Left in the dark

[PToombs]

You know, you might have been able to get by with a few less. I think the whole light system runs on a 15 amp fuse. :-laf

 

[JGrefenstette]

hah, just wait till you see the thing wired up, im doing that right now, youll laf for sure. i always overkill. youll know what i mean when you see it

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Off topic...

I'm not exactly an outstanding role model for anyone...

You can still be a tragic warning.

At least you're living up to your TDR username...



Beers,



Matt

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

Another Wisconsinite, and ironically enough, you're name is also Matt...



Whats even better is youre probably the only other one here who knows what Spotted Cow is.



Beers, indeed. You ever come down to Milwaukee I'll buy the first round.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

I've had two or three quarter-barrels of Spotted Cow go through my fridge... so, yeah... I'm familar with it. :-laf



Awesome beer - makes my mouth water just thinking of it. That stuff sure made my sheetrocking/mudding job at that house (where the pics were taken) go so much faster. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



Same to you, man - if you're ever out my way.



Beers,



Matt

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

I dig the set up. I had a half barrel of the stuff this summer and I had to keep it in a trash can and pour ice in there every day that I had the thing. I think I spent more on ice than on the beer itself.



Columbia... just north of Madison? I go out to Madison all the time. Buddies going to school there. Fun town.



Representin' Wisconsin, the drunkest state in America.

 

[PToombs]

Buncha alcoholics! Wish I was there! :{

 

[JGrefenstette]

Fellas!!! Praise the Lord its DONE!!!!!!!! i got 3 relays on the head lights and 1 on the tail. as youll see in the pictures i put the tail light relay directly above the harness that plugs into the dimmer. and the 3 for the headlights i spliced into the wires that run down from the steering column.



from the steering column.



- RED wire with PINK stripe is the highbeam lead



- PURPLE wire with WHITE stripe is the lowbeam lead.



so seeing as how i wanted to get the lowbeams to stay on when the highs where activated, i pigtailed two wires off the highbeam lead coming from the switch, and then pigtailed two wires from the lowbeam lead coming from the lights. that way the highbeams also activate the low beams.



- the taillight wire was BLACK with a YELLOW stripe.



Everything works fabulously! the lights are brighter due to the full 12. 5v theyre getting. and i have high and lowbeams at the same time. when i hit the highbeam lever on the column you can hear the 3 relays "CLICK!!!" if you hold them you can feel it, those suckers realy "CLICK!" :-laf



a SPECIAL THANKS to MATT & PETE who helped all this make sense to me. i couldnt have done it with out yall. really. thanks a bunch, guys.



(for the record, there where plent of headaches with this little job! i bout lost it when trying to re-install the dimmer switch, its so closterfobic under that dang dash ESPECIALLY when you have 3 gauges and cablight wireing all over underthere! man a live i aint gettin underthere anytime soon. :-laf)



View attachment 67965

close up of the splice

View attachment 67966

the wires

View attachment 67967

only lacking the positive and ground wires

View attachment 67968

relays for the headlights, below the column

View attachment 67969

relay for the taillight, directly above the dimmerswitch

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

You forgot to leave the extra 10ft of wire balled up under your dash. It really makes for a fun time, trust me.



So did the wiring work out like I was thinking? Cuz I wasn't exactly 100% sure on that.

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

Hey Pete, offers on the table for you, too. You come up here any time and I'll buy the first round of some Cow just for putting up with me on here.



When driving in snow, most people, if they start to slide, yell "oh ___!" When someone from Wisconsin starts to slide in the snow, they say "Hold my beer... Watch this!"

 

[JGrefenstette]

yea actually it worked perfect. just as you had showed in your diagrams. i mean the actually placment of the wires and how ther were routet between the two switches were different, but the concept was right on. i cant thank you enough man. so you gonna do it next??



i love the line about sliding in the snow! :-laf classic.

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

Ha! I may tackle another project once I figure out how to shut my truck down from inside the cab.



I'm probably going to dyno it this weekend though. My theory is to just make this thing go fast in a straight line. Everything else is just a luxury. It'll be real professional when I pop the hood to shut it off in front of the guys at the speed shop. "Nice numbers, but apparently his key is worthless. "

 

[JGrefenstette]

hhahaha, yea good luck with that. for what its worth, my good friend has an old 1986 benz diesel. and it did the same thing, take the key out and it would just run for about 5+minutes then cut out. his diesel mechanic told him it was a vaccume problem. its a turbo diesel, 5 cylinder, auto transmission, 340,000+miles.

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

Our trucks will run until they burn up everything in the tank, or something cuts the fuel off (soleniod, shutdown lever, diagonal cutters?).

 

[JGrefenstette]

you could starve it for air. pop the boot of the intake horn, cram a rag in it. just make sure its a well packed rag that wont suck down in the intake manifold, that would not be too pleasent.

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

I'd just cover it with a board. I'd like to have a way to shutdown without tools though.

 

[JGrefenstette]

i got one for ya, real easy. a Creasent wrench would do it for ya. pop off the Negative batt terminal. when my alt. died the truck finally ran low enough on volts it just died.

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

It should never die... well, not in my case anyway. Yours died because the shut off solenoid is made so that it needs electricity to keep the fuel valve open. When you run out of power, the valve closes and shuts down the truck. My soleniod is most likely goofed, so I could start the truck, pull the cables off the battery and the alternator, and drive around like that. Couldn't use any lights or anything, but the motor would keep pumpin.

 

[JGrefenstette]

now hows that??? it your solinoid broke??? if so, hows it not just stay shut??

 

[Tippin Spotted Cow]

I've read up on this a little. Apparently theres some rubber tip on it, which cuts off the fuel flow, that can come off in a cranked up fuel pump.