We were able to determine that the turn signal switch in Dad's '70 was fried. Well that led to the question of what to do....especially when I realized that there was a 14 pin connector, not the nice and convenient plugs that the later cars have.

Obviously the late column ('75) that I had could work, but the conversion would be a nightmare and the factory in dash wiper switch wouldn't be operational. I did a search on the world here and found one thread where someone made one post that the late switch would convert...Well, that was better than trying to find a very expensive and rare early column.

A look at the two switches side by side, all of the factory wiring colors are the same (remember that this is a very early '70 on the left and a '75 switch on the right) This means warm up the soldering gun and get about 6" of heat shrink. It is just match up the wires one by one.:


Once I had removed the late switch's wire separator and soldered / heat shrinked all the wires together, I noted was that I would have to convert the later horn style to the earlier ring style. So at this point please note that you will need to keep the earlier horn wire in place and drill out the later horn wire and contact plate. You will also have to remove the plastic separator that is between the High/Low Beam selector contacts and the horn contact. There is also this piece (yellow circle) that will have to be removed. I simply ground this down flush.


Once everything slides into the column nice and smooth, I also noted that I had to clip off this little tit of plastic (yellow circle). This was accomplished by a quick clip with a pair of dikes. Then, everything can be bolted back together just like stock. You will now have a fully functioning switch at half the cost. (note the early wire strung up through the switch so it can be screwed into the horn ring.)


Here are the extras:
A: Wire separator from late switch....trash.
B: Horn wire from late switch....trash.
C: Horn contact plate from late switch....drilled out for trash.
D: Plastic separator from late switch...trash.

a VW Type 3 switch is the same as the early 914. They are available for about $40. You would still have to cut and solder though.

I agree. Great job but why did you not just purchase the early direct fit switch that is readily available?

Why would I buy one Doc, when I have a couple one sitting in my garage for free?

I also did not know that the early ones were available so readily. I liked the challenge though. This way someone may be able to fix their car for (nearly) free if they have the right part laying around.

I would like to make note that this late switch works great! Dad now has all lights lighting and flashing like they were initially intended to!


One question though (didn't figure this one out) did the early cars have a different headlight sequence? These headlights pop up even when you only turn on the parking lights.

Early cars had the headlights pop up with the parking lights. You can rewire it to keep them down.

Thanks Brad! I thought I had read that somewhere, but was not sure.

Sleepin' what did the brown/blue stripe wire hook up to?

I'm in the middle of this now- but there's nowhere for it to go?

Thanks-

Jona, the brown with blue stripe is a turn signal wire had a match on the early harness. Like I said, all my wires had a match except the brown horn wire, which I threw in the trash.

If you do not have a matching color on the harness, you can see where it goes in this pic, I have circled them in green for you. Worst case scenario...match up all the others, and the one left over will have to connect to it.

I hope this helps...

Gracias Amigo- This Re-located Coloradoan will try it in the morning!

That makes sense too- my left turn signal worked great- the right didn't come on at all.... duh....

Then George pops up with a nice NOS column for sale:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-914...=item35a84c7a44

Pretty nice piece: