Thanks for posting Rick, that's just how I did 'Easy Bake' my old '81 Ford E 150 panel van. It was only later that I learned of the excellent design of the Ford PDBs of these years that lend themselves to projects like these when did the work for the E fan and the headlights on 'Black Betty' my '78 Jeep CJ. I'm off to Portland today to see if I can find this dingus.

 

Well, the single yard my wife and I went to had plenty of earlier rigs as far back as late '70's but no Super Duty trucks that'd have that dingus I'm after. Did score some delicious German food from a deli up there called Edelweiss.

 

I have a line on two other yards, one to the north and one to the south of me. Damn I lament the loss of local yards.

 

 

It is a smoother look.

 

During my days off I got a 1 inch ribbon ground strap that'll connect the battery to the ground bus bar at Knechts Auto Parts. No longer available at NAPA.
Did get a pair of high temp headlight sockets and Military Specific battery terminals for part of this project.
The only thing I'm missing now is that relay block. Hit three yards north of me and found pair relays but no quads as yet dangit!

 

I've snagged relay setups from mid 90's GM vehicles. I can't say for sure what vehicles, but some of them have several on the firewall. Not as neat as the Ford one, though.

 

That's not terrible, thanks for posting. I may have to go that way. I still have three other yards to check on my next days off.

 

Finally! After hitting three more yards in Salem found one. But not after going all the way through the last lot, an F 250 was right up front, that I had missed on the way in. Now just have to clean it up, add two more circuits and I'm on my way. 😃

 

Got the Hella Vision Plus headlights, only two days after I placed the order! Set me back $103 for the pair but it was the last piece of the puzzle.
Went to look in on my best friend who's recently suffered a stroke but recovering, and he found my old Hellas from "Easy Bake". 😏
There's a restock fee but I'll still be ahead.

 

Well, now that spring is here and I can pull the van off the road for a few days I'm going to start this conversion. To tap battery power to the new relays I think there's access to the posts inside the stock under hood PDB that I can attach a ring terminal to. The power steering reservoir bracket is in the way but it won't take long to get at. I will post photos as I go along for anyone else that want to do this conversion.

 

I found that adjacent to the PDB on my van there was a 12V power stud. I had to remove the Power steering wheel resivoir to get at it but only two bolts. I know that Ford relays are predominantly 30 amp and I came away from the wrecking yard today with a six pack of Ford 14B192-AA relays for a couple of bucks. I've been searching on the web to determine the Amp rating on these but so far zilch. The way I have the wiring going now I've got two 140W (on high beam) headlights that I'm running through a Ford relay panel fed from the battery. IF I recall the VAR (Virgins Are Rare) calculation with 12V and 280W I'mm be pushing about 13.5Amps. Is this correct? ...and are these Ford relays satisfactory for the load?
thanks and a lift of the lynch lid for your responses

Gus

 

I drove up to Salem and visited Norvac Electronics NORVAC.NET and WOW! One stop shopping. Got a pair of made locally 40 amp relays, two packages of made in USA spade connectors, alligator clips for my new Innova meter and a male/male audio cord for my two computers. While I was at it I got some poly inner sleeves for some of my albums just down the street and some canollis

 

I was in a local Albany (Oregon) yard the other day and found another relay/fuse PDB as I have in my CJ it was in a '93 Ford PU.

 

Been working a night shift since last posting and have made some progress now that I'm furloughed from work. Got the relay panel wired into a Buss fuse panel and all of the wiring out to the headlights is soldered up, shrink tubed and set to go. Just have to get some fuses and finalize the trip wires from the input from the switch, going to just run a patch from the existing sockets as current to trip the relays is minimal. Hope everyone's staying clear of this damn pandemic.