bherder
01-12-2007, 11:45 PM
OK…. After fiddle-farting around on this for a couple months, I finally got my ‘Headlight Relay Project’ finished! I gotta’ say, it was well worth the time, effort, and $$.
Also, because I was curious, I checked the voltage that was going to the connectors at the headlights… Even with the engine running at high idle, I was only getting 11.5 volts to the headlights! Even though I've got a fairly new headlight switch, dimmer switch and cleaned the hell out of the bulkhead connectors, still a low voltage. I’m going to chalk it up to 27 year-old wiring.
Anyway, being as that is neither here nor there for all practical purposes...
I did mine a little different than from the websites I’ve seen on doing this..
First of all, being as I have a quad-light setup, it meant extra wiring, but that was no biggie.
My major deviation was probably the relays used. Instead of the nice pretty relays I’ve seen on the various websites, I elected to go with these big, ugly, relays that are typically used for things like trailer-hitch connections. These are the ones that look like old Furd starter relays, but are meant to be ‘on’ all the time. They are typically used for the connection that you would use for charging the battery in a travel trailer when it’s plugged in. I figured that if these relays are good enough to be on all the time with 50 amps running though them, they sure as heck ought to be good enough to run a set of headlights.
Besides, I already had one sitting on the parts shelf, so it was just a matter of picking up another one at NAPA.
I also decided I was going to run 10 gauge wire throughout. Call this a ‘quirk’ of mine, but I’ve always been in the habit of ‘overkill’ on stuff like this. When I rewire something, If I can’t arc-weld with the wires I’m using, I’m not happy :)
I also chose to put glass-tube type of fuses in the circuit, for two reasons…
A: So I would only have to carry the same type of fuses…
B: Because I couldn’t find any ‘blade type’ fuse holders at NAPA with 10 gauge wires. There may be such an animal, but they weren’t hanging on the shelf when I was there getting parts.
All the wiring and connectors are crimped, soldered, shrink-tubed and split-loomed.
My other sorta’ goofy way of doing this was to make the connections for the relays/headlights just spade terminals (Male and female). I did this for the very reason that:
A: I didn’t want to splice in plugs going from a 14 gauge wire to a 10 gauge harness. There would be no point of keeping everything 10 gauge if I did that.
B: IF …. For some reason…. Should anyone ever own this truck besides me… (Which I don’t see ever happening, but you never know, I might fall over dead tomorrow..) and should they ever want to hook it up back ‘stock’… It’s just a matter of unplugging a few wires and plugging the factory connectors back onto the lights. The ‘stock’ connectors (Other than the one I used for actuating the relays) Have been blocked off and wrapped with a quality electric tape to keep the crud out of them. My grounds are to the chassis, but since I’ve made six-ways-to-Sunday sure that I have more than an excellent chassis ground, I was not concerned about this. Besides, I’ve got so many wires running off of the (-) battery terminal already, I didn’t want to add anything else..
Anywho, the first pic is of the placement of the relays, nothing else hooked up.
Second pic is of all the finished wire harnesses..
Third pic is of relays with wiring hooked up..
Forth pic is a ‘before/after’ pic of headlight brightness. It doesn’t look like much, but at night, sitting behind the wheel, it makes a world of difference!
Also, because I was curious, I checked the voltage that was going to the connectors at the headlights… Even with the engine running at high idle, I was only getting 11.5 volts to the headlights! Even though I've got a fairly new headlight switch, dimmer switch and cleaned the hell out of the bulkhead connectors, still a low voltage. I’m going to chalk it up to 27 year-old wiring.
Anyway, being as that is neither here nor there for all practical purposes...
I did mine a little different than from the websites I’ve seen on doing this..
First of all, being as I have a quad-light setup, it meant extra wiring, but that was no biggie.
My major deviation was probably the relays used. Instead of the nice pretty relays I’ve seen on the various websites, I elected to go with these big, ugly, relays that are typically used for things like trailer-hitch connections. These are the ones that look like old Furd starter relays, but are meant to be ‘on’ all the time. They are typically used for the connection that you would use for charging the battery in a travel trailer when it’s plugged in. I figured that if these relays are good enough to be on all the time with 50 amps running though them, they sure as heck ought to be good enough to run a set of headlights.
Besides, I already had one sitting on the parts shelf, so it was just a matter of picking up another one at NAPA.
I also decided I was going to run 10 gauge wire throughout. Call this a ‘quirk’ of mine, but I’ve always been in the habit of ‘overkill’ on stuff like this. When I rewire something, If I can’t arc-weld with the wires I’m using, I’m not happy :)
I also chose to put glass-tube type of fuses in the circuit, for two reasons…
A: So I would only have to carry the same type of fuses…
B: Because I couldn’t find any ‘blade type’ fuse holders at NAPA with 10 gauge wires. There may be such an animal, but they weren’t hanging on the shelf when I was there getting parts.
All the wiring and connectors are crimped, soldered, shrink-tubed and split-loomed.
My other sorta’ goofy way of doing this was to make the connections for the relays/headlights just spade terminals (Male and female). I did this for the very reason that:
A: I didn’t want to splice in plugs going from a 14 gauge wire to a 10 gauge harness. There would be no point of keeping everything 10 gauge if I did that.
B: IF …. For some reason…. Should anyone ever own this truck besides me… (Which I don’t see ever happening, but you never know, I might fall over dead tomorrow..) and should they ever want to hook it up back ‘stock’… It’s just a matter of unplugging a few wires and plugging the factory connectors back onto the lights. The ‘stock’ connectors (Other than the one I used for actuating the relays) Have been blocked off and wrapped with a quality electric tape to keep the crud out of them. My grounds are to the chassis, but since I’ve made six-ways-to-Sunday sure that I have more than an excellent chassis ground, I was not concerned about this. Besides, I’ve got so many wires running off of the (-) battery terminal already, I didn’t want to add anything else..
Anywho, the first pic is of the placement of the relays, nothing else hooked up.
Second pic is of all the finished wire harnesses..
Third pic is of relays with wiring hooked up..
Forth pic is a ‘before/after’ pic of headlight brightness. It doesn’t look like much, but at night, sitting behind the wheel, it makes a world of difference!