Well this is turning out ot be fun I broke the switch driving the dijon bomb back from vegas, (left my hand resting on it as I made the turn Doh!) and thought no biggie i'll put in a new switch or fix it when I get back.

First attempt was at a fix, which I failed big time... It was not completely broken, just but only right blinker worked. Dug into the colum and found bits of broken plastic... took it semi apart in the colum and Boing!!! out poped the spring, ball, and various little metal tabs ect. At that point I called it a night and decided it would be easier to just replace the whole thing.

fast forward to last night, removal of current switch. I learned through searching, that the early cars do not have a disconnect and that they are hard? wired right into the harness, under the dash as it exits the colum. Since I wanted the switch out either way, I made a small diagiam of the wiring, and removed each wire from the switch itself.

went to my favorite parts place today (thank you very much carquip) and they had a NOS switch for a early car, (single stalk, blinker, and high low beam) but it does have the white quick connection like the later cars.

So I guess my option now is to cut off the quick connection on the new part and re soder each wire to what I have in my colum, is this a acceptable fix?

Ferg

or add the white plastic connector for future ease.....

Thanks, good idea. I'll look into that, dunno if it's possible . All the old threads I found say to cut and splice. It may not be easy to find the other matching end of the connection, and I'm not positive it will fit in the early colum, but I'll look tonight.

Ferg

I did this several years ago. I went to the VW dealer because the blinker modual had a 914 partnumber but a VW emblem . We looked through a box of VW modules and found an exact fit. I think it was from a 69 bug and was a perfect fit to the 71 914, $35 :vs: $85 from porsche.

The turn signal switch on my '71 was NOT hard-wired into the harness. The connector is, however, very different from the later connector. The connector looks a lot like the two large connectors on the relay board. It's got a tongue-and-groove snap connector to hold it to the dash, to the right of the steering column, on the bottom edge of the metal part of the dash. You pretty much have to remove the lower dash pad to see it.

I'll check that out this weekend, as I remember seeing a black plastic connector attached to the metal dash when I removed the lower dash pad. If that's the connection, the replacement part has no where near long enough wires to reach that...

Ferg