Calling all lighting wizards! (1 Viewer)

[mookamatook]

Awesome!! Going to wire things up tomorrow! Thanks for all of your help. Seriously thankful for ppl like you on this forum!!

Update:
I tinned the wires and used the waterproof connecters to tie the headlight bare wires into the weatherpac connecter pig tails. I was going to heat shrink them as you all advised but forgot that the cables are bundled together and I would have needed much larger shrink than I purchased (10-18ga). I just wound up using the twist connectors I linked here earlier in the thread. I must say, these things are so rock solid and super tight that I probably trust them more than my solder/heat shrink skills. I then mounted the lights to the bumper and routed the cables in through the grille and zip tied them off.

So... as always, there are some things that were not anticipated/that I didn't feel comfortable just winging without some feedback from you smart folks. The firewall rubber grommet that goes in the driver side by the foot well that I was planning on using somehow to get the switch and high beam source into the cab. There are 3 cables going through it already. and I'm wondering what the advice is on getting another set of cables into the footwell of the driverside cab area where the switch needs to go. The three options I see are:

1. Abandon the drivers side and go in the passenger side where there is another rubber grommet that has a nipple that looks like it can be opened and a wire can be threaded through. I'd need to extend the switch cable so it can reach back over to the driver side (switch in the dash) though and the routing across there would be a little involved and seems longer than it needs to be.

2. Cut a small x shaped hole with an exacto or drill a small hole in an open space on the drivers side grommet and thread through there. I'd likely need to silicone or seal that hole somehow though. Seems the most straightforward but there's probably something that I'm missing here.

3. Step drill another hole through the firewall in the drivers side footwell area and put a new rubber grommet in there and just route through a new hole. Drilling through the firewall does not sound like my preferred option from a reversibility stand point... Also, just don't like putting holes in my car. (Other than the 4" hole I put in my fender a few weeks ago )

Your thoughts are much appreciated! The splitter arrives tomorrow so I should have all things wired up and ready to go by the end of the week!

 

[mookamatook]

Awesome!! Going to wire things up tomorrow! Thanks for all of your help. Seriously thankful for ppl like you on this forum!!

Update:
I tinned the wires and used the waterproof connecters to tie the headlight bare wires into the weatherpac connecter pig tails. I was going to heat shrink them as you all advised but forgot that the cables are bundled together and I would have needed much larger shrink than I purchased (10-18ga). I just wound up using the twist connectors I linked here earlier in the thread. I must say, these things are so rock solid and super tight that I probably trust them more than my solder/heat shrink skills. I then mounted the lights to the bumper and routed the cables in through the grille and zip tied them off.
View attachment 2107493

So... as always, there are some things that were not anticipated/that I didn't feel comfortable just winging without some feedback from you smart folks. The firewall rubber grommet that goes in the driver side by the foot well that I was planning on using somehow to get the switch and high beam source into the cab. There are 3 cables going through it already. and I'm wondering what the advice is on getting another set of cables into the footwell of the driverside cab area where the switch needs to go. The three options I see are:

1. Abandon the drivers side and go in the passenger side where there is another rubber grommet that has a nipple that looks like it can be opened and a wire can be threaded through. I'd need to extend the switch cable so it can reach back over to the driver side (switch in the dash) though and the routing across there would be a little involved and seems longer than it needs to be.
View attachment 2107510
2. Cut a small x shaped hole with an exacto or drill a small hole in an open space on the drivers side grommet and thread through there. I'd likely need to silicone or seal that hole somehow though. Seems the most straightforward but there's probably something that I'm missing here.
View attachment 2107511
3. Step drill another hole through the firewall in the drivers side footwell area and put a new rubber grommet in there and just route through a new hole. Drilling through the firewall does not sound like my preferred option from a reversibility stand point... Also, just don't like putting holes in my car. (Other than the 4" hole I put in my fender a few weeks ago )

Your thoughts are much appreciated! The splitter arrives tomorrow so I should have all things wired up and ready to go by the end of the week!

Anyone have thoughts on this?!?!

 

[87warrior]

Anyone have thoughts on this?!?!

I simply drilled a hole in the rubber grommet on the driver side and ran the wires through there. I have 5 wires and a ham radio coax running through that grommet. The rubber of the grommet does pretty good at self healing, but a little RTV dabbed on the backside will make sure it stays sealed up.

 

[mookamatook]

I simply drilled a hole in the rubber grommet on the driver side and ran the wires through there. I have 5 wires and a ham radio coax running through that grommet. The rubber of the grommet does pretty good at self healing, but a little RTV dabbed on the backside will make sure it stays sealed up.

