I bought a kit to hook up my off road lights(3). The kit called for splicing off of my headlights. Which I did not do. Hooked everything up according to schematics except hooking into the headlamps. Lights don't work. Do I need the relay switch? What does it do?
EDIT: tested lamps and they are good.
Hooked up a test light and I can only get light from the power terminal.

 

The wire that was suppose to go to the headlight needs power, since you didn't run it to the headlights, run it to the battery in line with a fuse.

look in the Tech Write-up forum under electrical and there are a couple of auxillary light write-up....

 

sounds like you have a ground problem, and its wierd you would hook them into the same circut as your factory headlamps ,you need to use the relay and hook up according to directions, 86 on the relay is ground 30 is hot contiuous, and 87 and 87a are where your lights hook up at

 

sounds like you have a ground problem mabe?? and yes you need a relay

 

get a relay and wire it up like so
http://www.4runners.org/image/hella5...auxfusebox.jpg

 

All you need to do is run a wire from the + battery to a switch to the coil wire (the one that is supposed to go to the headlight). This closes the internal contacts that will send power to your lights. Make sure each light has a good ground and the other relay wire that goes to ground is also on bare metal/screwed into bare metal.

 

I'm getting a fuse to pop now. The lights are hooked up per schematic I got on-line.
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...ram_small2.jpg
Except I have 3 lights and a powered switch for an indicator light. I'm going to start with my ground connections but, am wondering about the wire size in a couple of spots in the wiring.

 

Which fuse is popping?

What I usually do at that point is to try and simplify the circuit and make that work first then work up to the whole thing. So what to start with? Just get the switch to work all my itself, so it only has power and ground and see if you can get the output to turn on and off and the indicator light to work right. Once that is working, connect the switch to the relay (with no lights hooked to the relay) and see if you can get the relay to turn on and off by itself. Then try adding a light at a time and see if that works.

You can use small gauge wires between the switch and relay then the heavier gauge stuff between the relay and the lights.

 

It's the one to the main power supply on the relay.

 

Well, try disconnecting all the lights and test. If fuse pops, then check all the relay-light wiring. If the fuse does not pop, connect a light at a time and re-test. What size fuse and what wattage lights?

 

I'll try that. 100 watt bulbs on a 15 amp fuse. I threw a 20 in and it blew that to.

 

100 watts = ~8 amps at 12 volts, x 3 = 24 amps and startup current is higher than that:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...shtml#HOrelays

 

After everything I repaired/changed/tested today, I came to the conclusion that I needed a bigger relay switch for this set-up. Thanks for all your help and the link. Much appreciated.
EDIT: Should I go with a 30 amp system?
EDITEDIT: I'll go with the 30 amp. Thanks again for the link.