firemaniac

The bulbs can be tested by connecting one tab to the pos and the other to the neg, be careful not to touch the glass of the bulb as that will shorten the life of the bulb, in a way, now that I think of it, you already did this when you touched the wire to the battery. So in this case I would put in a bulb that is known to be good.

When you ran the wire through the firewall into the cab to the switch and back did you go through or use a new grommet it is possible that a wire is shorted to ground at the firewall.

Jay351

I ran my wire through the factory grommit on the drivers side by the clutch fluid resovour. Same place I did my tractor light wires

I ran a wire from the + battery post to the yellow wire/85 post on the relay. No spark. No click.

should I swap relays?

As for testing the bulb wouldnt touching the positive side of the wire to the battery do the same thing?

USPS really man handled my box of parts on the way up here. I wonder if they damaged the lights?

Just to make sure my bulbs are okay this is what I will do:

I will take my driving light put the power wire onto the + post and the ground onto the - post. If they light up they are good. I will put them where my fog lights and if it works then I know my bulb is bad. If they dont work I know I have a wiring/relay problem.

Sound okay?

firemaniac

Sounds like your on the right track

Jay351

I touched my driving light onto the battery. Power to + ground to -
It came on. I swapped it with my fog light.. nothing.

I think its the relay. I will go to the parts shop tomorrow and pick one up.

aviator

Ok here's what we know
you only have one relay per pair fog/driving lights right?
your wiring is correct for the relays and the lights because the driver's side fog initially came on and only failed when you tried to get the pax side to light up. When it failed it gradually went dim and then out.

It sounds like you have a problem with the wire that feeds Batt. power to the lights. Specifically it sounds like the wire either had a weak spot or could'nt handle the current draw and melted apart some where. Since your switch still lights up the problem is most likly going to be on the "switched" side of the relay (between the relay and the lights). This can happen without breaking through the nylon jacket of the wire, common places are at the crimp connections and anywhere the wire was folded up for packaging. You might also check inside the light itself where the wires connect to the socket. I had a set once where after they soldered it on there was only 2 or 3 strands of the wire actually connected to socket (I found this after mine burned out lol).

The 16AWG wire they supplied is kind of light for this use anyways you really want to use at least a 12AWG for this application to get maximum output and reliability. Be careful if you deside to "upgrade" the wiring the 12AWG is'int as flexible as the 16AWG and so won't fold up as well in side the housing (which is why they use 16 in the first place) use a bit of 14AWG if you have to make new "tails" for the sockets.

First what you should have is one wire (black or green) going from the Neg. of the light to grnd. You can use one wire for each or jumper them together, it does'nt matter.
Next you need another wire (any colour ie red [or blue to match what you have now]) going from the Batt. with an inline fuse to the relay [unswitched side] and from the relay [switched side] to the nearest light and jumpered from there to the next light.

I recall you said the fogs where "Hecho in Mexico" or something. Nothing agianst our mexican friends but sometime quality control is not all it should be.
Hope this helped you aviator.

edit: I just saw you're going to try a new relay also. It might be the problem but I don't think so based on your description of the failure. Good luck in any case.

Jay351

Well Now that you have been saying about the folded wires. The wires where VERY VERY tightly wrapped up. I also had lots of excess wire from the relay to the lights so I kinda wrapped it up and zap strapped it together, like I did to my tractor lights.

Should I try different wire from the relay to the lights?

I am running 1 relay. The wires to the lights merge into one connector that plugs into the relay ( pre-set up )

So should I go grap some 14 guage and 12 guage. Try a test wire from the relay to the lights? I have some blue 16 guage that I got to extend my grounds, should I use that as a test wire?

Jay351

Okay I went out and tried a few things:

I took out my passenger side light, unplugged the power wire comming from the relay. I attached a test wire and ran that to the relay. Nothing.

So I took it off the relay and touched it to the battery. BING light is on!

Okay, so I take off my test wire, plug the old black supply wire into the light and touch it to the battery ( it should work right?) BZZZ some nice big sparks, but no lights.

So this is what I have concluded, correct me if you guys think im wrong.

1. my wires going to the lights from the relay are bad
2. my relay is also bad.

so Im gonna go up to lordco, pick up an assortment of 12-14 guage wire, a relay and go from there. I have another 20 mins to hang around here then I have to go out for the afternoon, so post up before I leave

Jay351

So I was testing more wires and I saw smoke comming from my lights, the ground wires they gave me melted!!! So I replaced those and im in the process of running the 12 guage wire from the brand new relay to the lights.

