turn on lights installing switch?

[carl johansson]

Ok you electrical Gods. It turns out i cannot make heads or tails of an electrical schematic, go figure!
7 MGE NA 1988
So we pulled off thecollar around the steering wheel containing the stalks that controlled the turn signals, wipers and head and tail lights, because we put in a removable steering wheel! we just unplugged the harnesses, and left them unmolested in the car!

Now of course we will need the lights, seeing as how this is a 24 hour race, and the track is not lit! So the ideal setup would be a toggle switch that would turn on the lights, both low and high beam, and the tail lights. nothing fancy - just on and off, full lights, or nothing!

Is it possible to figure out what wires we would tap into at the harness? and put in a switch?

We are also putting in a set of aftermarket lights, but they will be a completely different circuit, redundancy - if your lights fail - you get pulled off the track, so it is a great idea to run 2 seperate light systems.

So someone, any one with knowledge, please help out us ignorants!

Carl
JBR racing

So we wan

[cre]

This could be done a number of ways. I recommend against using the factory wiring though. You may use it as the switch for a relay but I would feed the lighting right from the battery with a relay in the middle. You may be very surprised at how much brighter they are. Use new headlamp sockets too, they're only a few dollars each and come with much higher gauge wire than the factory sockets. If you need I can put together a full diagram but otherwise I'll just post up a text walk through later tonight or tomorrow.

[carl johansson]

Originally Posted by cre

This could be done a number of ways. I recommend against using the factory wiring though. You may use it as the switch for a relay but I would feed the lighting right from the battery with a relay in the middle. You may be very surprised at how much brighter they are. Use new headlamp sockets too, they're only a few dollars each and come with much higher gauge wire than the factory sockets. If you need I can put together a full diagram but otherwise I'll just post up a text walk through later tonight or tomorrow.

text walk through would probably help alot - thanks!

[cre]

Hey Carl, sorry been terribly busy today. I'll get you a writeup tomorrow or this weekend on how to wire up a full setup. It's easy and if you still want a redundant set of lights you can just duplicate the first set.

[cre]

Hey Carl, I'm sorry I haven't gotten this up for you yet. My father's been in the hospital since Thursday with what they're now calling atypical double pneumonia.... in other words medications aren't helping at all and they really don't know what to do.

Then, we find out that our puppy's broken leg has shifted. We'll be getting info from a surgeon tomorrow if they're going to need to separate the two parts and install rods or whatever... It'll depend if the shift is going to cause any mobility issues once healed. sigh.

And the last wonderful bit was a massive fuel leak in the engine bay of the Celica we just bought for my wife.

UGH!!!!!!! Sorry, had to vent somewhere and my wife and 'kids' are sick of hearing it.

Anyway, I think I'm going to have some time tomorrow to work on it. Are you going to urn them on separate switches or do you want the triggered by the stock switch on the stalk?

[cre]

Bad news central here, just checking in.... Someone shoot me.




http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Librar...x?S=Main&P=060

Hey Carl,

I recommend you purchase new sockets for sealed lamps or H4 sockets for starters. If they've got 12GA wire or better well, all the better. Personally I'd run new wire to the lamps and relays, battery and ground... 12GA. The factory wiring isn't very beefy and personally I wouldn't trust it for the kind of time frames you are.

So, here's what you do: Run a new 12GA wire from the alternator or battery + to an inline fuse (30A) and then into a common Bosch automotive relay (I'd use one of the Bosch double 70 terminal relays (NOT to be confused with a 70/70a relay). The positive wire connects to both terminals 30 and 86 on the relay. Now run a wire from terminal 87 on the relay to the terminal on the lamp socket where the red wire is/was connected and on the other side of the car it's red with white stripe. If you have a relay with two 87 terminals you would just run a wire from each terminal to each side. Now run a small wire (doesn't have to be a thick wire, 20GA will suffice) to the cabin. Connect this to one side of the toggle switch and run a wire from the other side of the toggle to a ground. If you want the high and low beam filaments to both light up full time then just ground the two remaining wires at the headlamp socket (I recommend you ground them at the block or at the battery's chassis ground. If You want individual control over the hi beams then you can either use another relay (I probably would) or a put a switch with a reasonable high rating (about 15A) in the middle of the ground coming from the socket where the original wire was red with black stripe.

I'll still get a diagram together for you. I just figured I'd post this in case you can decipher my ramblings. I would handle the head light separately and not use the stock wiring or relays due to age and also because you'll actually get more light of heavier gauge wiring and minor rerouting.

Are you still using the retractors or do you have the headlights up full time?

To manually control the taillight/marker light circuit you should only need to T into the green wire with white stripe coming from the integration relay, run the additional line to a toggle and then the other side of that toggle goes to ground. http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Librar...x?S=Main&P=062

Need more? Fogs? If you'd like diagrams let me know. I'll try to work on some anyway but they may take the back burner if no one is waiting for them.

[carl johansson]

CRE,
So truely sorry to hear of all the poop piling up on you. Hope your dads getting better, and the puppy thing gets resolved. You have been incredibly helpfull to me on this project. Turns out the lights were no issue, I just wired up a simple switch from the battery to the lights, and repurposed the rearwindow brake light as a tail light, and left the brake lights alone - worked like a charm. The original lights I bought at Harbor freight were crap, but the did have the layout that worked. Then I just robbed the offroad rally lights off my 4 runner and repurposed them, they worked fine.

car was running great, then went down early - only 5 hours in, with a BHG. brand new head gasket - we had finally gone through the engine and freshened it up. Prior to that the thing ran 225 hours of racing without any issues, never had and head gasket or other issues, so I guess we wwere lucky. i'm going to tear it down today to see what I can learn!

sorry again about all the stuff going on, hope life gets back on the upswing for you and your family!

Carl

[cre]

Thanks Carl... Well, if it weren't for the shit we wouldn't have the flowers.... riiiiiight.

Watch that switch. Make sure it's rated for a high enough amperage and that it doesn't get hot to the touch after such a long runtime or it may just fail on you in the middle of a race. That and the low gauge of the stock wiring are why I'd rewire the whole thing. It may be a bit of work but it's not expensive and it's reliable for the more demanding situation you're putting it through.

Sorry to hear about the head gasket. Are you using OEM HGs or MLS? Did you use any dressing on it?