Rodney was having fuse box relay problems with his 78 bus ...

ok, in a german how-to-fix-your-bus, it says:

Der Sicherungskasten mit Relaiskonsole ist hier abgeschraubt und umgedreht:
1 - Platz fuer Nebelscheinwerfer-Relais;
2 - Platz fuer Summer-Relais;
3 - Platz fuer Wischer-Intervallrelais;
4 - Abblendrelais;
5 - Blinkrelais.

trouble is,i can't tell if the picture is rightside-up or upside-down.
all the wires are up at the top of the picture. and i think i can see the
heater pipe (coming up the center, from floor to dash) in the background.

ok, what does it mean? as best i can translate:
The fusebox with relay bracket is here unscrewed and rotated:
1 - place/position for foglight relay;
2 - place/position for buzzer relay;
3 - place/position for wiper interval relay;
4 - headlight dimmer relay;
5 - blinker/flasher relay.

so the picture is "backwards" and as you look at your fuse box, the positions
would be 5-4-3-2-1. so the empty one would be for the foglights (which you
don't have). the blinker/flasher relay (5) is a big tall dark one. the
headlight dimmer relay (4) is a short silver looking one.

as to why the bus did what it did, i can't say except that maybe there is
some corrosion down in the plug-holes in the fuse box that shorted something
out. now would be a good time to clean all the connections on and to the
fuse box, as well as all the fuses and fuse contacts. you'd be surprised at
how much difference that can make in the way things operate.

good luck.
joel