Electrical help/Sidewinder Steps

[KWentling]

I'm putting Kodiak Sidewinder steps on an '04. Thought I was going to be smart and wire them like Kodiak's website shows for '04 Dodges. The steps were purchased through Geno's so they are not the same as the ones on their website, and I knew that. I thought the only difference was the signal triggering them. Geno's uses a switch to ground and the Dodge's recieves a signal from the wires that I believe light the door ajar lamp. I don't have a service manual yet. The website directions show tapping into a VT/WT wire for the right side and a VT wire for the left. These wires are located at one of the plugs on the back of the instrument panel. I've done that and when the door is opened I get 10. 87 volts on the wires. Then the plan was to use relays to provide the ground signal for the step. Doesn't work. The relays are from radio shack and have a current draw of 160mA (66 ohms resistance), 6v pull in voltage. I guess there is not enough juice there to pull in the relay? Plugged into the relay it shows no volts on the wires. Unplugged back to 10. 87. It's not enough to light my test light even. What can I do? Can always mount separate switches but since I'm this far I'd like to use what I've started. Help!



Kim

 

[ThomasLawrence]

You can download all the wiring diagrams from Dodge's Bodybuilder site:



http://www.dodge.com/bodybuilder/2004/drwdz.zip



-Tom

 

[KWentling]

Thanks for the link to the electrical Tom. Went to it and its like a 2+ hour download with my tiny little phone line. I'm pretty sure that there is no problem with that part of the wiring, just not sure what Kodaik used that would take that low an amperage device. Maybe a solid state relay like is used on circuit boards? Would they live under the hood? Anyone know how to measure a low output like that?

Kim

 

[jsimpson]

I ran a wire to a bettery terminal and added an in-line fuse. Worked flawlessly until I sold truck.