Friday 1 March 2019

6v Starter Solenoid Relay for the 1500 'S'

I was pondering the 'issues' the notchback had when I used to drive it and one of the annoying things (and common to a lot of 6v VW's) was that if the battery wasn't quite up to charge or it was cold etc, the car was a nightmare to start or sometimes I had to resort to push starting it. Not a good look.

As I have installed an engine with 8.5:1 compression as well as the highest output 6v VW starter into the car (extra 0.1hp), I figured I might as well install a relay to provide as much possibility to the car that it would actually start!

I removed the relay shown below from the notchback when I dismantled it and had it put aside for this very situation. I think it was used for the horn or something last time (can't remember) and this being a West German 6v 30A relay, well, it seems like the right thing to use on the car being somewhat of the right era and of the right power carrying capability.


Made in W. Germany. This is good.


Here it is with the wiring pigtails I made up just now. One wire for earth, one wire for power (with in line fuse - currently 25A), one wire for the solenoid and the empty terminal is where the original red wire to the solenoid from the ignition switch gets connected, thus no modifications are made to the car or the original wiring. Neat and simple.


Same view but different.


I crimped all connections as indeed I do for all my wiring projects and then installed heat shrink just because I could.
The relay is now tied to the solenoid with a single cable tie very tightly which is OK for now but I will replace that single tie with two once it's up in the air on a hoist. My back was killing me and I crawled out from under the car looking for a beer...

Easily removed, secure and should provide some assistance with starting the car.
Fingers crossed on this modification.

Next up is to better align the drivers side rear fender as I am not happy with the way it is sitting. This is not something I am looking forward to. All other panels are now very good and this one panel is giving me grief.

Isotropic rem polishing