Here I am

Left in the dark

Attention: TDR Forum Junkies
To the point: Click this link and check out the Front Page News story(ies) where we are tracking the introduction of the 2025 Ram HD trucks.

Thanks, TDR Staff

master cylinder lid gasket-can't find one

Uh oh.......

Status
Not open for further replies.
well thanks matt, yea i love to help people too. you totally rite about this place, we help with what we can and get help with what we dont no.



yea i dont no if you saw all the posts i put in with pictures and links... i got a little rediculous :-laf



right on, thats why i draw em out :D
 
its soo hard for me to visuialize just the current path... when i draw it up, i draw it as if im out in the truck lookin at it, cause i can identify with that, you know what i mean?
 
Yeah, thats the problem with wiring diagrams, theres no scale. You could have a switch under your dash right next to a switch thats under the hood, right next to a switch thats under the bed.



If your sketching it, leave some rook to write little notes about where everything is. Just a simple "on the left fender" or "under drivers side dash" will help you keep track of everything too.
 
here we go matt, this is my stupid mans diagram. :-laf

its getting late an my head hurts so it may be totaly wrong and not even realistic, but tell me what you think
 
You're close. I think you may have a problem with which terminals your using on your relays there, but I'm a little confused as to which way your going with it. just picture your relay as two circuts, one high amp draw, and one low amp draw. You NEVER want to cross over anywhere, it'll defeat the purpose of the relay. Your toggle switch for the high beams should be linked to both 86 terminals for the high beam relay, and the low beam on high setting relay. Your right most relay isn't being used right now, the way you have it. Other than that, you look to be good to go. It's tricky, but youre on the right track.
 
i dont understand how the right most relay is not being used??



it has 12v incoming, its grounded, has a lead from the switch, and has an output into the relay that feeds both hi and low beams.
 
Your right most relay is just activating the center relay. I guess I shouldn't say its not being used, but its not serving a purpose. Like I was saying, you never want to have the high draw side combine with the low draw side. In this case it wouldn't hurt anything, but it just doesn't really make sense to do it that way.



Let's trace the current:



Let's start with the toggle switch. There is a circut between the toggle switch and the right most relay, the low draw side. We'll call that circut #1. When you flip your toggle switch, it activates the right most relay. A relay is nothing more than a switch itself, so activating a relay means it closes another circut. This is the high draw circut. This will be circut #2. This circut right now is going from the high draw side of the right most relay, to the low draw "switch" side of the center relay. In other words, when you flip the toggle switch, it closes circut #1, which in turn closes circut #2, which activates the center relay and closes the circut between the relay and the high beams. Having said that, you could do away with the right most relay, hook the toggle switch to the center relay, and the system would work exactly the same.



Now the problem is, and this is why you need 2 relays, you have a wire going from the 30 terminal to both the high beams and low beams. This will work on the high beam setting, as both bulbs will be on then. But when you set it for low beams, power will go to your low beam bulb, and then trace its way back up the wire to the 30 terminal on the center relay, which doesn't matter because thats an open circut, but on that same terminal is the wire for your high beams. This creates another closed circut to the high beams, and will end up turning both bulbs on again. For the sake of keeping things simple, just follow one rule of thumb here, this will help a little, don't hook more than one wire to any terminal on anything in the high draw side of this set up. Any time you hook two wires to one terminal, you also create a connection between those two wires, even if the switch for that terminal is off.



You're close though, so we can fix this real easy. Take the jumper thats going from the left terminal on the right relay to the bottom terminal on the center relay. Hook that wire to the bottom terminal on both relays. The toggle switch wire stays where it is, but is now connected to that wire you moved. Now take the wire going to your high beams off of the left terminal on the center relay. Move it to the left terminal on the right most relay, the terminal that you just pulled the other wire off of. Do those two things and you should be ready for blast off.
 
holy smokes. i cant thank you enough matt. this is great.

now hopefully my last question...



is there any possible way to do all of this under the hood??? to save me from running all those positive wire through the firewall, and having to tear apart my dash
 
give me a few minutes and im going to re-draw the diagram with color pens to idnetify the wires, and you can double check my work. im excited about this now, i think it actually makes sense, just finding the wires will be the challenge now.
 
here it is. i thought there was supposed to be a high and a low coming out of the dimmer switch tho??? and i havnt even taken into account the tail and marker lights either. :mad: i think i got a ways to go, but matt tell me if this looks correct as is, then you can steer me in the right direction for adding the rest of the wires im missing for the other junk. and if you can explain where my hi and low beam wires from the dimmer are id apreciate it.
 
