I'm relaying head lights

[cmann250]

I figure that I'll be kind to the largely pristine factory harness in my truck and relay the lights. I read Jim Lane's sticky over on DTR about ten times and I can make a harness and stuff. I'm still confused about what relays I need.
Sticky: http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/ ... p?t=176263
I understand that the relays have a common power through and a common ground probably to the inner fender. Trigger wires come into the relays and wires go out to the head light socket. Mr. Lane's article leads me to believe that the stock harness plugs into the new harness. Therefore the stock harness would only act as a trigger wire and the new harness would carry the load. True? Also, I don't think I'm going to do the third relay like he did. No reason to make the deer stare all the harder into the lights.

All I really need to know is what relays need to be used because I'm more fluent in Chinese than electricity. I would also like encouragement to use shrink tubing instead of wire nuts

[PToombs]

If you use wire nuts we'll wire yours!

I didn't read whatever he has posted over there, but I have a few tips you can use or not.
#1, Upsize the ground wire at each headlight. They are about an 18 gauge wire, I used 12ga.
#2, Where the headlight wires come out of the bulkhead, there is 1 wire going in on the dash side and 2 wires coming out of each high and low terminal. (2 terminals, 4 wires) The wires separate and 1 goes to each side of the truck from the bulkhead.
#3, Almost any 12 volt 5 terminal relay should work.

[cmann250]

Pete, I'm all for 12 gauge wire. I'll have to see if the wire left over from the new dryer at the farm is the right kind or not. That'd be handy since it's laminated I did figure out the factory's wire splitting antics, too.

I may even shrink wrap my trailer brake wiring and the hack job I did on the alternator wiring.

[Hansen01]

Now your getting all fancy with shrink wrap and sthi. Your gonna make my truck jelous cause i keep putting that off

[cmann250]

:( Now your getting all fancy with shrink wrap and sthi. Your gonna make my truck jelous cause i keep putting that off

I assassinated the one and only scotch lock and the only reason I do wiring this way is because I HATE it. One hiccup out of the FSS and it's gone, I have a cable speedometer, I deleted the fuel heater and WIF light. Get the point? I don't like electricity That's why I have a 12v

It would be fast and simple to throw something together (after all, I have a PhD in Backwoods engineering) but doing a hack job just creates a headache later. I'd straight up trade you trucks

[cmann250]

As far as supplies go, I got the relays and the circuit breaker at O'Reilly's. For the circuit breaker, about anyone that has trailer brake controller stuff will have one. I'm tempeted to use my existing head light connectors because that's all that I haven't found yet, but that rules out doing a quick road side fix if something goes wrong. I'm currently cutting the yellow insulation off the butt connectors since uninsulated ones are evidently rare at common stores. Wire prices are unreal too, so I'm going to try to bum some at the farm.

I'll keep you posted whether it works or not.
Oh yea and my brights burnt out a while ago. The socket has power, so it's the bulb. Cheap sthi

[ellis93]

You won't have any problems out of the mod,mine has been done for years and used often. Most of my wheelin and dealing is done at night after I close down the shop.

If those fancy projector headlight thinger ma jigs is out of the budget,look into the silverstar headlights. I've a set and they light up the road well

[PToombs]

When I did mine I used the existing wiring most of the way. I cut it at the bulkhead and spliced in the wires from the relays there. I used the plugs at the lights, but removed the terminal for the ground and soldered the 12 ga wire right to the old terminal.

[cmann250]

You won't have any problems out of the mod,mine has been done for years and used often. Most of my wheelin and dealing is done at night after I close down the shop.

If those fancy projector headlight thinger ma jigs is out of the budget,look into the silverstar headlights. I've a set and they light up the road well

Good to know. Looks like I have the green light because there's hundreds of feet of the right type of wire left over at the farm. 10/12 gauge should be sufficient. I hate those HIDs. I smoke out wise azz drivers that blind me with them.

When I did mine I used the existing wiring most of the way. I cut it at the bulkhead and spliced in the wires from the relays there. I used the plugs at the lights, but removed the terminal for the ground and soldered the 12 ga wire right to the old terminal.

I think I'll replace alot of that dental floss that Dodge calls wiring just to be safe. I figure more juice means more heat. May as well get aquainted with the soldering gun because my trailer brakes intermittently work too Can I use the same solder as copper piping?

[tampabayBill]

NO !! DO NOT USE PLUMBING SOLDER !! Drop by the hardware store or radio shack and get some rosen core solder used in electrical/ electronic work.

[cmann250]

NO !! DO NOT USE PLUMBING SOLDER !! Drop by the hardware store or radio shack and get some rosen core solder used in electrical/ electronic work.

Very good to know. Thank you.

[RumbleFish]

Oreillys has that solder as well.

[cmann250]

Oreillys has that solder as well.

Menard's did too and they're on the edge of town, not the middle. That's my only beef with O'Reilly's

[PToombs]

Menard's did too and they're on the edge of town, not the middle.

Oh heaven forbid that you have to go another block!

[cmann250]

Try construction and seven traffic lights. Lafayette isn't a hick town