How to build fog light wiring harness?

So I've installed a couple of sets of fog lights in my lifetime and have a good understanding of how to install them and how to connect a relay. I've made my own wiring harness in the past but I don't know a lot about electrical work so I probably didn't use the right guage wire.

Can anyone tell me what guage wire I should be using for each segment of the wiring harness? BTW I'm running a set of hella 500s and 550s

Much thanks!

You can use 16 on the power wires i recomend 14 though. That is the power going through the relay and the ground on the lights. And anything will work for the signal wire for the relays. And the ground on the relay does not need to be a heavy gauge ethier. And this only if your running the 500s on a different circut than the 550s. And they also this is taking in that they only have 55 watt bulbs.

yeah running them on two different circuits and as of right now only running 55w bulbs. So what guage wire should I use for the grounds and all the other wiring?

Thanks for the help!

Run. Don't walk to your nearest home improvement center and search for a 25 foot (or longer) extension cord that's labeled "Heavy Duty" 14 GA 3 conductor. I have been finding them at the local Menards for about $8.93 a pop for 25 footers....

Cut the ends off. Carefully slice about 2 inches of the outer cover off and clamp the 3 exposed wires (white, green and black) into a bench vise. Grab the little "tail" from the cut and start pulling the outer cover off!

You should be left with 3 - 25 foot - 14GA wires that you can use for MANY MANY XJ projects for a fraction of the cost of buying 14GA wire on spools! $11.95 per spool here for 15 feet of 14GA x 3 = 45feet @ $36 bux for the spool wire compared to 75 Feet of the same wire @ $10 bux by harvesting an extension cord!

I have been using them for my foglight projects over the past 2 years and I just built my own 4 relay headlight upgrade harness with 12GA and 14GA wire.

At least until extension cords go up to $40.

Just my .02.

wow great suggestion! thanks!

How did you know I was broke?

Are all three wires intertwined? or can I leave two wires in there and pull one out? Kind of instant conduit to run from the relay down to the lights!

Emerscape said:

wow great suggestion! thanks!

How did you know I was broke?

Are all three wires intertwined? or can I leave two wires in there and pull one out? Kind of instant conduit to run from the relay down to the lights!

Click to expand...

You need to completely pull the sheath off. The wires are twisted up. I wished the same thing when I was building my headlight harness. I had to cover the wires with that black plastic loom stuff from wal-mart. 6 feet for like 2 bux isnt too bad...

Personally I'd use 12ga. And it's pretty cheap online - check ebay.

Emerscape, you're in Boston... roll out to Worcester sometime and I'll give you as much 14ga and 16ga teflon-insulated silver-plated copper wire as you need to build the harness, I have red and green. Got a couple rolls when the school I graduated from (WPI) threw out a whole bunch of their old wire stockroom contents. I love the stuff, teflon insulation is a dream to work with, it slides over everything and is nearly impossible to melt unless you literally point a torch right at it or dump it on the exhaust manifold.