DupermanDave

Since I bought the truck it has had some secondary off-road lights. It came all pre-wired by the previous owner.

Today I went to use them on my drive to work and they both wouldn't work. I checked the bulbs and the filament is good.

Today on my lunch break I took apart the lower dash panel and used my multimeter to test the toggle switch. The toggle switch is good. So then I checked the wiring. When I check for a closed circuit it fails. It's not a closed loop. So something is wrong.

I checked all the splice points and followed the wiring from the toggle switch to the fuse, and then from the fuse out to the engine bay. From the engine bay, I followed every lead to the lights. Nothing is loose and there's no open ends.

I'm at a loss here. Nothing has really changed. The fuses are both good. They were working fine a few days ago, but something must have happened to make them go bad. So what other factors could affect the lights and wiring?

Here's a basic rundown. wires from the toggle switch go to the driver's kickpanel fuse box and connect to 2 different fuses (not sure which ones, the sticker is all messed up). From the fuses, they go out to the engine bay. One wire goes to a ground unit on the driver's fender well. The second wire goes to the lights. Both lights have a wire that also attaches to the metal frame for a ground wire.

peow130

check your grounds, they're probably poor.

Elton

rip out all the old wire start over with some 14ga and wire it up so with a relay
http://www.4runners.org/image/hella5...auxfusebox.jpg

peow130

Screw relays.
Go get a toggle switch and some 14ga. Run the hot side of the switch directly to the battery, with a 30 amp inline fuse. Run the ground to the ground in the cab. Run the ground off the lights to a ground on the frame. and run the hot wire for the lights to the fuse.

No need for a relay at all :/, and this keeps your lights out of your system..

Elton

hey its your truck if you want it to catch on fire go for it a relay is like 5 dollars

weaselman

ive never used a relay for any type of custom wiring ive done.... the most ive burnt up was a switch. rated way to low for the circuit...
so i dont see a problem with not using a relay. but yes. i should use relays. oh well.. lol

peow130

I see no point in a relay when my way works just as efficiently with half the wiring, lol.

Agent Orange

Not as efficient actually. Running that amperage all the way from the battery to the cab for the switch and back out to the lights draws more than just running smaller gauge wiring to a switch and relay and just running the heavy stuff from the battery to a relay under the hood then to the lights.

As for the problem here, double check your switch again, then check grounds and connections to the lights.

peow130

less wiring, less complex = more efficient in my book.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

no relay=bad advice.

DupermanDave

It's currently grounded in 2 places: one (right behind the lights) is right on the frame, and the second is on the inside fender area of the engine bay.

I'm thinking about tearing out all the wiring and redoing it all. It might be faster than chasing down the actual problem. All I can think of it being is a corroded wire somewhere.

If I do, I think I might go with a relay. I have no relay now, and it's not working. Might as well try something new. I'd like to keep the current toggle switch I have, which doesnt have 3 prongs for a secondary fuse box.

A.Wilson013

Relays are too easy not to use.

If you have any questions about them, even the idiots at radioshack should have enough know-how to draw you a diagram on a napkin.

Good luck, re-wire that b.

Alex

DupermanDave

How would I use my current togle switch with an aux fuse set? My switch only has connectors for a positive and negative line, nothing else.

Also, I've been doing some diagramming and planning out. Is it safe to run both ground wires from the lights straight to the battery? Or is there an advantage to just bolting it into the frame? I just don't have the drill bits to drill into the frame and the bolts to do it. Actually, I have a ton of small bolts leftover from the headgasket, but I don't have the drill. plus, I'd like everything wired to the battery for torubleshooting purposes. If anything happens in the future I'd like all the wires to run to a central location to make things cleaner.

-edit-
also, I've been studying that wiring diagram. I'm not familiar with relays, but I know what they do. Why would an aux fusebox on the switch be a good idea? Wouldn't the inline fuse serve the same purpose?

And also, why is there one ground into the switch, and the switch is hooked up to a relay, and a second ground out of the relay and it also looks like there's no positive lead coming out of the relay? (the 86 line doesn't connect to the 30 line). I need some technical explanations, as it helps me learn why I'm doing all this.

-secondary edit-
So I went out to tear out the current wiring and found some things out: the wires I thought that were into the fuse box going to the lights are actualy going to the tacometer. The wires go straight from the switch to the fuse, and then from the fuse to the lights.

I found the original problem: the fuse was blown. So now I need to replace that to get them working, but I still plan on rewiring it with a relay. The previous owner is an electrician, so he knows what he's doing. I feel safe leaving it as is.

Elton

dont worry about the aux fuse box any 12v hot will work fine a inline fuse is cheap and wont hurt the reason why your switch only has 2 is its not lighted basically the switch completes the circuit when you turn it on so yours will work fine

peow130

no relay= worked for me four hours...
so.. i see no problem with it.

DupermanDave

So for wiring directly to the battery a 30 amps fuse is good enough? I don't know what type the one that broke is. There's no details or specs anywhere on it.

peow130

it's really up to you on what you want to do with it.
if all that's wrong with the wiring now is a blown fuse, then just replace the fuse.
If the guy was an electrician, then it's probably pretty good work.

DupermanDave

It's pretty sloppy work, but that's only because I got to it, lol. It was wired nicely before and looked good.

peow130

lol...
well.. Heres how i wired mine up.
also, i used a switch that came with my KC lights.
only reason i didn't use the harness was because it was too short and i didnt want to fumble with a bunch of crap.