Jay351

So I hooked my new wires up, everything looked good. Flip the switch.. nothing. My relay is now clicking though. Okay.
so I hook a test switch up to make sure my wires to my switch are good.. nothing, I swap the connectors on my switch, I get sparks and almost poop my pants

So I think.. well lets try somthing easy, I check my fuse.. its busted!

I jam up to lordco, grab some fuses, pop one in..

rubysRunner

haha success finally! they look good jay. you'll have to lead the way now i guess

Jay351

Haha, thanks Jules!

The whole time we where commin down harrison I was wishing I had the lights! Im prepaired for our next night outing

firemaniac

Good job, now for the roll bar light's don't forget to inspect the wire's or the lessons learned here

Jay351

For the roll bar lights, im not gonn even bother using some of the wires they sent me.

Im gonna use 12 guage for power to the lights and the regulare 16 guage for the grounds.

I will use the wires they gave me for the switch though

aviator

Fantastic Jay glad we could help...
You want to use the same 12AWG (or at least 14AWG) for the grounds though... a good general rule of thumb is to use the same size wire for each side (+&-) this will ensure that your resistances stay the same [this way nothing gets hot and melts/catches fire] if you absolutely have to down size the ground wire to get the install accomplished only go one size down [for low/med. amp draw DC systems only this should limit the difference in resistances to an "acceptable" amount.
High amp draw DC items like winches and inverters absolutely must use the same gauge wire for both "sides" for proper function.

(AC systems like your house/shop absolutely must have the same gauge conductors for both the "hot and neutral" (black/red and white wires) the ground wire (bare/green conductor) may be one gauge smaller in most applications [check your local electrical code for specific requirements here as there are a multitude of differences between applications and jurisdictions])

Hope this helped aviator

edit: for the switch wires go ahead and use the wires they gave you the 16 AWG will be fine as that is a very low amp "trigger" circuit only.

Jay351

Ah okay, I will use the 12 guage, kinda anoying since its friggin expensive!

probibly cost me 20 bucks just for the wires that shouldve been included in the kit. Not the crappy arse ones that melted and almost caught fire!

aviator

yeah the wire they give you is just to make it "work". kinda like the speaker wire they give you in those home theatre in a box sets or include with your car speakers, the wire works but if you want to make it sound good you have to "upgrade".

on the other hand your lights will be giving you the full rated output now...

Jay351

I have a big roll of 14 guage wire, think I could get away using that as my ground(s)?

LK1

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier. I bought a set of Hella 500's and wired them up exactly per the directions. Connect everything like you did, flip the switch......nothing. Check all my connections, grounds, figured the wire they sent is too small so I re-wire everything with heavier gauge wire, double check connections........nothing. Finally, I take apart the lights themselves, mine came with the lights already wired through the light housing, the freakin a**holes at the factory had reversed the grounds. That's what I would have suggested you check. Glad you got them working. For future installations double check that the factory knew what they were doing.

Jay351

Well the fogs had nothing hooked up in the light, so per the instructions I had to take out the lamp and hook it up.

The driving lights have the power and ground already poking out the grommit. But since im stepping up the guage wire I will be take them apart anyways.

I just finished making the final version of my custom switch panel, silicone is drying, will drill my holes and paint it tomorrow then install on thursday.

Im gonna install the relay, switch wires for my driving lights so I dont have to take my dash out again, then I just have to run my wires to my lights

I will post updates in my thread in the 89-95 section

Thanks for all the help, everyone! I would still be scratchin my head, looking at the stupid directions they send you.

firemaniac

New directions for light installs.

1. Open box
2. Toss wire harness in project/expermental box
3. Put instructions at bottom of bird cage, litter box, etc.
4. Mount lights in desired location.
5. Wire lights in a safe way, using fuses and relays, that you will be able to remember what you did in future (use the K.I.S.S. method).
6. If you have any problem with the above never be afraid to ask Yotatech members for help.
7. Snap a pic.
8. Test drive (any mod deserves a good test drive no matter how small or large).
9. Post results (we all like pic's).
10. pop a cold whatever and celebrate a job well done.

Well I suppose this list could work for several things.