[BoxerFanatic]

DEFINITELY replace the 10$ 5-pin bosch relay under the dash. Especially if when you turn the key, the dash warnings light up, and the electrical system behaves... but sometimes (in my case, increasingly frequently, until it was pretty much every time...) the starter just doesn't work. It isn't the starter, necessarily, though.

I just did it this weekend on mine. it seems to have improved things. I haven't put it on the road much due to waiting on another slight bit... but it cranks over much easier from what I can tell.

A 10$ relay, and a back-bend position for a while to get your head and arms under the dash...

as you are looking up from the floor, it is WAY up there, to the right side of the steering column. Not actually on the column, but a black box bolted to a black steel support that holds the steering column, above a bunch of black-wrapped wires... so it might be hard to see at first.

I had to identify it's location by tracing it's wires, which have a big paper label on them, way up under the gauges.

I didn't even bother un-bolting the old relay. It is tight, both in torque, and in hard to reach with any wrench. I just un-plugged the wiring jumper at both ends, fitted the new relay to the black plug, and plugged the white plug back into it's place near where the wiring comes through the firewall behind the dash. A little zip tie to just snug the relay wiring to the other wiring around the area, to avoid knocking around... and good to go.

I had the suede knee panel, and the steel liner behind that off, because I was working on the steering column otherwise, but that might not even be necessary to duck under there.

I would definitely do that FAR before putting a new fuse box in the car, unless it can be seen that electrical contacts are damaged in the fuse box that is already in the car.

With as hot as it gets under the hood, plus the heat of a "fusible link" burning out... it may just be a little melted plastic. the Fusible link is supposed to protect the actual electrical parts from getting burned, by sacrificing itself. The above comment is right... usually that is caused by a short circuit or something...

PM me if there is anything I can do. I got the info from another thread around here, but I am in the central Iowa area.