Hey everyone,

I got a hold of these cool-looking 40 year old off road Baja lights from Craigslist. Here's my situation. A friend gave me a PIAA light harness complete with relay, fuse and switch. Anyway, it's all wired up (correctly) and I have terminated my wires at the light tabs on the bumper. The old lights only have one lead coming out (no ground wire) and I am wondering if they are compatible with my wiring harness. I hooked up the hot lead from the wiring harness and connected that to the wire coming out of the light. Then I took the PIAA ground (black) wire and mounted that on the light tab to ground the circuit. The lights don't go on (bulbs are new) but my dash switch lights up like it's supposed to.

Any ideas? Am I being stupid? Is there something really basic that I missed? I'd really like to use these lights as they are very cool looking (retro).

Thanks!

 

You know, it took me a few minutes to figure out there was actually text there.........

They should work if the frame of the light is grounded.

 

Yeah just put the ground wire onto the mounting bolt of the lights and you're good to go.

Cheers.

 

Hmmm....I must have something else going on because this is exactly what I am doing. Maybe I need to put a meter on the leads and make sure I am getting juice.

Thanks for writing you guys.

 

make sure you're getting juice to the lights, if you are then good. the ground for the light itself is probably conneted to a rivet or tab on the inside of the housing, take it apart and make sure that it is still attached- or better yet, run a ground wire out of the housing from the bulb.

 

lol did you make your first post in black cause i cant see it

 

Yeah the first post you have to highlight to read.

Do we get to see any pictures of these lights?

 

Here it is in red

 

Hey thanks to everyone who replied. I figured out the problem with the lights. I wrote up the story with the details.....

So, I hook the lights up earlier and they didn’t come on. It was cold, so I said I’ll look at it tomorrow. Today, I get to troubleshooting. I turn the PIAA switch on…it’s green…no lights. Then I think the bulbs are dead. I unhook a light, get my jumper cables, hook up to the battery, then to the bulb directly…and the light works. Hmmm…I start tracing wires wondering why power is not out at the wire termini. I was getting pissed. Check the relay. Good. Checked the fuse…good as well.

I then turned the PIAA switch off (Red indicator light) and go outside to scratch my head. I look and notice my lights are on. I was like…huh? This long story is to say that the indicator light on the switch is backwards (green = off, red = on) or it was wired backwards but I am not sure that's possible. Red wire is on the postive battery terminal and the black wire is on the negative terminal.

Anyway, funny story. These old lights are 100W and are pretty bright. Not daylighters but not bad for 15 bucks. I like the way they look too.

 

As payment we now ask for pics

 

And again I say:

 

Yes, you're right. I owe you guys some pics. I'll do that tomorrow but if you can't wait, you may have luck Google searching the company. Unity Manufacturing out of Chicago, IL. The model number stamped on them is F-1.

 

Ok, in my ultimate laziness, I searched EBay and found a couple vintage lights for sale from the same manufacturer from about the same era. I copied 3 pics and they should be attached to this message.

 

Those are rad!

 

Not bad, not bad. Still want to see them on the truck. And maybe some example pics of how bright they are?