Cascade Crew

townaj · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:12 pm Post subject: Headlight wiring

Ok so I'm rewiring my headlights and they are all messed up. Which wire should i use to trigger high beam and which one for low beam. I have relays that I have to run trigger wires to but I could not figure out which was which. Its an 85 camaro. Thanks

iansane · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:24 pm Post subject:

Looks like light green for high, tan for low.

blue89 · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:31 pm Post subject:

Do you have the entire manual in pdf? Lol.

iansane · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:35 pm Post subject:

No, ironically enough somewhere around here I have a page by page photo copy '85 camaro GM service manual. (after they went out of print GM would just send photocopies when you requested a manual) I have to find it sooner or later because I promised it to Skyler (so maybe we'll see another LTx thirdgen!)

That shot is from alldatapro.com though. Very Happy

townaj · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:45 pm Post subject:

Thats awesome thanks. I thought it was tan. But only one set of lights would come on at a time doing tan for the trigger wire. So i played with the trigger and I got all of them to light up but the high beam indicator is on. Whats going on here? Lol

Al Hasse · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:56 pm Post subject:

If you look at your lights, the outer pair each have a three prong connector. They are both HI and LO as they are two filament bulbs, but only one filament is used at a time. The inner pair each have a two prong connector, one filament each and only HI beam.

Look at the diagram Ian posted, the tan wire is only for LO beam and only goes to the outer pair of lights. The light green wire is only for HI beam and is routed to all four lights. The dash indicator gets its power from the light green wire also, which explains why it's on with all four lights.

townaj · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 6:11 pm Post subject:

Oops sorry i forgot to say i swapped out the stockers for some of those crappy housings from ebay. So they have 3 prongs on all 4 lights. I wanted to make it so all 4 were on for each setting but couldn't get it before i ran out of time so i just made them work for now

blue89 · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 6:55 pm Post subject:

Halt! I believe by law you are only allowed to have a single pair of driving lights if you want to play in traffic. Oregon law even says you have to turn off all auxiliary lighting including fog lights for oncoming traffic.

aaron_sK · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:04 pm Post subject:

Yeah, driving with the highs on all the time is a good way to get pulled over or shot by rednecks, or any number of other bad ends. Rolling Eyes

iansane · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:11 pm Post subject:

townaj · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:22 am Post subject:

Haha yeah Ian has it right. I don't want highs on all the time just all four lights to come on for each setting. And yeah blinding someone would be hard. Most people have trucks that are a lot taller than my car. I couldn't even if I tried lol

Al Hasse · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:38 am Post subject:

I jumped the HI and LO pins together for the inner pair on my H4 lights. The LO setting only lights the outer pair. The HI setting lights all four, but also lights both filaments of the inner pair, needs a slightly larger fuse and a little descretion when using for an extended time because the housing is only rated for 60W, with both filaments burning, power is 115W, alot more heat for that plastic housing.

blue89 · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:55 am Post subject:

Townaj, that's exactly what I said was illegal. Youre only allowed two total low beams with traffic. Washington even says you are only allowed one extra pair of driving lights. So the people with 4 fog lights on at once are illegal. I would not wire all four low beams to be on.

Alphius · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:06 am Post subject:

Twilightoptics · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:24 am Post subject:

If you have weird half on situations when you use an aftermarket harness.... you need to find the ground wire IIRC from the highs. It grounds under the steering shaft IIRC and back feeds.

I distintly remember a wire I had to disconnect to get mine to work right.

townaj · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:57 pm Post subject:

Well that seems like a dumb law. Damn. Guess I just have to wire them up like normal then. I can get them to work like that. Just didn't want them to. Apparently I blew one of my bulbs so I need new ones. Any suggestions?

blue89 · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:46 am Post subject:

If I were you I would check the local laws and see. They usually have them online now.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:54 am Post subject:

I've never heard that as illegal. Infact I thought they did that factory. That's why there is a high beam only and a low/high beam. On each side.

Al Hasse · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:15 am Post subject:

Not sure about most other states, but in Washington, the law says that you can't have more than two pair of forward facing bright lights energized at the same time. Probably the reason that factory fog lights turn off with high beams.

I read it to include HI as two pair, LO as a pair and fogs as a pair.

blue89 · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:26 pm Post subject:

I concur.