics who should not be proud of their work.
By all means, find an original relay or use the Joe Leoni relays and you will be very happy.

Thanks for clarifying this issue, Geoff. Perhaps someone can post a picture of what Jim's fuse block should look like.
Jim: do you have a wiring diagram for your car and/or a copy of Joe Leoni's book? Both are invaluable for making sure your wiring is correct and diagnosing electrical problems. The wiring diagram is available from one of our members, Greg Bryan, and I believe Joe's book is available through Bill Block. Check our "vendors" section under "Resources".

Mike

Thanks for all the replies and information. Geoff's comments are probably pretty accurate, except for the LSD part. Going back through my historical notes and memory, I seem to recall having some work done regarding the fuse box in 1986 when the motor was rebuilt together with a 12 volt conversion. At any rate the car has never presented any electrical issues, except for the nonworking headlight flasher feature mentioned in my first post. I can live without that feature so I will probably just leave it alone for now. You know, sleeping dogs and all that. Thanks again.

Geoff, Mike, since he hasn't burned out the switch by now it might be that the 1986 12 v. conversion involved locating headlight relay(s) elsewhere in the car, probably closer to the headlights. May be the "electrician" couldn't figure out how to connect the flasher switch to the new relay(s) (You can see the original rubber B fuse block cover band in the picture, still hanging there after all these years!)

Good point, Harlan. Who know what a previous owner or mechanic did. But, if the relay was located somewhere else, like under the dash, shouldn't there still be the abi,ity to flash the lights? Sounds like Jim needs a competent person to go through the electrical system as who knows what else might be wrong. Those electrical connections at the fuse block are funky.

Mike

I keep seeing reference to a "flasher relay". I think there was a second "flasher relay" on some early cars but I don't think so on the T6. The gray relay that is missing is the relay that switches back and forth between high beams and low beams. It is just the headlight relay. It's purpose is to keep the high current draw of the headlights from having to flow through the contacts on the headlight switch and the high beam switch on the turn signal. Maybe the folks doing the conversion figured that with the lower current draw of the 12V headlights, the relay was no longer needed. In any case, if the switch on the turn signal makes contact when pulled, it should still work.

Jim,

By "flash" do you mean off-on-off? Or, low-High-low?

Flash as in flash the high beams when passing or acknowledging fellow 356 drivers.

Mike

I got the purpose. Off to on? or low (light switch already pulled out) to high?