UPDATED: Wiring in my spotties

[PaulG]

I bought some cheap ars driving lamps and thought I'd share some pics of how i installed wiring loom. I'm no auto-electrician, so suggestions on how I could improve the installation are welcome!

Details of lamps:

Nite Stalker 170 combination

Nite Stalker loom kit

Remove radiator/grill cover held in place with these clips

I followed the loom that goes to the horns with the manufactured Nite Stalker loom.

I mounted the relay on fusebox bottom mounting bolt. Positive wire to fusebox positive terminal. (Remove fuse from loom kit first).

Find which wire is high beam on headlight plug.

Use supplied inline crimp to attach switch wire to high beam wire, attach earth wires to nearby bolt.

Remove black cover under glovebox. Pull back carpet a little to reveal loom coming through firewall. There are 2 nipples on the grommet, I cut the end of one and pushed a pull wire through to engine bay.

Attach switch plug to pull wire and pull through to cabin.

I used a plastic coated wire coat hanger as a cable 'snake' to pull switch wire through to switch location.

Unfortunately the supplied switch was too big to fit in the spare switch spot. Kit came with another type of switch. I will see if I can find a better looking switch.

Test lamps!

I had a problem with one of the bullet crimp connectors on one of the lamps and had to put another crimp on to repair. Inline crimp on hibeam wire looks a bit dodgy to me, I will re-terminate this.

That's it, cheap a-r-se-spotties on our not-so-cheap Klugy

Edited June 21, 2008 by PaulG

[holmesie]

Nice work PaulG - this is one of the first jobs I'll be doing to mine next week, following your guide will make it a piece-of-cake thanks!

I personally don't really like the in-line crimp fittings, but if you made it weatherproof with some electrical tape it would stand up to the test of time I reckon :)

Cheers!

Edited June 15, 2008 by holmesie

[fish475]

Great Job there PaulG.

It certainly looks the goods.

I believe the Nudge Bar and a pair of chrome spotties along with the frontal design of the Kluger LOOKS HOT.

Below is my beast with the compact chrome Hella Rally FF 4000, driver side is a pencil and the passenger side is a wide.

I'm partial at this stage not to do mods whilsts its on a novated lease.

So my local Toyota Dealer did the work.

They light up the road very well IMO.

EDIT: that not condensation in the lights, just the flash was used.

Edited June 15, 2008 by fish475

[Blackkluger]

Hey since your so good at this, got instructions for wiring up 12v aux to your 7pin flat connector? I havent even looked at where it connects and all that. Will do it probably this weekend.

thanks in advance

[DHOUS]

Good posting PaulG

valuable contribution and you appear to have done a good job.

[supertownace]

the red crimp connector you used to join your wiring up will fail in time.

i have seen what happens to vehicles were these types of crimps are used....they have been the cause of MANY electrical fires. do yourself and your insurance company a favour and get that particular join SOLDERED not crimped.

the crimp itself will be the cause of eventual localized resistance and eventually the wiring will heat up as a result....possibly leading to a fire.

they are nothing more than a cheap-and-nasty way to connect wiring.......consider yourself warned

cheers

[PaulG]

Just a quick update on my original post.

SWITCH INSTALLATION

I couldn't find a switch to fit in the 'spare' switch hole in the dash, and after seeing fish475's photo of where a professional installer put his switch (which makes a lot of sense being near other light switches), I decided to do likewise. Not to be outdone, I used a rectangular switch to (almost) match exisiting switches. It is a Narva rocker switch with LED and sysmbol p/n 63026BL, $20 from Autobarn.

Step 1. Apply masking tape to area to prevent scratches. Mark out cutout, in this case 20mm X 34.5mm, keeping square with existing switches. Now the exciting bit - break out your Dremel and cutout your hole. I practised on a bit of scrap plastic to get a feel of the dremel behaviour when cutting plastic. Tidy up hole with a file or another dremel bit.

Step 2. Because the switch has an led indication, an extra wire is required to earth the led. I made up another wire with crimp connectors to suite each end and located a point to right of accelerator pedal to screw earth to (I think it was an M5 or M6 thread). I fished out the switch wires using the old coat hanger trick.

Step 3. Test the finished installation!

There are many other switches out there, many only require drilling a hole rather than cutting out a big hole. Any of the illuminated or LED indicator style require the extra earth wire.

HEADLIGHT CONNECTION

As I mentioned in my original post, I wasn't happy with the crimp connector supplied with the loom switch. Supertownace also pointed out that these type of connectors can be a fire hazard.

I have now soldered this joint. If you don't have a soldering iron, other types of crimp connectors are available.

[holmesie]

Got to admire a man who

a. has a Dremel

and

b. isn't afraid to use it

Switch looks good mate, and a very neat install. It looks almost factory, I'd like to get one just like it :)

Cheers

Edited June 21, 2008 by holmesie

[fish475]

PaulG,

Looks totally great, I find the location is a bit hidden behind the steering wheel visually.

But it's never turned off in my case and not a button that gets used much, so it's really the most appropiate spot.

If I have an opportunity to engage high beam, then I want the spotties on as well. Especially seeing I'm a country driver.

Always wondered what my second large blank button would have done, now I know.

[PC XT]

Nice work guys good to see the lighting brigade out in full force!