Harbinger Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 (edited) because it was the easy thing to do. rather than take the time to find the correct wire in the dash he saw an opportunity to quickly locate the wire of his choice in a less time-consuming way That would make sense I suppose. Todays Progress: Ripped all the extraneous relay/Hi-beam wiring of the engine compartment. Wired up the switches to molex connectors -- wired up the related dash wiring to the other half of the connectors. Wired up the relays and fuse block in the glove box. Mounted the fuse block with velcro -- will do the same with the 3 relays once I get some more velcro. Connected all the switch and relay grounds to one 10ga wire and grounded that wire. The issues: My battery is dead -- and now it the truck won't even jump start. I'm hoping its just the battery and not the alt or something worse. pssd While it was running I checked to see what was working. The map lights are go, the fog lights are go. The driving lights are a negative just yet. Connected the driving light turn-on wire to a red wire in the steering column. Not sure if thats right yet :confused: According to the Haynes manual its the right HL wire, not sure if thats right but I want to double check that once the trucks running again. :furious: Edited January 19, 2006 by Harbinger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 19, 2006 Author Share Posted January 19, 2006 For those of you with aftermarket lights -- what wire did you use to tie into the high beams? Or maybe someone has a FSM (the manual, not his noodly greatness!) and they could tell me better than the haynes does? *crosses fingers* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSM_guy Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 you sir need a voltmeter...or at least a test light. FSM's are generally correct, but can sometimes provide faulty info. if your searching under the dash for this red wire...it should control BOTH headlights..not just one. that shouldent split till your after the headlight relay (id think anyways) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 you sir need a voltmeter...or at least a test light. FSM's are generally correct, but can sometimes provide faulty info. if your searching under the dash for this red wire...it should control BOTH headlights..not just one. that shouldent split till your after the headlight relay (id think anyways) I know I know -- the voltometers on the list but may not happen untill I get the pathy a new battery, or at least figure out WTF is going on. I'll see what I can beg/borrow/steal though. I've already found the red wire I speak of -- according to the haynes manual theres two wires for the HL's in the column -- one red and one red/white. Doesn't say anything about hi/low beams though. And I thought our trucks didn't have headlight relays in their stock form? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSM_guy Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 hmm, maybe they didnt?? now that you mention it..was that one of the thing in the "headlight rewire" writeup? which reminds me..i ought to do that sometime. as far as the voltmeter/test light. admitedly...i RARELY ever use my meter. i have an el-cheap test light and it works wonders. you can get a large one anywhere for under $5 and you can get a small pocket sized one (about the size of a sharpie marker) at radio shack for under $2. iv installed 2 alarms, 3 headunits, and multiple other peices of electronic equip with just my trusty testlight. id advise you to pick one up before you go too much further. with as screwy as automotive wiring is..you do NOT wanna start plugging up to the wrong wires and burning stuff out. but it sounds like your motoring right along. i hate wireing with a passion..too much cramped spaces and frustration and time involved in it all. after a day of wiring im about brain dead from the entire ordeal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 hmm, maybe they didnt?? now that you mention it..was that one of the thing in the "headlight rewire" writeup? which reminds me..i ought to do that sometime. Yeah, same here -- *scribbles note on ever-growing to do list* as far as the voltmeter/test light. admitedly...i RARELY ever use my meter. i have an el-cheap test light and it works wonders. you can get a large one anywhere for under $5 and you can get a small pocket sized one (about the size of a sharpie marker) at radio shack for under $2. iv installed 2 alarms, 3 headunits, and multiple other peices of electronic equip with just my trusty testlight. id advise you to pick one up before you go too much further. with as screwy as automotive wiring is..you do NOT wanna start plugging up to the wrong wires and burning stuff out. I might pick up a test lamp when I pick up more velcro tomorrow then. Just to make this job slightly less of a PITA. I used to have one but one way or another it got fried but it sounds like your motoring right along. i hate wireing with a passion..too much cramped spaces and frustration and time involved in it all. after a day of wiring im about brain dead from the entire ordeal Yeah its coming together pretty well - but its still taken WAY longer than I wanted it too. Having my dash all torn