Electrical Issue Driving Me NUTS!

[Ahzlon]

Hey all,

You probably saw my posts about mounting a new rally bar and wiring up some new lights to my Baja. This car is wired so damn weird it even makes some electrician friends scratch their heads. So here is what I'm trying to do. I have a set of double throw switches inside that will allow me to run the lights with just the marker lights on or with high beams. Now this is were the wiring gets really weird. When the lights are in low beam there are 2 hot wires. But when you switch to high beam you get only one hot wire. I originally tapped into the high beam side of the harness going to the lights to allow me to run a hot signal to the switch which then would be toggled to the relay. BUT since that high beam side is hot all the time my light set-up does not work properly. I have attempted to look at the wiring all the way back at the fuse box in the engine bay. But that didn't provide the hot side line that I needed. Then I even took apart the interior of the car under the steering column to look for the switch are there. There it's just as weird. When the high beam are on. Power out of that plug is only 4.6vDC I would think it would have been a full 12v. Then I checked at the instrument cluster. 12v on both poles to trip the high beam indicator but when the high beams come on. One of those lines goes dead. This car makes no sense at all. If ANYONE knows where I can pull a positive wire to send as the sense line to my switch I would love you long time. I have some partial suspicion it has something to do with the DRL's. Now if I disable/remove the DRL crap would that make it function like a normal headlight setup should?? HELP!!!!

[theluckyone17]

viewtopic.php?p=8059#p8059 mentioned something about a ground to switch. Might that be a problem?

[hocrest]

One of the wires going to the fog switch is 12v+ when the parking lights or the headlights are on. Just probe around to find it.

Tap off of that, through the switch, and then to a relay under the hood. The relay will get constant 12v+ from the battery.

That is how I have my Hella driving lights wired.

[Ahzlon]

Horcrest. Did this work for making your lights come on with the High Beam?

[hocrest]

Yeah, I can use them with either parking lights, low beam or high beam.

Use a test light or DVM to find the wire going to the fog light switch that has power in those three positions. When you find it, then dim the dash lights to verify that your not tapped into the dash illumination. Use that trough your new switch and then into the signal in of the relay you'll be adding.

Just read part of the thread on NASIOC, I'm too tired and confused to reply over there. The only place I am tied into the stock wiring is to get that switched 12v+ to feed the new switch/relay. Then from the battery + I ran a fuse and wire to power the relay, then the switched power from the relay straight to the lights. And of course a ground nearby to the relay and another ground up front to the lights.

[Ahzlon]

Well i got it to work. I'm now using Double Pole Double Throw switches. *YAY* SO one set of poles will pull sense from the hot side of the high beam then is routed to the relay. While the relay it's self instead of going to a chassis ground it uses the ground from the headlamps. WEWT. now the driving lights will operate with the high beams.