The dimmer switch handles multiple loads, from the headlights, to the tail lights, to the markers, to the dash lights. All your worried about is the one wire that deals with the headlights.



You ask about the dimmer handling the high beams also. It may... this is what my last wiring diagram was. The first one I drew is the same as what you have there. I'm assuming that the tilt switch is what you have labelled as the "toggle switch" on your diagram. Here's the thing, you have your's drawn up to match my first design. That might be right, I dont have a factory manual at home (it's at my place up north, 4. 5 hours away).



I dont think thats right, though. I think I was wrong the first time about the factory wiring. See my second diagram. What I think is the proper way to do it, is my third diagram (actually fourth, because I corrected the little snafu). Let me rearrange that one a little more, like how you did yours, to make a little more sense. Give me a half hour or so here, I'll get you one you can follow a little easier.
 
Alright bud, these should help. I rearraged it to show roughly where it is on the truck, like you have. I also traced anywhere that theres power in red. Pay attention to the notes in the corner telling you whats going on. Notice also that there are some places where power traces itself back to a dead end, I showed that so you can see why you can't hook another wire into certain terminals. This may get a little confusing, but just keep in mind, if I colored the letter note on a relay red, that means the relay is active, and if a switch is shown connecting, that means power is going through. Some places you have power on both sides of a switch, but the switch is open, you'll have that. Remember, this is NOT positive/negative coloring. Notice also the dual purpose of the tilt switch: The momentary contact switch AND the toggle low/high beam switch.



The first one is day driving. Headlights off. Dimmer switch in.



The second is night driving. Headlights on. Dimmer switch pulled out.



The third is night driving on a back road. Headlights on. Dimmer switch pulled out. Brights clicked on.



The fourth is day driving, but you pull the tilt switch back to flash someone. Headlights on. Brights on. Dimmer switch in. Tilt switch held back.



The last is night driving, and you pull the tilt switch back to flash someone. Headlights on. Brights on. Dimmer switch pulled out. Tilt switch held back.
 
OMG! :eek: Now I've gotta headache! #@$%! I'm going to get another beer!

I coulda wired it faster than you 2 lovebirds scrawled it out with crayons! :rolleyes:







wow. :{
 
oh yea and matt, i sure hope your gonna wire this up for yourself too after all this work you done itd be a shame not too!



by the way , i forgot to mention, i am BLOWN AWAY! i dont no how much time you put into this, but bravo! its perfect man. im reading my way through it now and so far it makes perfect sense. very well layed out and easy to understand. i cant thank you enough.
 
Last edited:
Eh, I'm an engineer, I sweat the details... to a flaw. Which is also why I know I'm right... ahem... PT.



The only thing is, I'm not 100% positive that I'm right about the dimmer switch wiring into the tilt switch, I don't have my manual, and I havent actually taken a look under my dash either. It just works in theory, and by my reasoning it would work the best the way I have it... There are however my "I love Dodge, but... " things on the truck where I kinda wonder what wonderboy over at Dodge dreamed up the way they made some things. This could very well be one of them. For what its worth, you should probably check the manual to see if I'm right.



Oh, by the way PT, I recall you attempting to figure it out to no avail 2 days ago... .
 
yea i have the book infront of me. im trying to figure them out side by side. i was about to ask you if this was perfect in theory or reality. cause it makes perfect sense in the electrical world, but weather or not those wires are as simple under the dash may be another story. . this weekend im going to take the day saturday and tear the whole dash apart. for 1, to wire the 4 relays (the ones youve listed and the tail/markerlights) and to eliminate my seatbelt light, door/ignition buzzer, etc.
 
You know, I've heard other first gen owners talk about a seatbelt light... I don't believe I've ever seen one turn on in my truck.



As far as the buzzer, or as I call it, the "you left your keys in the ignition, moron" buzzer, yeah, I'd love to see that thing gone. When you turn the CB on, it picks up that buzzer and amplifies it... One of these days I'm gonna have a hammer in my hand when that happens and then it'll be sorry.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top