Well, after reaching a point where my headlights were flickering again, after only a year since replacing the switch, I decided to take all of the advice and do the "Headlight Relay mod".

When I first read the post and got a look at all the wires it was a bit intimidating. But, I have to thank Jim Lane for the great tutorial - it made the job somewhat easy. It actually WORKED the first time I plugged everything in - (though I did have the Bright/Low Beams reversed).

If I were to do it a second time I would probably add this to the instruction list:

1. Buy more than a 12' roll of each of the Red/Blue/Black wires. 16' would have been better, but I got what was there.

2. I would use more than 8' to wire the passenger side headlight - that way I could run the wire against the firewall. 8' only gave me enough to run it up front near the radiator.

3. I would first mount the relays and hardware where I wanted them and THEN cut the wires to length.

Either way, thanks again Jim. You made that job a worthwhile project. My headlights seem way brighter and I can relax a bit now that I am not waiting for my headlights to suddenly go out on a nice dark country road in the middle of the night. WOO HOO!

 

Good info for us, I bypassed all of that and just went with HID's (no resistance you know?), wouldn't go back now if you gave me cash. I love when people flash me when I'm on low beam, I flip to high and let the train horn go, and give them all 160 DB.
Justin

 

Quote:
Well, after reaching a point where my headlights were flickering again, after only a year since replacing the switch, I decided to take all of the advice and do the "Headlight Relay mod".

When I first read the post and got a look at all the wires it was a bit intimidating. But, I have to thank Jim Lane for the great tutorial - it made the job somewhat easy. It actually WORKED the first time I plugged everything in - (though I did have the Bright/Low Beams reversed).

If I were to do it a second time I would probably add this to the instruction list:

1. Buy more than a 12' roll of each of the Red/Blue/Black wires. 16' would have been better, but I got what was there.

I get most of my wire in 100 and 500-foot rolls.

2. I would use more than 8' to wire the passenger side headlight - that way I could run the wire against the firewall. 8' only gave me enough to run it up front near the radiator.

I designed it for the wires to the passenger side lamp to go across the core support, there is no reason you could not lengthen it to go along the firewall instead, just keep the 12-gauge wire.

3. I would first mount the relays and hardware where I wanted them and THEN cut the wires to length.

Good idea, I have even mounted relays inside watertight housings.

I only made it this way so anybody could follow simple directions and duplicate it successfully.
A lot of people get intimidated when the see a bunch of drawn lines and symbols, for me it is easy to read and draw electronics schematics, I have been doing this way before there were AutoCAD programs to make it easy.

Either way, thanks again Jim. You made that job a worthwhile project. My headlights seem way brighter and I can relax a bit now that I am not waiting for my headlights to suddenly go out on a nice dark country road in the middle of the night. WOO HOO!

It is nice to hear it has helped someone, it is a good idea to keep a few spare relays in your glove box just incase one fails.
Did you use Bosch/ Tyco or another brand?

Whenever I get an idea to make something that I am not sure of how I want it to be, I usually have the idea in my head and then I will build a mock-up and then connect it to a small 17ah battery and take voltage and current readings and then put onto paper but for most of the things on my truck I will just start connecting wire and components as I go because I already know how I want it to work.

From there I will make refinements, also when I build something I am always thinking ahead of how the next idea might be integrated into the previous idea.
Jim

 

I get most of my wire in 100 and 500-foot rolls.

Budget wouldn't allow me to get 100' rolls - 20' each would have been great.

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Did you use Bosch/ Tyco or another brand?

Bosch - eBay. $1.50 each.

I also was only able to find the "cheap" headlight sockets, so I removed the female plugs from the housings and soldered the 12ga directly to them and then reinserted them into the housing.

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Whenever I get an idea to make something that I am not sure of how I want it to be, I usually have the idea in my head and then I will build a mock-up and then connect it to a small 17ah battery and take voltage and current readings and then put onto paper but for most of the things on my truck I will just start connecting wire and components as I go because I already know how I want it to work.

I totally understand. When I first came up with the TPS - Potentiometer mod it was "up in the air". The second truck that I did it on was sure a lot easier!

 

I've done a similar mod in the past with great results. I used the existing wires and spliced relays into them, pulling power from the start relay line that's connected directly to the battery. The whole point is to not have to run the current from the battery to the switch and then to the headlights. What made it even cooler was that I used OEM style disconnects so if I want, I just just remove the relays and everything reverts to stock.

 

You can get most of the factory connectors from Cole Hearse, Packard or places like Hot Rod Wires.
http://www.hotrodwires.com/catalogte...onnectors.html

Or I will go the junkyard and get as many parts of harnesses that I can find and then I will either splice onto the wires or extract them and replace the terminals with my own. The terminals from the bottom of the site above I have many different styles.

I have a large double-sided Plano Tackle style box with the adjustable compartments filled with about every imaginable terminal I could find. Not just a few but a minimum of about 100 each.
I also have HVAC high temperature terminals and butt splices.

When I design something I like to have it so I can always simply unplug it and revert to the original circuit for redundancy although I have never had anything I have built fail to operate in the way I had planed.

When I make something for you people I like to have as fail safe as possible so even if you only have basic skills you can duplicate the project although sometimes I might leave you scratching you head.
Jim

 

So did that stop the "flickering"?

Jim - All your projects are top notch! And appreciated!

 

Should have - but too soon to say. I am confident that it did though.