About the Headlight Relay

Since the entire headlight harness is less than six foot long from the terminal block mounted to the inside of the fender of my 62 CJ5, am I correct in assuming 14awg will handle 65/55 H6024XV Sylvania Halogen lamps with no problem?

Now the relay question. when installing the relay, would it go before or after the terminal block?

I almost forgot to ask, where the heck did Jeep hide the switch for the backup lights? Under the floor? Much Thanks ahead of time.

 

14 AWG will be fine. Any bigger would be overkill. I haven't thought thru the terminal block, but just a quick guess would be you remove the terminal block from the headlight circuit. The B/U light switch is on top of your trans. Its a two prong switch just like the brake light switches.:v6:

 

Great! Then I will run from the battery to the relay with 12awg and from the relay to the lights with 12awg. I think I will leave the signals on 14awg. Since new cars are wired with 14 to the lights, that should be OK.

Thanks alot

 

If your tranny is original, I doubt that you even have a backup light switch. I can't remember the exact year that they started, but I don't think backup lights were around in '62. The T-90 in my '65 didn't even have one, but my '68 did (T86 originally).

 

I stayed with 14 gauge wire on my 83 Cj7 when installing a relay system and replacement H4 headlights with xenon bulbs. Talk about BRIGHT. I am not sure what the actual amperage draw is for the light, I want to test it with a amp meter eventually. I think the xenon bulbs were "rated" at 85w/100w or some such but didn't actually draw that much power (this "cloudy" statement is what makes me want to actually test the draw). I think you would be OK with 14 gauge, but if you are buying wire anyway I would go with 12. I just re-used the wires from the headlights and hooked them to the relay. Come to think of it, the hi-beams were a little heavier than the low beams, so the low beams might be 16 gauge.

As for the terminal block, it has been about 8 years since I rewired my CJ5, so can't remember exactly what it did. It just splits the power from the dimmer switch to each headlight, right? At least that is what 2 terminals do, I think the 3rd is for the parking lights. I would completely do away with the terminal block I think. It would keep things a little cleaner under the hood, remove the block and put in the relay (2, right..one for hi beam and one for low). You would have to do some extra splicing to keep the parking lights working if you remove the block, but not that hard and good opportunity to neaten everything up.

 

From what I've read on the subject of relays in the lighting circuit even with stock wattage bulbs, they are brighter 'cause they are getting full battery voltage and current.

 

Great minds!


.......or at the very least well informed/well read ones!

 

page not found

 

That's strange I been researching this topic and it was working about a week ago. Original article is here but not written specifically jeeps
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html