Sunroof & Fan does not work

You can slide the white clip out, probably easiest, or just lift up on the relay if there is room. Or even check for power leaving the relay with ignition on. The wires are red.
 
Both relays are good; I pulled both and swapped them around. The windows worked regardless of the relay and the blower/sunroof did not. So, more progress via elimination but no definitive answer yet.

Pulling the relays straight up is definitely the way to go. Once you pointed that out, it was very quick to swap them around.

Alan
 
On a 74 relays include a lo beam relay so this is the correct pic. Load shed is closest to firewall.
5583D123-4E79-4938-9A5D-C230AC21E0E9.jpeg
 
Hey, no worries, I REALLY appreciate all your help and time you've given me.

Current situation is: Blower works, sunroof doesn't.

I don't use the sunroof that often, so having the heater blower back is huge now that it's getting cold, many thanks! Do you know the part number of that relay? It's probably printed on it, I didn't even look. I was so excited to hear to blower back on I just came straight back to the computer to let you know.
 
Did swapping relays fix it? I think all of them are the same unless the load shed has an amperage number on it. You now need to trace the wire from the relay to the sunroof.
 
Part Number: 61361378238
 

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Thanks to you both, I just ordered the relay and will start taking a look at the sunroof connection. It might be that I didn't seat the switch all the way in when I swapped it for testing. There's no slack in those wires to pull the female block through the opening, seat it securely and then put it back in; it barely makes it to the opening in the roof.
 
Thanks to you both, I just ordered the relay and will start taking a look at the sunroof connection. It might be that I didn't seat the switch all the way in when I swapped it for testing. There's no slack in those wires to pull the female block through the opening, seat it securely and then put it back in; it barely makes it to the opening in the roof.
But did swapping relays help?
 
Yes, when I pulled the window relay and put it in the main shed slot, the blower came on but sunroof didn't work. When I took the original main shed relay and put it in the window relay, the windows didn't work; so that relay is bad. I have replacements on the way. I'm going to take a look at the sunroof switch later and see if I just don't have it fully seated.
 
Sunroof works! I remembered I had a pair of locking surgical forceps on a fly fishing vest and played "Operation" through the opening to get the female plug pulled through. Pressed the switch firmly into place and voila, the sunroof works!

Thanks to you both, I really appreciate all the help. I have a couple of other electrical gremlins to track down and will try them on my own, now that I have a better idea how everything works under the dash.
 
Hi Chris,

How do the load relays come out? It looks like they're each on metal brackets and you slide the whole thing forward but mine are not coming out (easily) and I don't want to force it and break something. I don't know if they're clipped in place or what; it doesn't look like it but it's hard to see. Does the entire component (white plug and black relay) come out, then the bottom (white) piece plug into the top (black) piece? So I'd be swapping the black relays?

Thanks again for your help,

Alan
Standard plug in relays. Use a plastic pry tool.
 
Re the visual of the relays above - I believe that the large black box relay is for intermittent wipers rather than hazard / turn signal

(apologies that this isn't relevant to your issue)
 
Re the visual of the relays above - I believe that the large black box relay is for intermittent wipers rather than hazard / turn signal

(apologies that this isn't relevant to your issue)
It may be that in the 74 with the adjustable column that relay was moved from the column. In a pre 74 the wiper relay is on the left before the other relays.
 
Sunroof works! I remembered I had a pair of locking surgical forceps on a fly fishing vest and played "Operation" through the opening to get the female plug pulled through. Pressed the switch firmly into place and voila, the sunroof works!

Thanks to you both, I really appreciate all the help. I have a couple of other electrical gremlins to track down and will try them on my own, now that I have a better idea how everything works under the dash.
Great news!
 
I gave a slew of surgical "snaps" out at a BMW get together. Had people ask " what do you use these for"............... like everything.
 
Atl_Alan - if you have other electrical issues, you should know that the fuse blocks in our cars double as power distribution. This picture is from a 72, so your car will be a little different, but notice that the solid red area behind fuses 4 & 5 incorporates six spade lugs (one has a fat red wire and another has a fat black wire) that are all tied together. These distribute unswitched power. Similarly, fuses 6 & 7 are connected, and have three spade connectors, all of which have solid green wires attached to them on this block. These distribute switched power. These distribution connections are illustrated in the wiring diagrams, but you have to look really closely to see them.

I believe on later cars that unswitched power is distributed across fuses 5 & 6, with switched power distributed across 3 & 4.

You need to take this power distribution stuff into account when you are trying to isolate circuits that go through any of these fuses.


Fuse Block.jpeg
 
Thanks to all for the great advice and thanks to Ohmess for a picture of the back of the fuse box, that's really helpful. As Bavbob noted, having a pair of forceps around is also really good for either retrieving or seating things in the tight confines of the car; even needle nose pliers are too thick and have a tendency to lose grip as you move through the maze of wires.

Remaining electrical issue is the bright lights not activating on the stalk when you push it forward to lock them on. I can turn them on by pulling back on the stalk; then they activate and the blue dash light comes on. But pushing the stalk forward does nothing. The stalk itself is relatively new so I don't think that's it.

If anyone has any ideas on where to start to troubleshoot it, I'd appreciate it. I took a look at the wiring diagram and I see something marked "High Beam Relay" leading to what looks like something I think labeled "Orange Box" (it's blurry and hard to read so I might be mangling it), but I have no idea where either of those two things are located.
 
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