apart and with the truck not starting SERIOUSLY affects my snowboarding. All thats left now though is finding the correct trigger wire for the driving lights and puting the dash back together. Outside of getting the Battery properly charged and/or replaced of course. pssd I do like to do wiring though -- if I didn't I never would have started this. The toolbox was VERY functional -- just ugly as hell and it only had one 30A fuse on the main power wire. Not to mention its wiring was strung all over hell and back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSM_guy Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 ok, well while doing my BL today..i got tired of the OEM rat nest of wireing in the engine bay behind the battery. and i have a couple bits of info for you. there is an OEM splice job on the low beam wire on the pass side. it is a purple wire, and it runs to the relay on your firewall...so thats probably teh wireing and one of the relays you encountered. i took mine out because i dont use that as my trigger wire for my fogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 ok, well while doing my BL today..i got tired of the OEM rat nest of wireing in the engine bay behind the battery. and i have a couple bits of info for you. there is an OEM splice job on the low beam wire on the pass side. it is a purple wire, and it runs to the relay on your firewall...so thats probably teh wireing and one of the relays you encountered. i took mine out because i dont use that as my trigger wire for my fogs. You say you had a purple wire running along the passenger side as well? The wire spliced in behind my headlight was purple as well, and ran to a relay just to the right of the hood hinge. :confused: Is this what you see too? My HL splice didn't look like an OEM job though -- it had been cut and then re-spliced with a butt connector with both the HL wire and purple wire coming out of it. The whole assembly was wrapped in electrical tape. I ripped mine out under the impression that it was aftermarket stuff, because all the wires ran into the toolbox (or up to my KC lights) as did the purple wire. Grrrr, this is perplexing. pssd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSM_guy Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 yup, mine looked like that. and my connectino didnt look stock either. they used one of those light blue boxy lookin crimps to siphon off from the main wire. one of those wire (i think its yellow) then goes inside, maybe the PO just found that and used it for a trigger. but still , i redid mine the correct way. and how funny is it that the fog's rate a relay..but not the headlights? i swear... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) yup, mine looked like that. and my connectino didnt look stock either. they used one of those light blue boxy lookin crimps to siphon off from the main wire. one of those wire (i think its yellow) then goes inside, maybe the PO just found that and used it for a trigger. Yeah, thats familiar too -- I had a harness with three wires (yellow, green & purple) running across the the firewall and through a hole in the firewall not to far from the drivers side of the engine. Looking back I guess he did re-splice those wires so he could run them into the toobox, I suppose they would have been just the right distance to go to the OEM fog switch before. It also explains why the relay contacts were so dirty when I took it apart! O'well -- that whole assembly is in the glove compartment now. but still , i redid mine the correct way. and how funny is it that the fog's rate a relay..but not the headlights? i swear... No kidding! *EDIT Heres an idea! Were the fog lights a dealer option or something? Because it sounds like we have the same setup but the install does NOT look like it came from the factory. Edited January 21, 2006 by Harbinger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) Todays update: Bought a battery charger and multimeter today. Cleaned the terminals & charged the battery -- its holding at about 12.6 volts right now. Will check it periodically to see if its dropping or if I actually just left the lights on like I think i might have. Figured out why my passengers headlight wasn't coming on -- fuse blew -- must have happened sometime when I was removing the ghetto-splice for the OEM fogs. So now my passengers headlight and highbeam symbol are working. The red wire I chose for the trigger wire works -- its a headlight wire, but its evidently on independent of the highbeams -- so my switches are on as long as the HL's are. Think I might keep it that way. Even with the battery charged the truck won't start. I checked the fuse box and the HL was the only blown one I found. When you go to start it I hear this weird vibration/noise from the passengers side of the engine compartment. But I don't get a click or anything from the starter. I'm thinking its a relay but haven't gotten that far in looking yet. Anyone know which relay controls the starter? Edited January 22, 2006 by Harbinger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSM_guy Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 yeah, mine was factory optioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Pickles Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Mine