Alfa Romeo Spider Headlight Relays

I wrote this article in 1998, about work I did myself on my car, Your car and experience may differ, so proceed with caution at your own risk.

I replaced my '72 Spider headlight switch on the steer

column way back in '91 for $122 (part price alone). Finally getting a

weekend to catch up on maintenance items, and seeing a thread awhile back

on relays for headlights, I added them to the electrical system with great success for

approx. $12 in total parts (relays, L bracket from hardware store, wires,

screws).

I followed an article called "Lighten the Load on your Alfa's Column

Switch" by Rich Hirsch, which I found on an Alfa site (very sorry, but I

can't remember which one). It had been reprinted on the Alfa site I found

from i Saluti, October 1995 (Its referenced at the top of the article.

In the article, Rich suggests using Hella relays (#87106).

Our local suppliers all stock Bosch, so I used two relays

with part number 0 332 019 150. These are stocked locally by the pallet

for people to wire up fog and driving lights. These relays differ from the

Hella's in that they have an 87 pole, and also an 87a pole (which I didn't

wire anything to - its the inside 87). Aside from that slight difference,

the relay seems to agree to the Hella catalog specs in every way (for the

Hella relay noted above), and they appear to be readily available.

The "two-in-one" Hella relay that Rich makes reference to in his article

appears to be part #87121 (the only two in one in the entire Hella catalog)

but they are 20 amp per side instead of the above Hella and Bosch 30 amp

per relay .

The relays fit nicely right above the fuse block, and was very quick and

easy to wire in. I have the Hella headlights, which work great.