Relays and switches for D350 headlights

[dpuckett]

I was wondering if some of you lighting/ electrical gurus out there could help me in installing a relay for the lights to take the load off the switch, as I plan to tow with my 1 ton. I dont have a shop manual and chilton book is not too helpful. I think I can follow the instructions for installing a relay, but it is a question of which wires to splice into. Trial and error doesnt seem too good an idea for this project. Thanks. Membership is well worth the $35 a year because of the helpful atmosphere in these forums.



Daniel

 

[dwalker151]

I did something similar with my 91. I did it this way. Using a wire from the clearance lights on my flatbed as the signal wire I put the relay at the back of the truck. There's a connector on the passenger side that works fairly well. I then used the line that feeds the trailer battery charge circuit to run the lights. If you don't have a charge circuit in your trailer plug then you can run one from your battery back but make sure that you put a circuit breaker in the line, mine is 20 amps. I didn't do anything with the stop/turn circuit but I haven't had any problems either.



Dean

 

[Philip]

Use the light tan colored wire in the center of the head light switch plug to power the "on" circuit of the relay.



That is the wire that burns out all the time in the plug.

 

[Braveair78]

Headlight relays

I spliced in relays on my headlights. I bought new harnesses (just the pigtail to plug into the

back of the headlights) and used a relay for

each headlight low and high beam (four relays).

I bought the relays at Auto Zone for fog lamps

SPST. Used the original switch output as signal

into the relay coil. Battery is one side of the. main input and the headlamp filament the other.

I mounted the relays right behind the headlights.

They are noticeably brighter as well.

I suppose that with a switch I could have rigged it to run both high and low beam at the same time

just like the "bright Box" kit that Geno's sells.

I'm not sure about the clearance lights as this

is probably a good idea as well. I had to replace

my headlight switch a year ago after time and

corrosion got to the ground pin connection near the front and below where the switch shaft is.

I soldered that wire back on.

 

[Midnite]

Re: Headlight relays

Originally posted by Braveair

I'm not sure about the clearance lights as this is probably a good idea as well.

The clearance lights (at least on the truck) are probably 194 bulbs. I plan on replacing mine with some of these:



http://www.netdisty.net/ds/WF321/



Specifically, the WF3126-0UO-014B "super orange" type. They only draw 40 milliamps each, so they'd help reduce load on the switch too.



Another alternative might be:



http://www.netdisty.net/ds/AUT194/





Mike