Some electrical questions.
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Some electrical questions.
I have a 1978 Ford.
straight 6
Short bed.
I do apologize for posting here if this this isn't the right place. I'm new to this forum.
I'm wiring up off road lights. I know you can draw power from the positive side of the ignition recoil. After my 3g swap, and my brighter whites mod I ran out of room! I have no room to add any additional powered wires for additional relays.
I'm wondering what possible avenues I can take to extend power to additional relays.
straight 6
Short bed.
I do apologize for posting here if this this isn't the right place. I'm new to this forum.
I'm wiring up off road lights. I know you can draw power from the positive side of the ignition recoil. After my 3g swap, and my brighter whites mod I ran out of room! I have no room to add any additional powered wires for additional relays.
I'm wondering what possible avenues I can take to extend power to additional relays.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 1,627
Likes: 79
From: NE Texas
Add an under-hood fuseblock
You can buy small fuseblocks. I added a 5-fuse block, ran a heavy 10 ga jumper to it, and soldered it all along the terminals on one side like a bus bar.
Then I ran the power from the fused side terminals to relays as the main power in. Main power out of one relay went to my low beams, main power out of a 2nd relay went to my high beams, and the original hi/low beam wires to the lights were used as the 'triggers' on the relays. There are multiple posts about which wire goes to which post on the relays (I am not in a position to provide from here, sorry.) If you use heavy gauge wire as the current-out to the headlights, you get much better current to your lights. I would guesstimate at least a 10-15% increase in headlight brightness, and it reduces the load on your headlight and dimmer switches since the main power does not have to route through them. If you add a 5 fuse block, that leaves you another 3 terminals to wire on driving lights etc.
Then I ran the power from the fused side terminals to relays as the main power in. Main power out of one relay went to my low beams, main power out of a 2nd relay went to my high beams, and the original hi/low beam wires to the lights were used as the 'triggers' on the relays. There are multiple posts about which wire goes to which post on the relays (I am not in a position to provide from here, sorry.) If you use heavy gauge wire as the current-out to the headlights, you get much better current to your lights. I would guesstimate at least a 10-15% increase in headlight brightness, and it reduces the load on your headlight and dimmer switches since the main power does not have to route through them. If you add a 5 fuse block, that leaves you another 3 terminals to wire on driving lights etc.
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Sycostang67
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Feb 17, 2004 06:12 PM