Got everything wired up last night aside from the actual switch and battery ring terminals. Went fairy smooth and I think my connections are pretty bomber in terms of water and heat. I hear shrinked and loomed the various connections and wire runs and found some tidy places to route. The grommet and getting it through the firewall was a bit of a pain but that was largely due to my desire to make a very small hole in the existing drivers side grommet and really force the wire bundle through to keep it water tight.

I started thinking about future upgrades and wanted to ask the question... if I were to add a set of ambers or ditch lights that I wanted to control in the exact same way (single pole, double throw, connected to my high beam source signal, can I simply add a wire between the fused high beam source power terminal on the back of the switch for these leds and tie it to the corresponding terminal on another spdt switch? I would need to have another relay and power to the actual lights but the high beam switching... could it just piggy back?

Last question for the day... should I just tie the black ground ring terminal wire from the relay to an existing ground in the engine bay? Or should I connect it to the battery terminal negative? It was mentioned that it’s overkill to tie to the battery but can I just link it with another ground that is screwed into the steel in the engine bay?? Fingers crossed this all works out well and I haven’t made some stupid mistake along the way...

Thanks again for all the help here!!

 

[87warrior]

I started thinking about future upgrades and wanted to ask the question... if I were to add a set of ambers or ditch lights that I wanted to control in the exact same way (single pole, double throw, connected to my high beam source signal, can I simply add a wire between the fused high beam source power terminal on the back of the switch for these leds and tie it to the corresponding terminal on another spdt switch?

Absolutely. That is actually how most of the pre-wired switch panels you can buy on Amazon are wired.

Last question for the day... should I just tie the black ground ring terminal wire from the relay to an existing ground in the engine bay? Or should I connect it to the battery terminal negative? It was mentioned that it’s overkill to tie to the battery but can I just link it with another ground that is screwed into the steel in the engine bay?? Fingers crossed this all works out well and I haven’t made some stupid mistake along the way...

I grounded my light circuit at the main chassis ground right next to the battery. Easier than drilling a new ground and cleaner than running it back to the battery terminal.

 

[bentonrover]

I simply drilled a hole in the rubber grommet on the driver side and ran the wires through there. I have 5 wires and a ham radio coax running through that grommet. The rubber of the grommet does pretty good at self healing, but a little RTV dabbed on the backside will make sure it stays sealed up.

Where? Can you take a pic of the area? Thanks

 

[mookamatook]

Where? Can you take a pic of the area? Thanks

I believe this is the same grommet he drilled through. I did the same thing... most of my wires were on the right side in this picture so I drilled a hole between the two smaller wires on the left side face of the grommet. Worked out well. I put a little piece of metal from the inside of the footwell on the exposed side of the wire bunch that runs through the center of that grommet from the fuse box to protect any over drill from the engine bay side as you can’t really see what you are hitting while drilling. It’s pretty tight quarters down there...I would not have been a happy camper if I would have hit some piece of that bundle. There’s gotta be 50 wires...

 

[87warrior]

Where? Can you take a pic of the area? Thanks

@mookamatook got it right.

 

[bentonrover]

Got it thanks man

 

[mookamatook]

All wired up! Working as planned and was relatively straightforward having literally no experience wiring lights or really anything in a car... thank you all so so so much for helping me out and not making me feel as ignorant as you likely could have! I learned a ton and I’m very happy with the new lighting set up.

A couple notes. Remember that the high beams are ground powered so the high beam source is not the + but the grnd wire. Did that wrong at first.

I ran both fused + and - from the relay back to the battery terminals as that’s what hella recommended.

The 9005>9005/9006 splitter worked well and seemed to be well made. I’d recommend this to anyone trying to do what I did. Seems very reversible and was plug and play.

The switch I got was a tiny bit too big. Needed to take a razor to the switch location in the dash to make it fit. Super solid now.

I just taped up the end of the ground wire that was in the hella harness and folded it back down into the sheathing just in case I wanted to upgrade to a illuminated SPDT switch later.

I wound up cutting the harness before either of the connectors that came with it. This allowed me to get it through the grommet much easier while maintaining a minimal hole. I crimped on female spade connectors to the ends of the harness wires which wound up being white and blue for the pos/relay respectively and fit them to the switch terminals. I crimped a female spade to the end of the 16ga high beam fused source wire and tied it to the other throw on the switch.

I had some serious trouble getting the lights themselves to stay in position. I wound up getting some neoprene seal washers and split washers and really cranked on them. They stay pretty well now but we’ll see what happens after some bumps...

That’s all for now. Let me know if you have questions happy to answer!

 

[ktmracer01]

Glad this all worked out for you.