has that fog light wiring set-up too. I dunno about dealer install, but could be. The power comes off the battery and has an inline fuse pretty much like if you or I were to install an aftermarket kit harness. Do you guys have/had this as well? The relay is a Bosh brand on the firewall near the hood hinge on teh passenger side. If I remember right, green is ground. I posted a while ago ID'ing all of the wires, actually. Well anyways, good luck on the project and the battery/starting issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSM_guy Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 exactly what i have. and just a tidbit...the fog lights are bosch too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 22, 2006 Author Share Posted January 22, 2006 Mine has that fog light wiring set-up too. I dunno about dealer install, but could be. The power comes off the battery and has an inline fuse pretty much like if you or I were to install an aftermarket kit harness. Do you guys have/had this as well? The relay is a Bosh brand on the firewall near the hood hinge on teh passenger side. If I remember right, green is ground. I posted a while ago ID'ing all of the wires, actually. Well anyways, good luck on the project and the battery/starting issue. Yeah thats what I've got too. 20A fuse in the line right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 26, 2006 Author Share Posted January 26, 2006 (edited) Well with the mystery of the non-starting truck solved I put most of my dash back together and took some pics of the monstly completed project -- just gotta put things back together now! Heres what I had before: Heres the back of the panel -- note the geeky molex connectors! Heres what it looks like now: Its not pretty -- but it looks a LOT better -- you have to looks a lot harder to see the imperfections in the panel, but you didn't have to look hard at all to see the old toolbox! I'll ad some pics of the fuse block / relays in the glove box when I get some more time -- I'm already running late to work. pssd Edited January 26, 2006 by Harbinger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derogate Posted January 26, 2006 Share Posted January 26, 2006 that looks really good. The toolbox had one thing over this setup though... character. now it just looks cool, and semi-professional. whats the fun in that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSM_guy Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 niiiiice harbie looks a TON better and as far as the toolbox character..yeah..it was different alright lol for at least a temporary (or permanent) solution to your hole in the dash...looks like a dandy place for one of those little liquid filled ball compases Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 Nice job Harb!!! Looks much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimGreg Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 Nice, though where are you gonna put out your cigarettes ? It's nice being able to see out the windsheild isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyb33 Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 looks much better!!! i prefer professional over eyesore anyday!!! great work man looks clean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vsicks Pathy Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 Much better man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 27, 2006 Author Share Posted January 27, 2006 Thanks everybody -- Its nice to not have that ugly thing in there anymore! So I went through and changed the roof lights to trigger whenever the engine is running, so I can run them independent of the headlights but not without the truck running, gives me some measure of saftey eh? Heres a close up of the glovebox -- where I added a fuse block and consolidated the relays: And an overall shot: So thats it, the end of the toolbox - -I get a much cleaner dash and a fuse on every power line in exchange for pure fuctionaltiy and 4 12v outlets. It was worth it for at least a temporary (or permanent) solution to your hole in the dash...looks like a dandy place for one of those little liquid filled ball compases I was thinking about either a dancing hula girl or a inclinometer Nice, though where are you gonna put out your cigarettes ? I don't smoke tobacco, so I'm not to worried about it i prefer professional over eyesore anyday!!! great work man looks clean! LOL it doesn't look THAT clean -- the plywood didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but it wedges in there awfully well. Even so its WAY better than that toolbox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mookie Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 Nice work. Wish I could keep my glove box empty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbinger Posted January 28, 2006 Author Share Posted January 28, 2006 Nice work. Wish I could keep my glove box empty! Thanks -- but the glovebox doesn't stay empty -- I've got the standard mess of registration/insurance papers, pens, lighters etc to go back in there. Just couldn't think of a better spot to put the relays and fuse block Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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