underseat relays and tar removal

[WillD]

I have a '74 914 1.8.

1. What are the two relays under the passenger seat (a large one that says Kontrol and a smaller, typical square one)? That area seems to have a bit of water damage from a leaky roof seal, but not too serious. I want to know how much cleanup/resto electrical work is warranted.

2. Any good ideas to quickly remove the tar mat that is on the inside of the floor boards? I need to remove all of it to get rid of surface rust before treating with POR-15.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The two relays are the "door ajar" buzzer (the smaller one), and the Infamous Seatbelt Interlock Relay (the larger one). The purpose of the latter is to keep you from starting the car if you don't have your seatbelt fastened. It also puts one more possible failure point into the starter circuit... Dumb idea.

To disable it, you can simply find the two fat yellow wires that go to the relay, and splice them together. Do yourself a favor and make the splice good and watertight.

--DD

[SteveStromberg]

To remove the coating on the floor use a metal scraper they look like a puuty knife but are thicker so that they do not flex.Just get under the tar and knock peices off it take a while to get all of it up. Then get some OSPHO from True Value Hardware or Metal Prep from Welding supply store and apply it to kill the rust. I use Hammerite for my paint it works great. Steve