Thread: Headlight Wires & Relays

Hi Lionel,

I can't think of a good reason to cut the wires back at the switch even if you fit a relay. The best place to take the feeds from is the headlight itself I would have thought. If you look at the Traxide kit wiring on Drivesafe's web site you can see that the trigger is taken from the actual headlight itself. The reason to use a relay is just to reduce the current running through the switch as they burn out eventually if left as is so all you have to do is use the circuit as a relay trigger, not cut it off.

Cheers,

TimJ.

Lionel,

Hello from Bulawayo - back on the highveld for a couple of weeks.

No expert on these things, but I am a little surprised that anyone would do too much cutting about up at the indicator/light stalk in order to fit headlight relays.

My understanding of it would be that the common approach to fitting relays - largely to prevent the switch burning out - is to take the feed for the relay from one of the headlight sockets, or both if two relays are being fitted. The main circuit is taken direct from the battery or alternator.

This being the case, the cutting about would be expected to be found down around the headlamps rather than up at the stalk.

Anyway, I will leave it to someone better informed to offer up the definitive answer.

Cheers,

I would have thought the same. When I did it, I unplugged the headlights, effectively just adding wire - no cutting involved and completely reversible with only unplugging the extra wires. I wouldn't see any point in cutting the original wiring harness, unless there was already burnt/buggered wiring?

Hi Lionel and as posted above, there is no reason to cut the wires at the stork.

Your best bet is to rejoin them and then, again as advised above, make your connections at the existing vehicle wiring at one of the headlight sockets.

You not only need to fit relays but you need to add a decent power supply running from the cranking battery to the relays and then run thicker new wiring to each headlight.

This will both brighten up your headlights and protect the stork from any further high current draws.

Even when the stork is already playing up, many of my customer, after fitting a one of the headlight kits, have been able to cleanup the stork contacts and which has removed the need to replace what was a faulty stork.

G'day TimJ, S3Ute, Debruiser & Drivesafe,

Thank you for the replies and the confirmation that the cutting of the head light wires at the indicator stalk was unwarranted.

I thought it was odd when the first indicator stalk, that I had removed off Batty, had the head light wires cut off. However, I started to wonder about it when the second Land Rover had the very same wires cut off.

I did have a bit of luck though with one of the Land Rovers I rescued from a Bundaberg scrap yard last year. The gauges box had been pulled out by an earlier fossicker at the yard and there was just a mess of wires hanging out everywhere. I was pleasantly surprised when I lifted gauges box to discover that an unmolested Lucas indicator stalk was still there . I will be putting this find onto Batty.

I will also be soldering up some new wires to the butchered stalk from one of the other spare parts Land Rovers as a spare.

Thank you again for the replies.

Kind Regards
Lionel

Originally Posted by drivesafe

You not only need to fit relays but you need to add a decent power supply running from the cranking battery to the relays and then run thicker new wiring to each headlight.

Hello Drivesafe and other Interested Parties,

Last time I fitted head light relays and upgraded the wires was into my VH Commodore, that was a number of cars and years ago.

At the time I used New Era relays with the fuses.

The time before that was an upgrade from a generator to an alternator in an EH Holden and I used a New Era relay that was a fully enclosed metal box

Are New Era relays still a good type to fit?

What gauge wire is recommended to run between the head lights and the relay? My memory is a bit cloudy about what sized wire I used.

Kind Regards
Lionel

Lionel,

Hello again from Bulawayo.

I first used New Era relays to wire up a pair of Cibie Super Oscars on a Volvo wagon back in the 1970's, and then they were all to go. I took the feed off the high beam indicator.

Found the same units on eBay last year (vendor was at Hervey Bay), so they are presently going into my truck to connect up a set of Cibie 7" replacements. Wire is an open question. I am using single core marine grade of (from memory) 4mm taking the relay link from the existing headlight socket and the main feed for the lights off the alternator.

Cheers

Hello those of us in Bulawayo.and those who are elsewhere.

I hope you are having fun on the African continent S3Ute?

I found that one of my Lucas indicator stalks does not hold the indicator in position for either left or right. It travels either up or down and then just shifts itself to the centre. Can this lack of holding in position be fixed?

If not I will use the wires and the good connector for fixing one of my butchered indicator stalks.

I also had a closer look at Batty and yes, there was a floor mounted dip switch installed. It is still quite shiny so maybe the dipper switch on the stalk stuffed up. Then the indicator must have broken. The previous owner pulled it apart and cut wires off in the attempt to "fix" it.

Kind Regards
Lionel