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electrical geniuses...switch wiring question

C

citRon

NAXJA Forum User
Location
loohaville kentuck
ok, I have a factory fog light switch I'm going to put in, and I want to hook up my aftermarket driving lights to it. On the back of the switch, it has 2 black (ground?) wires, and one purple w/white stripe, and one brown w/white stripe. I assume that the extra ground is for the little light on the switch itself, is one of the striped wires a separate power for the little light, or is it for the factory low beam on/hi beam off wiring?
With the wire plug pulled off, I have three blade type connectors.
Simply put, how should I connect my aftermarket wires that has one power, one ground wire to this? Thanks!
__________________
 
citRon said:
ok, I have a factory fog light switch I'm going to put in, and I want to hook up my aftermarket driving lights to it. On the back of the switch, it has 2 black (ground?) wires, and one purple w/white stripe, and one brown w/white stripe. I assume that the extra ground is for the little light on the switch itself, is one of the striped wires a separate power for the little light, or is it for the factory low beam on/hi beam off wiring?
With the wire plug pulled off, I have three blade type connectors.
Simply put, how should I connect my aftermarket wires that has one power, one ground wire to this? Thanks!
__________________
Click to expand...
First thing is that switch is not made to operate any lights directly.
In the factory installation it operates a relay and the relay powers the lights.
The double ground wires just acts as a jumper, you un-plug a ground and connect it to your switch, then plug the extra wire back to where you unpluged
a ground.
 
Last edited:
This is assuming you are going to use a new wiring harness to carry the load of your new fogs. If so, simply use one of the now abandoned stock fog lamp plugs as your "trigger" or connection point for the power spade of your new fog light relay.

This will enable you to use the existing stock switch as is, without having to hook up your new fogs to it directly.
 
Ivan said:
This is assuming you are going to use a new wiring harness to carry the load of your new fogs. If so, simply use one of the now abandoned stock fog lamp plugs as your "trigger" or connection point for the power spade of your new fog light relay.

This will enable you to use the existing stock switch as is, without having to hook up your new fogs to it directly.
Click to expand...

Yeah, uh...I think....
The new aftermarket lights has a power wire and a ground wire that comes off each light, the power wires connect, and run to one blade on the supplied switch, the other blade has a power wire that goes to the fuse or battery.
Now, on the Jeep switch, which has the little lighted 'dot' on the switch itself, there are 3 blades. One blade has the 2 black wires, one has the purple/white, one has the brown/white.
...I didn't think I was this dumb, but with my Cherokee not having the factory fogs to begin with, this strange little switch is Greek to me!
 
langer1 said:
First thing is that switch is not made to operate any lights directly.
In the factory installation it operates a relay and the relay powers the lights.
The double ground wires just acts as a jumper, you un-plug a ground and connect it to your switch, then plug the extra wire back to where you unpluged
a ground.
Click to expand...
The brown is power in the purpl is power out.
But again the stock switch is not heavy enough to use without a relay.
 
citRon said:
hmmm...so can i get a generic relay somewhere, or do i need the stock one?
Click to expand...
Yes you can get a generic relay, or even the whole generic wiring hookup with instructions.

foglites.jpg
 
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cool! so, does autozone or radioshack carry this relay? If I go in and ask for an 85/86/87/30 something relay, will they ask me if I need blinker fluid too? Thaanks a bunch for your help!
 
citRon said:
cool! so, does autozone or radioshack carry this relay? If I go in and ask for an 85/86/87/30 something relay, will they ask me if I need blinker fluid too? Thaanks a bunch for your help!
Click to expand...

Standerd 30A relay. If your new lights are 100w or over use a 40A if you can find one. Use at least 18AWG wire on the high current (light) side 12AWG would be better 10AWG would be best. Personly I use 15A fuses on light circuits (definitly with 18AWG 20A would be fine for the heaver gages). You can use just about any guage on the low current (switch) side. I would suggest trying to score a 24AWG 5 wire cable so you'll have four more circuits for later acc. Use the smallest fuse you can find on the low current side (3A).
foglites.jpg
 
citRon said:
cool! so, does autozone or radioshack carry this relay? If I go in and ask for an 85/86/87/30 something relay, will they ask me if I need blinker fluid too? Thaanks a bunch for your help!
Click to expand...
In Kentucky I'm sure they would.
 
scoobyxj said:
Standerd 30A relay. If your new lights are 100w or over use a 40A if you can find one. Use at least 18AWG wire on the high current (light) side 12AWG would be better 10AWG would be best. Personly I use 15A fuses on light circuits (definitly with 18AWG 20A would be fine for the heaver gages). You can use just about any guage on the low current (switch) side. I would suggest trying to score a 24AWG 5 wire cable so you'll have four more circuits for later acc. Use the smallest fuse you can find on the low current side (3A).
Click to expand...
Category 5 Ethernet cable is great for this. It;s 8 conductor, and usually stranded, so it will stand up to vibration.
 
I run two 55W driving lights on my rollbar off the stock switch. Never had any problems and it doesnt get hot or anything (except for the little light inside)

Everything is fused, I havent had nay problems with it. I doubted it at first but it works fine. I also have one to run my 55w each reverse lights.

I wouldnt run 100s off it, but it works.


The factory switch and relay I run two 100Watt lights, and run the trip side of the relay out of the fusebox so I can have them on whenever I want.

One terminal is ground, the other two goto power for the lights.
 
advance auto sells nice relays, 4-prong 30A........perfect for what you're doing and meant for use with aftermarket lights

cheap, and something that you really should use
 
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