Who owns a Contemporary?

[gjcomb]

Greetings to all of you Contemporary owners out there!!

I have a technical question that perhaps some current owners of the earlier Contemporary Cobras (possibly 1980s or so?!) might be able to answer for me.

Being the second owner of a Contemporary Cobra, I have one of the earlier cars whose original owner had purchased in '79/80 timeframe, and the previous owner had the car custom built by Snow White Hot Rods in Fresno, CA. The car was driven in the So Cal area for a number of years, and I had purchased the car about 9 years while checking out Porsche Speedsters at a shop in Orange, CA. Since then, I have gone through the car again and done rebuilding or changes to it.

My question is a simple one - turn signals. On my wiring setup, in order to activate a left or right turn signal, I noticed that signaling voltage must go through a "diverter box" as called out in the original manuals before the voltage is routed to the individual terminals for the turn signal lights (front and rear). There is no information on what this box consists of..wires? Switch? Both?

I tried to open this box to see what is inside - how does it electrically function - but due to its age, it did not open easily. So, not wanting to break the small plastic black box with wires going in and out, I worked around this unit when I replaced other wiring for the car.

The turn signal assembly seems to be working providing 12 volts over to the diverter box when the left or right signals are activated, and the wiring is okay to the bulbs (checked by manually applying voltage from the terminal strips).

I did check with a friend of mine who has a newer Contemporary Cobra whether his setup was similar as mine. However, his wiring setup does not utilize a "diverter box" for turn signals.

So, my question is whether anyone with the older cars have had experience with this diverter box not working? What alternatives do I have to replace this with a simpler setup (besides Painless Wiring) since this is the only problem with the current wiring? Is this available for replacement, or do I need a new turn signal assembly? If so, what is a reference part number?

Once this is complete, I will not have to mess with electrical wiring on this car any more!!

Appreciate the comments anyone has!

Regards,
George