I had some heating issues with my wiring on my lightbar and I'm looking for some advice in hooking it up. Of course the company is out of business and I can't find the instructions.


So here is how it is set up...


There are 2 thick wires, red and pink(red has a stripe). The 2 wires become 4 wires, one goes to each of the 4 fuses. From the fuses the power goes the switches for the different banks of light. Then it goes into the cord to the lights in the bar. Then there is one thick solid red wire that comes back through the cord. There is also a very thin black wire that is connected to every switch. I'm guessing that is the ground for the little light in the switch.


My question is which end of the circut is positive and negative. I had the 2 wires that went to the fuses connected to positive but it just seems strange having 2 wires like that. It worked but those wires would get really hot. It melted the electical tape I was using to hold them together. This could be due to having them both connected into the one black wire and then directly to the battery. Now that I think of it, I may have used that end as the negative. After it got hot a few times, I removed all the wiring and redid it, only hooking my my radio and amp(you can kinda see the spiffy fuse block behind my hand. I never hooked up the lightbar due to the heat issue. I don't want to blow the bar by randomly hooking things up...

Here is a pic I just took.



Josh

anyone?

Hard to tell how it is wired. Best bet is to trace out the wires and on the shwitches, ohm them out to see how they are internally connected. Also a good idea to limit the interconnections with the factory wiring, since Toyota uses a mix of switched power and switched ground connections. Mixing the two types of wiring is usually a cause of problems.

It is not wired into the harness, this thing draws way too much. I have some sort of monster gauge wire directly from the battery to a beefy aftermarket fuse box (for high amp stereo systems) and then to the fuse/switch box for the lights. I think the switch box has 2 15A and 2 25A fuses in it.


Due to the dangers of running an unswitched/fused 12v+ wire all the way up to the lights I would think that the pos+ would go to the fuse/switch box first. I'm just not sure.


Could you explain how to Ohm out the switches? I'm not really sure what you are talking about.

"Ohm out" as in test the switch terminals with an ohm meter (i.e. one that measures resistance). Basically measure the resistance between the various switch terminals (switch not connected to anything) and see how it is wired internally on and off. Likely there are 3 terminals, 12V, Load, and Ground. Try to identify which terminals are connected when the switch is closed (on) and if it is a back-lit light, where/how the light is connected.

This page has some info on wiring for switches: http://www.bcae1.com/switches.htm

And try simplifying the system for testing. For example, remove the switch and just apply power to the relay coil and see if it turns on and off as it should.

Since you have a overheating issue, I would re-wire the hole thing by making your own wiring harness. I would also only run the 2 switches to 2 relays mounted under the bed in a metal electrical box, or in the engine bay, depending on what size wire you run. What wattage are the lights?, from the pic it looks like the company went over board with wire. You only need a 12 or 14 gauge power lead for each light, about 10 gauge 25-30 amp fused power lead from battery to relays, and 18 gauge wire for triggers(to relays, fuses not needed) and fused power leads to the switches.

There are 6 lights in the front, 3 in the back and one on each side. There is a switch for the left front bank(3 lights), right front bank, rear bank and a rocker with 3 positions, left/right/off for the side lights. From what the person I bought it from told me, he paid for the upgrade so all the front lights are 100w hellas. This thing makes daytime. I feel that the amount of wires is bare minimum.

I'm going to try ohm'in the switches and see what I can find. I like the idea of having the pos+ power fused and switched asap. I don't like the idea of having the pos+ going up the line to the lights first then coming down to be switched then fused then grounded.

What are the benefits of adding relays to the system?

Relays are an excellent idea, if you harness does not have any, adding some would be a big help. I have some info on their benefits as well as a like to a reference page with more info below:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Headlights.shtml#WiringHarness

The main idea is that you little switch just turns the relays on and off (a few 10s of milli-amps). Then the relay turns the lights on and off (a few 10s of amps). So the relay acts like a current amplifier. That way you are not running power from the battery to the lights then to the switch (inside the cab) then to ground. Instead you run (fused) power to the relay contacts, then up to the lights and then to ground. On the switch side, it is battery, switch, relay coil and ground:

I didn't realize it was the enclosed light bar.

Do the lights share any of the power lines?, if so I couild see why they ran the size they did.

It is an odd set-up that has the power lead going to the light than the switch than the ground.

As 4Crawler mentioned, the relays reduce the amount of power going through the switch. Most switches burn up running power through them to the lights. If you can't find the problem in their wireing, you could still rewire it, using one switch and 1 relay for 2 lights, i.e, 2 switches/relays for the 4 forward lights, 1 for the side lights, and 2 for the rear 3 lights. Their wiring design could be why they are no longer in business. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />