headlight switch wire upgrade?

[userbmx1315]

was pulling my boat home lastnight and smelled buring wire. coming from my dash. so i suppose that my wires were melting AGAIN. is there a plug i can unplug these and replace or has anyone made an up grade harness? i'd just like to be able to pull my boat around safely.
also in to near future i'd like to up grade my headlights. so i dont want my wires burning again. thanks

 

[CharlesS]

Never had a problem with the wiring harness for the rear lights.... Several years ago.... I installed the factory tow harness.... There is additional 12V power source behind the drivers side kick panel which is supplied by a sky blue wire that says 12V electric source for (IIRC) trailer brakes....
As for the headlight harness... There are several manufacturers for plug n play headlight harness's or you can build one of your own... which uses the factory wiring as a trigger wire for the aftermarket relays...

 

[userbmx1315]

its the harness that connects to the headlight switch. my wires were starting to melt. do you have any links to the harness you are talking about?

 

[XJ98Jeep]

http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoHeadlightLoom.htm
is that what you're talking about?

 

[userbmx1315]

no. i'm looking for the part that attaches to the headlight switch. thats the part thats melting/burning
that is another thing i will be doing soon also tho.

 

[AlabamaDan]

I think gojeep's headlight loom uses a relay to keep all that power going through the switch, which protects it and its little wires. The power for the lights goes directly from the battery, while its a little bit of power going through the switch to the relay. Am I right guys?

 

[TiRod]

Yes. I added the aux power loom to handle some 100w headlights. My headlight switch and connector are pretty burnt - the interlock tab is completely missing, and the main red wire is dark brown about two inches up.

I'd go with the trailer wiring setup as mentioned, get power pulled from another source on the fuze box to reduce the load at the switch. Then add the headlight setup later to reduce the load even more. Taking 45w off the switch with the aftermarket loom works, too, as nearly anything to reduce the load can't hurt.

 

[userbmx1315]

do the wires have a plug? that way i could replace to old wires.

 

[userbmx1315]

this is what my wires and plug look like when i pulled it out. what mess. theres even a jumper wire from one wire to another.

 

[Root Moose]

How I fixed it:

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=931450&highlight=head+light+switch

 

[userbmx1315]

thanks.. i thinki'm going to go to the junk yard and cut the plug out and splice it in. will wire splices cause heat?

 

[cherokee chuck]

thanks.. i thinki'm going to go to the junk yard and cut the plug out and splice it in. will wire splices cause heat?

Not if you use solder & shrink tubing. It's a good plan but you should get the switch with the plug. This is the standard fix for old Mopars & it works for jeeps too. It's those friggin H-4 headights & 100 watt bulbs wired through the stock fog lights that did it to me!:cheers:

 

[5-90]

thanks.. i thinki'm going to go to the junk yard and cut the plug out and splice it in. will wire splices cause heat?

If they're done properly, it should not.

To prevent it happening again, you'll want to wire in the headlamp loom (even if you have stock headlamps, it takes a huge load off of that switch!) and, if you tow regularly, you might want to do some sort of relay setup for the lamps on the trailer - you can feed the relays from a common power feed, get the "trip signal" from the rear lamp loom, and you won't be adding more than a few dozen milliamperes per lamp circuit (which the switch should be able to handle just fine.)

Just getting the headlamps off of the headlamp switch will help, since that will help cool the switch down. You won't be able to take running lamps off - but the relay trick can help that (and relays for your brake lamps will help the brake lamp switch last longer anyhow, and relays for the reverse lamps can help your NSS, ...)

 

[userbmx1315]

If they're done properly, it should not.

To prevent it happening again, you'll want to wire in the headlamp loom (even if you have stock headlamps, it takes a huge load off of that switch!) and, if you tow regularly, you might want to do some sort of relay setup for the lamps on the trailer - you can feed the relays from a common power feed, get the "trip signal" from the rear lamp loom, and you won't be adding more than a few dozen milliamperes per lamp circuit (which the switch should be able to handle just fine.)

Just getting the headlamps off of the headlamp switch will help, since that will help cool the switch down. You won't be able to take running lamps off - but the relay trick can help that (and relays for your brake lamps will help the brake lamp switch last longer anyhow, and relays for the reverse lamps can help your NSS, ...)

i'm not good at wiring so finding a new way to wire trailer lights would be just crazy. it had the factory harness. ithought was causeing the prob and tookit out and wired in a universal one

 

[userbmx1315]

i got a new plug from the jy. and alsoa needled guage cluster. (YEAAA BOOYY), but anyways, i'm not good at soldering what about just twisting the wires together and putting the shrink tubing on them?

 

[5-90]

i got a new plug from the jy. and alsoa needled guage cluster. (YEAAA BOOYY), but anyways, i'm not good at soldering what about just twisting the wires together and putting the shrink tubing on them?

If you're not going to solder, at least use a butt crimp sleeve (wire goes in at each end, then you crimp each wire separately. They're about an inch long, and can be had with either the regular coloured Nylon coating or a polyolefin heat-shrinkable coating.) A mechanical connection is critical to an electrical connection, you want that to be as close to permanent as you can swing. You can pull a "twist and tape" join apart with minimal effort, and I'd definitely not consider it more than a "get me back to town" fix. If "town" is less than, say, an hour away...

Invest in good connectors. Gardner-Bender is available at most hardware stores (it's what I get when I need something in a hurry) and has always worked well for me. I also find an electrician's "staking tool" to be superior to most crimpers you'll find in parts houses. Yeah, you pay more - but it's still cheap insurance. Electrical fires suck.

 

[userbmx1315]

i used butt-end connectors and slid a heat shrink sleave over them. cut every wire one at a time and crimped them all to one another. seems to be doing good. now i'm looking at using relays to run my trailer lights. heres the wires and colors from the rear light connector.
green- right turn 16
yellow- left turn 16
black- tail/ license 16
red- blank nothing wrote on it

i understand the green and yellow. kinda the black. but the red? i have no clue
i'm also asuming that the 16 is the guage wire.

 

[5-90]

i used butt-end connectors and slid a heat shrink sleave over them. cut every wire one at a time and crimped them all to one another. seems to be doing good. now i'm looking at using relays to run my trailer lights. heres the wires and colors from the rear light connector.
green- right turn 16
yellow- left turn 16
black- tail/ license 16
red- blank nothing wrote on it

i understand the green and yellow. kinda the black. but the red? i have no clue
i'm also asuming that the 16 is the guage wire.

In DC wiring, red is typically used for the power feed to the circuit (black for the earth, and various colours used to organise circuits or as signal wires.) If you have a "paired wire circuit" (speakers are a good example,) both wires are usually the same colour, one with a black tracer (that's the ground for that speaker. The solid colour is signal.)

Is the red wire larger than the others? And, you are correct about the "16" - that's indicating 16AWG wire. You may find that the red is 14AWG or 12AWG to supply the rest of the goodies.

NB - There's no point in making the "end patch" wire larger than the rest of the circuit, unless you're going to replace the entire wire. I.E. If the lead you're repairing is 16AWG, there's no point (nor any benefit) to using anything larger than 16AWG for a repair/patch, unless that's all you have and you need to get home.

 

[userbmx1315]

the red wire is the same size as the rest. there all connencted like a trailer harness. (glued side by side) ithink the black wire is more brown. cant really tell. they all go into a box. on one side the 4 wires as mentioned goes in and also a white one that was grounded. on the opposite side 4 wires coming out.
black with white stripe
brown with light brown stripe
black with yellow stripe
black with green stripe.
sorry if i'm a PITA. just trying to understand this wire thing.

 

[5-90]

the red wire is the same size as the rest. there all connencted like a trailer harness. (glued side by side) ithink the black wire is more brown. cant really tell. they all go into a box. on one side the 4 wires as mentioned goes in and also a white one that was grounded. on the opposite side 4 wires coming out.
black with white stripe
brown with light brown stripe
black with yellow stripe
black with green stripe.
sorry if i'm a PITA. just trying to understand this wire thing.

No worries. Sounds like someone already replaced your wiring once.

Here's a check - take your DMM (you do have a DMM, don't you?) and check for +12VDC at the red wire with the key ON (the engine need not be running, the switch should be OFF.) If you have +12VDC, that's the supply line to the switch.