OT--- need to help a neighbor ASAP!!! electrical (updated and more help)

[River Beast]

She got a little Fiesta.... headlight switch is gone... cant get a new one.... dealer want $400 to fix it.... no joke....

SHE HAS NO HEADLIGHTS WITHOUT HOLDING THE HI BEAM SWITCH WITH HER HAND WHILE SHE DRIVES!!! :eek:

here is what I would like to do.. but I am no electrical guru when it comes to relays and such...

throw a dual toggle on the dash... for lo and hi beams and wire it to relays and to the headlights with switched power....

I have not gone into the car yet to check out the headlight wiring....so I can say how many wires are on them, but I will guess 3...

any simplified drawings(schematic) with relays ( p/n's if you know any) would be much appreciated...

thanks... just trying to help a neighbor... she has been driving like this since MArch!!!! :eek:

[ December 14, 2003, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: River Beast ]

[naturalbeast]

I'm headed to the bone yard in a couple of days for a transmission, if you get me the year I will look and if I find a switch I will pick it up for you.

[ December 07, 2003, 09:43 PM: Message edited by: naturalbeast ]

[bigun]

as many of those things on the road any wreaking yard should have them.

[ December 07, 2003, 09:45 PM: Message edited by: bigun ]

[mandoneer]

And if all else fail you can always wire in a 7.99 GM style push/pull headlight whitch without too much hassle

[River Beast]

Well... I'm not going into detail over this... but the factory switch/wiring is FUBAR!!!! that is why the dealer wants so much...

After I got on IRC last night WILK (Jeff) chatted with me for a while and drew up a nice schematic of the new headlight circuit with relays that I am going to install with all new wiring to bypass the factory crap... THANKS A BUNCH Jeff... you helped out GREATLY....

I learned alot about relays thru our chat... thanks again...

[FSJ Thing]

Yes, you can no-brainer it by wiring the lights directly to a toggle sitch on the dash drawing juice right from the battery. Bypass the whole factorywiring harness BS, wire the lights right to the switch, or you can have 2 switches, one regular switch for running lights, one two-way switch for the low/high beams. the hard part may be finding the wires to all the lights or running wires to all the lights. but seriously, wire it straight to the battery with a buss fuse and bypass the wiring harness as much as possible. Good luck RB!

[River Beast]

ok... I got the circuit in... IT WORKS.. to an extent...

Thanks to Jeff (WILK) mainly who took the time to draw up some schematics for me....

The relay will not switch from lo beam to hi beam when the hi beams are connected to the relay ( it will not 'click over') but if I disconnect the hi beam output from the relay.. I get the 'click' and I have 12vdc coming out of the relay...

WHAT GIVES?!?!?!

Both switches are 20a switches and I have and inline 30a fuze. relay is rated at 25a....

To give a brief overview...

switch #1 is on/off for low beam and circuit... so high beam switch #2 will not work without switch #1 being on....

power is fed to switch # 2 via Switch #1 to allow the relay to click over to the hi beam output of the relay... did I confuse you? hehehe... here...

http://www.fullsizejeeps.com/jeeps/files/RiverBeast/lightcircuit1.jpg

[Crazy_Jeepman]

Not sure what that relay does, but I know what it has to do, when switch #2 for the High Beams is turned on, the Low Beams need to shut off. Not sure if that relay is doing that for you. Diagram looks great, the only thing that is possibly wrong is the relay. Might not be the correct relay for that aplication.

[Rogue]

that is common bosch style relay

pin 86 should go to battery power

[Rogue]

pin 30 is the trigger so its either on or off

[Rogue]

before i put my foot in my mouth let me see if i can dig up diagram of the relay itself

[Rogue]

i take that all back it is wired correctly per diagram

[River Beast]

Pin 30 is constant pwr to the relay....supplied by switch #1

pin 85/86 is triggered by switch #2 which takes pwr from pin 30 and transfers from 87a to 87.... thus killing the lo beams and supplying power to the hi beams...

what puzzles me is when the wire for the hi beams is pulled from the relay... the relay works and gets 12 volts to 87... when i plug in the hi beams.... no voltage gets to 87.... :confused:
Here is the lay out of the relay...
http://www.the12volt.com/images/relaytextA.gif http://www.the12volt.com/images/relaytext2.gif http://www.the12volt.com/images/relaytext3.gif

[ December 14, 2003, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: River Beast ]

[Rogue]

from what you are saying make 87A - the high beam circuit and 87 the low beam - yes it would be bass ackward of how it supposed to work but that is what sounds like is happening from your description

though the bosch style relay is normally all the same it is possible though i can't say ive heard of it myself that there is a normally open version and a normally closed version

this is one area where i prefer imports the diagram for the relay is normally inscribed into the top of the relay

keep us posted - this is weird

[woodybeone]

The high beams are probably overloading the relay. Try this. Get another larger relay (largest automotive one you can)with a set of N/O contacts and wire it off of the existing one.
Wire one coil side to ground (like the existing)and the other side to pin#87 of the existing relay. Wire the high beam lead to the N/O pin of the new relay and it should work.
The existing relay may be to small for the application. The existing N/C contact is obviously allowing voltage to pass to drive the low beams but can't switch the load to the N/C contact. The above will allow the existing relay to drive the low beams but when energized will now drive a larger relay for the high beams.

[River Beast]

I'll try it... thanks... I have another single pole relay.... cant hurt anyway....