Hella Offroad light troubleshooting

[TheJackRabbit]

I am still not getting anywhere with them.

Years ago two Hella 1000 Rallye lights were installed using the Hella Install Kit with relay, switch, etc. They are powered by the high beam circuit although I cannot finf how as there is no "Highbeam Headlight" circuit on the fuse block, only left nand right fused circuits.

Stock headlights are fine on noth high and low beam.

I replaced both Hella bulbs and the bulb retainer.
I replaced the relay.
I checked the Hella dash switch and there is continuity between ground and supply. I assume that the relay needs to actuate before there would be continuity betweeb ground and "load" on that same switch.

I have traced the wiring back from the battery to
the inline fuse next to the relay and to the relay itself. all that is fine.

Now, with this relay system, is there another hot lead that goes to say the fuse panel? This would be the voltage source that cuases the relay to close on the main power supply circuit in order to power the bulbs? If so where would it be tied in and to what? The system was set up to operate when the headlights were on "highbeam" only. Yet, there is not highbeam circuit that runs through the fuse panel.

I must be missing something. Any thoughts?

Should I just start over by scavenging all the Hella parts and re-installing them my way?

 

[pcperks]

I don't know about the connection for high beams, but if you have a switch just for the Hella lights, I would set it up to be independant of the regular vehicle lights. Basically wire the relay to the switch, so when the switch is turned on, power is applied to the relay which turns on the lights. That would be the simplest method. Only possible downfall I would see is if the switch is accidentally turned on without you knowing, then the battery will get drained, and if the covers are on the lights, those could get melted or messed up. When I do the install for mine, that is how I'm planning on doing it. I'm also going to use safety switches, which have the cover over them that you have to snap up in order to reach the switch to prevent them from being switched on by accident.

Just my $.02

 

[NQCruiser]

You are right that there is a wire that should be your "trigger" from the highbeam circuit. It may be wired into the back of the headlight itself instead of the fuse panel - I've seen plenty that use those Scotch Locks to cut into the highbeam wire somewhere in the engine bay.

On a side note, scotch locks are the most terrible thing ever invented for doing auto electrics and plenty of guys have had whole dash wiring burnt out from using them wrong. Solder, solder, solder people.....

Oh, and as for the above post, not sure about over there, but over here in Aus it is illegal to have spotties wired in seperate to the highbeam for onroad use. You can still have the switch in place for turning them off while using the highbeam, but they can only be activated while highbeam is in use.

 

[ntsqd]

Toyota headlights are wired a bit differently than 'normal.' The headlights themselves have a high beam terminal, a low beam terminal, and a common terminal. The way that Toyota does it is to supply power to the common terminal when the HL switch is turned on. Then depending on whether in the high beam setting or in the low beam setting the appropriate terminal is grounded.

This is called a "Switched Ground" circuit. Most automotive circuits, prior to engine management computers, were "Switched Hot" circuits and are what most of us are used to, so this can take a little getting used to.

So for the Aux. lights relay to work while only the high beams are on, the Ground for the relay's activating coil has to be tied into the wire coming from one of the high beam terminals. Tying it into either of the other options won't get you what you want.

On the Bosch type relays commonly used for this the #85 is the coil ground terminal and #86 is the coil power terminal.
The #30 terminal is the high current power in, and the #87 terminal is the switched load. For your use ignore the #87A terminal, if it is there.

The manual control switch can be in either the power to the relay's coil or in the wire between the relay coil and the headlight wire.

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The way that I would wire this is to attach battery power, through an appropriately sized fuse or breaker, to the #30 terminal, and run a jumper from the #30 terminal to the #86 terminal. Hook the lights to the #87 terminal.
Now for the tricky part, hook a wire to the #85 terminal, and run it into the cab to the manual switch. Using a lighted switch here could cause weird issues, so I wouldn't do that. Next run a wire from the other switch terminal to the headlight's high beam wire.

If you feel that you need to use a lighted switch then instead of jumpering directly from the #30 terminal to the #86 terminal, run the wire from the #30 into the cab, and then run the returning wire from the switch to the #86 terminal. Then the #85 terminal's wire need only go straight to the head light's High beam wire.

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In Calif., and I won't pretend to have a clue about any other state, the last that I looked into this there were 4 classes of auxiliary lights.
Fog lights, Driving lights, Auxiliary lights, and Off Road lights.
Fog lights can only come on with the low beams.
Driving lights can only come on with the high beams.
Auxiliary Lights can come on with either highs or lows. [ALL of mine are "Auxiliary Lights" ]
Off Road lights can not be used on public roads.

HTH.....

 

[slcfj62]

Jackrabbit, do I interpret your sig line correctly that you have owned your fj60 since it was new? If that is so, then that is just awesome. Of course, if you are the original owner, then you can't blame a previous owner for the crappy wiring job on the Hella lamps! I think ntsqd is leading you in the right direction. But one thing you might want to do is install a new headlight harness. This will not only give you better low beam lights, but better high beam as well. Then you can incorporate your hella lamps into the wiring and be good for the long haul.

I started a thread to figure out why I couldn't get my Daniel Stern light upgrade to work, and wound up redesigning the wiring harness. It is for my fj62, but you could easily adapt it to your Hella lamps instead of the H1 lamps on my rig.

Here is a link to the thread:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/274362-fj62-daniel-stern-headlight-upgrade-problems.html

It doesn't get very interesting until post 13. Post 22 has some links where you can order wiring harness components. You should be able to create your own custom wiring harness for under $50 using first rate components.

 

[jgroux]

It sounds like you have checked all the basics but do not mention it specifically so be sure to check the ground coming off the lights - I just put Hella FF's on my 62 - I imagine they are installed similarly - I had issues initially with the grounding..

Switch:
bottom - from tap splice off high beam hot (red/yellow on driver side light)
top - to relay - 86

Relay (mounted on side wall, behind coolant bottle):
30 - Fused power from battery (fuse buss not included in kit!)
86 - From swith
85 - Ground (anywhere in the engine compartment)
87 - To lights

Lights:
black - ground to mounting bolt on fender
brown - to relay - 87

Good luck