High Beam Indicator Confusion (1 Viewer)

[sandcruiser]

I'm trying to get my hibeam indicator to work correctly, but it has been a challenge so far.

The truck has a history of not-quite-right wiring, so let's not assume that anything is done correctly.

First: the high and low beams work correctly. Outer, low beams are on all the time, inner, high beams come on when the switch is pulled or pushed.

These are USA style aero lamps, by the way, not the h4/h1 setup.

Here is the thing: I found the red/yellow wire that goes to B2 on the cluster, and could see where it had been snipped. So I thought "easy!" and connected it to the yellow/red wire that is in the wiring harness. That didn't work! When connected light that- I get the indicator when the switch is in "low" but the high beams stay on all the time.

So I got out the Voltmeter, and as near as I can tell the red/yellow wire is more of a low-beam indicator. It has 12v when the low beams are on, 0v when the high beams are on. But if I ground it, the high beams come on.

So.... Help! Any ideas? Is there another spot where I can tap into the high beam lights to make the indicator light up?

 

[sandcruiser]

bump
I'm revisiting this problem and still can't figure it out....

 

[Ebag333]

Perhaps you have a wiring diagram of the way that the lights are hooked up now?

Afraid you just didn't give enough info to really troubleshoot it....

 

[sandcruiser]

yea... I was looking for the "Oh, that's a well-known issue...." response.

I found some info on the slee harness, which I have, so I used that- hooked up a relay, and threw +12v from the battery to the relay through a too-long wire through the firewall and across the dash to the dang light.

so now, after a mere 2 hours of doing under-dash-yoga, I have a glowing blue light. Very impressive.

I left a pigtail with which to hook up driving lights someday. At least I've got that waiting for me so I don't have to tear into the dash for *that* in the future.
I really didn't want to add a relay just for a dash light, but seems to have been the best approach.

So be it.

 

[Ebag333]

Hey, whatever works man.

 

[60wag]

Do 80 have as bizarre a setup as 60s regarding the high beam indicator? Those required a diode and a resistor to fake out the system to get the light lit.

 

[sandcruiser]

I think that they do have the bizarre system

Mine is more bizarre in that the combo meter is from a 93+ diesel, the wiring loom from a 91 gasser, and a 3rd world mechanice mated the two together.

It's anybody's guess what was stock vs. "fixed".

My situation was that I had a red/yellow wire under the dash that went to the correct pin on the combo meter (D6, I think, from memory, might have been d4) that wire, according to the FSM is supposed to go to either high or low beam, depending on which combo meter you have.

In my case, the wire was hot when the low beams were on, but if I ground it, the high beams light up.
so connected to the combo meter, it would illuminate the blue light when the low beams are on and go out when the high beams were on.

I tried running a normally closed relay through it, but that didn't work... not enough juice? I dunno.

In the end the solution was to use a relay that is energized by the the high beam circuit on one bulb, and passes 12v from the battery (through a fuse) to the dash cluster.

Now I'm moving onto getting my interior lights to operate when the doors open/close. Not a mission-critical fix, but it has been bugging me for two years that the "door" setting on the dome lights doesn't work.

Carry on