68 T&C Power Window Relay - Source of the problem?

[Commandough]

I've been working on debugging my electrical system in the 68 T&C and have been surprisingly happy so far. Worked through a few small switch and fuse issues, but have most of the power accessories back to working. Devinism is probably ready to ship my switches back, so that will be great. My main issue though is that the factory Power Window relay doesn't seem to be working. I am getting power through the breaker and could get it to the switches and then the motors if I taped the relay together, so basically the relay is bad. I don't know how to test that, and was unsure if the bracket had to be grounded to the car to work. I tried it screwed into the mounting position and hanging free, with and without the bracket. Never closed on it's own. So where I'm at now is I bought few cheap relays with similar plugs. No switches, so I was going to try to jumper it like the FSM shows. I never got that far because both relays I bought would begin engaging on their own about 20 seconds after plugging them in. Just clicking on and off as I watched the Tach jump each time.

So now you have an idea of what I'm doing and seeing, and after going back in the threads a year, I don't see anyone answering the question on what a person can do to replace this original relay with a modern replacement that will do the same thing, but is not $175 on ebay for NOS. Can anyone help with this?

 

[Commandough]

How to Test a Car Relay
I'll give this a try to verify the relay is smoked. Seems pretty straightforward. Any advice on replacement?

 

[Big_John]

Well, you can't just plug in just any relay...

To test it, you have 3 connections. One connection has a red wire that is "hot" all the time. Another (I don't have the wire color) comes from the accessory feed and that will be on when the ignition or accessory key switch is on. The third is the feed wire to the windows and that should be tan. Ground is from the case.

So, figuring out which terminal goes to what wire is the first thing. (BTW, this is testing out of the car). Hook a ground to the case and 12 volt power to the terminals that had the red wire and the other accessory feed (again, I don't know the color). Once you do that, the connection that had the tan wire should show 12 volts.

That "test a relay" page looks really good for other relays, and I'll admit to not studying it, but you're going to have to figure out which connection is which anyway, so my procedure will probably save some confusion.

If the relay tests bad, I can help you wire another.... But I'll tell you that it won't be one of those relays you have now. Test it first...

 

[Commandough]

Yes, that is step one. I'll bench test it and make sure I'm not just testing it incorrectly. I went ahead and bought a few relays cheap to hope I got lucky. Did not. I'll come back once I get my answer from the test.

 

[Commandough]

Relay is junk. Jumpered from the battery through the feed terminal to the windows, grounded, and have no continuity across the other two terminals. Tested other two i bought and they check good. Who sells a proper and modern replacement for this relay?

 

[Commandough]

Update. Since I have not seen it posted anywhere, if your factory power window relay quits like mine did, NAPA has a replacement that works great. AR200 manufactured by Ehrlich. Had Devinism rebuild the switches and the windows in the T&C are moving again.

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Update. Since I have not seen it posted anywhere, if your factory power window relay quits like mine did, NAPA has a replacement that works great. AR200 manufactured by Ehrlich. Had Devinism rebuild the switches and the windows in the T&C are moving again.

Currently in the process of a "budget" resto for a 68 NY'er. Completely rebuilding the power windows, so this is awesome to know!