I'm not really ready to completely re-wire my mustang, but I'm tired of not being able to see at night. Sadie's high beams are just a tiny bit brighter than mom's Cherokee's low beams. And apparently, I've been driving around for a couple of weeks with my high beams on (tach blocks the indicator on the dash) and apparently no one has noticed. So, I decided to go ahead and do the relay thing so I can install some Sylvania Silverstars.
I started out intending to do it like in these write-ups:
http://midnightdsigns.com/james/headlights.htm
http://humanspeakers.com/audi/headlight-simple.htm
But as my dad and I started going through the process of installing them, it sort of evolved and he figured out a way to hook everything up so that I don't have to splice into the existing wiring harness.
First, I was getting ready to order the relays/sockets when Dad suggested I set it up with 4 relays (left high, left low, right high, and right low would all have separate relays). It's probably a bit overkill, but the relays are only a couple bucks each and if one relay goes out I wouldn't lose both headlights. So I ordered 4 relays (30-amp Bosch Relay #330-070) and 2 double sockets (Relay Socket (dual) #330-078).
We started working on it today (Dad gets credit for helping me out quite a bit. He has a lot of electrical experience and I have almost none).
The first thing I did was label all the wires to make things a little easier when I got out to the car (the sockets had an extra wire, so I just removed it - the red wires):
Also, the way the sockets were set up, the white & yellow wires went from plugs on one socket to plugs on the other. You can kind of see it in this pic:
I needed them to be separate (one for high, one for low) so I just pulled the plug out and separated the wires.
For the wires that go from the relays to the headlights, we used the sockets from old Sadie's headlights and ran wires straight from those to the relays (the online write-ups have you splice into the existing harness). And for the wires that are supposed to go from the dimmer switch to the relays (again, the online write-ups have you splice into the existing harness) we have put blade connectors on the ends of the relay wires and they will plug into the original headlight socket (making it act as the splice).
We got rained out today so I haven't completely finished, but I should be able to get the rest done and take some pics tomorrow. But for now, I drew up a very simple schematic to sort of show what we've done (be kind, I've never drawn a schematic before).
Oh, and I forgot to put it in the diagram, but I will be putting in some fusible links in the power wires that go to the battery.
-Chelle
I started out intending to do it like in these write-ups:
http://midnightdsigns.com/james/headlights.htm
http://humanspeakers.com/audi/headlight-simple.htm
But as my dad and I started going through the process of installing them, it sort of evolved and he figured out a way to hook everything up so that I don't have to splice into the existing wiring harness.
First, I was getting ready to order the relays/sockets when Dad suggested I set it up with 4 relays (left high, left low, right high, and right low would all have separate relays). It's probably a bit overkill, but the relays are only a couple bucks each and if one relay goes out I wouldn't lose both headlights. So I ordered 4 relays (30-amp Bosch Relay #330-070) and 2 double sockets (Relay Socket (dual) #330-078).
We started working on it today (Dad gets credit for helping me out quite a bit. He has a lot of electrical experience and I have almost none).
The first thing I did was label all the wires to make things a little easier when I got out to the car (the sockets had an extra wire, so I just removed it - the red wires):
Also, the way the sockets were set up, the white & yellow wires went from plugs on one socket to plugs on the other. You can kind of see it in this pic:
I needed them to be separate (one for high, one for low) so I just pulled the plug out and separated the wires.
For the wires that go from the relays to the headlights, we used the sockets from old Sadie's headlights and ran wires straight from those to the relays (the online write-ups have you splice into the existing harness). And for the wires that are supposed to go from the dimmer switch to the relays (again, the online write-ups have you splice into the existing harness) we have put blade connectors on the ends of the relay wires and they will plug into the original headlight socket (making it act as the splice).
We got rained out today so I haven't completely finished, but I should be able to get the rest done and take some pics tomorrow. But for now, I drew up a very simple schematic to sort of show what we've done (be kind, I've never drawn a schematic before).
Oh, and I forgot to put it in the diagram, but I will be putting in some fusible links in the power wires that go to the battery.
-Chelle