First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who helped solve the mysterious black wire problem on my '68 122. Now I have some questions regarding relays & flashers. I read somewhere that the headlight relay is attached to the emergency flasher switch behind the dash. What I thought was the turn-signal flasher, turns out to be the relay for the back-up lights. According to the wiring diagram in my Haynes manual, there is no relay for the horn. My car only has 2 relays mounted under the hood, near the left hood hinge area. One of them is the back-up light relay, and I'm not sure what the other one is. It's rectangular, with a mounting bracket attached. It has a red, and a blue wire going to the top row on the fuse block. The blue on one side & the red on the other. It also has a green wire which is grounded by the mounting screw. The car has no added electrical equipment, (no overdrive, or fog lights, not even a radio). Although at some time it had A/C but has been removed. The car also still has a generator. After watching several 122 videos on Youtube it seems like every car is different regarding the relays. At this point I'm afraid to hook up the battery, until I'm sure everything is right. Will my back-up lights blink on & off since they use a flasher as a relay?

If you are uncertain about the wiring on your car, I have a suggestion. Rather than hook up the vehicle battery, purchase one of those small 12 volt lantern batteries and use a couple of alligator clips to connect it to the vehicle battery cables. The lantern battery is capable of generating enough current to allow you to functionally test the operation of all the electrical devices in the car (except the starter); but, it won't generate enough current to create serious damage if there is a short circuit or incorrect wiring some place.

I did a bare shell restoration on my 142 and after I put the wiring back in, I used the 14.4 v battery from my cordless drill to functionally test the electrical system on the car. In my case most of the electrical problems were created by bad chassis grounds caused by a fresh coat of paint.

As to your mystery relay. Do you by any chance have the headlight hi beam flasher function on the turn signal switch? Retrofitting the headlight flasher relay from the 140 series to the Amazon is a not uncommon modification. The headlight flasher relay is rectangular (as opposed to square); but, has more than three terminals, 6 as I recall. If your relay only has 3 wires / terminals then it is not a flasher relay retrofit. Sometimes owners will retrofit a relay to switch the headlights. Otherwise, perhaps as Planetman suggests.

The small, approx. 1 1/2" x 1" rectangular relay is for the high beam flash when you pull back on the indicator lever. It gives out a useful clunk as it snaps in and out. The later multi terminal relay 2 1/4" x 1 1/4" relayused in the 140 and 240 isn't normally used on the 120 but can be adapted for some uses, if needed. For whatever reason USA regs wouldn't allow flashing of the headlights. but this useful ability could easily be made to work with minor changes to the wiring plus the small relay.

Hello,

The turn signal flasher relay for a 1968 is mounted on the back of the emergency flasher switch and the reverse light relay should be a round relay with 3 connections attached to the inner fender near the left
hood hinge.

Please post pictures of the 3rd relay, but I suspect it is the left over relay from the A/C installation.

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Eric
Hi Performance Automotive Service (formerly OVO or Old Volvos Only)
Torrance, CA 90502
hiperformanceautoservice.com or oldvolvosonly.com

I think you are right Eric, about the extra relay being left over from the A/C system. As soon as I get all the lights installed I'll hook up a battery and see what happens, ( with a fire extinguisher nearby). Thanks for everyone's input.