electrical gurus - how does the f'ing turn signal "loop", rewiring and using an aftermarket GM-style fuse panel that fuses " Options

[byndbad914]

So, freakin' German cars. Really, I have little to say for "German Engineering". So, I am rewiring the car from scratch (more or less - using old harness as a guide) and upgrading to the "correct" way to fuse a circuit with a Painless Fuse block. Anyway, it is easy to just run new wires to the item being switched on and fuse the hot wire to the switch = say headlights for instance... I fuse the hot in, then "splice" the wires that were at the original fuse panel (not splicing, running all new wire, but that helps paint the picture hopefully).

Then I get to the hazard light switch. There is about 15 wires off of that one switch! I can figure out the stuff for the most part - EXCEPT FOR HOW THEY ARE RELAYING THE FLASHER. I can't tell if they are intermittently breaking power (12V switched) or intermittently breaking the ground. And the design seems to have this crazy kind of 12V looping going on (tho' won't go into that). Anyway, I need to easily pull that relay outta the system (as the new fuse panel has the 12V signal intermittent relayed) but am worried about how the grounding works.

So, that paints the picture (hopefully), here is a straight-forward series of questions:

1. There is a black with green stripe and white swirl wire that is split - one goes from the switch to the steering column and the other from the switch to that freakin' relay. Does this carry 12V constant?? (I am assuming it is constant 12V to make the turn signals work by passing 12V from that wire to either the blk/wht or blk/green return to flash the lights.)

a. If the wire inquestion is in fact 12V hot thru the switch, then I can figure the rest out from there. If not, if it somehow gets an intermittent 12V supplied from that funky relay, please let me know and I can work with that too.


If it doesn't match anything above, then I will probably just take a hammer to the switch altogether, swear in the few German words I know, and just wire in my own switch. But I really want to keep the stock looking switch on the dash.

Worst case I pull out the DMM tonight and swear under my breath while I figure that switch out, but any help is very appreciated. I have spent HOURS yesterday and was up 'til 3AM (no shit!!) reading thru the wire diagrams trying to figure out that relay and overall loop. And I can wire a car no problem... so this is just un-freakin-buleavabul.

[byndbad914]

Further explanation of my confusion:

I think that 12V gets supplied thru the switch to the blk/grn/wht swirl wire to provide a path for 12V to excite the lights with the turn signal handle on the column and also power the relay. BUT, this is where I get all messed up - what really screws me up in that it MIGHT be that the relay supplies an intermittent power through that terminal - in other words, the switch doesn't supply voltage to the wire (and hence the relay), the relay supplies voltage to the switch! I am really typing all this out to think it through a little more haha.

The wires that go through the steering column never seem to intersect that relay again, only with that one wire. So in order for the turn signal handle to work, it is implied that the 12V comes intermittently from the RELAY, not 12V constant from the SWITCH. If so, then I need to provide power to that wire with my fuse block.

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