wiring light bar harness

[kenwahoo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kenwahoo]

Just one more thing from me. Got a Ridge Ryder switch to replace the push button one that came with the harness. It's only got 3 pins and it's prob ground, power in and out. Now the power in and out I'm going to tap the headlight's high beam and back to relay. Should the ground terminal be grounded or does it need to go to the negative common on the headlight plug?

[jaco150 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jaco150]

Im guessing its one of those Ridge Ryder rocker switches with a red-light ?
- the black should be linked to any "earth" or negative as it will provide the negative side to light-up the indicator when the switch is in the ON position.

Probably the simplest is to hook it up to the battery with some micro-clamps and test it quick.

I would have hooked it up to the closest negative I can find (noting some exceptions - eg airbag )

[kenwahoo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kenwahoo]

It's just that where the switch has a Led funny things happen. Anyway, I'll try with just grounding it first and if that doesn't work properly then maybe I'll need to hook it up to the negative common at the headlight.

[kenwahoo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kenwahoo]

Well, the Deutsch connector arrived and I've fitted it to the wires. Took a while to figure which pin went into which housing. There's only so much a pic can show you and it didn't help when there was no instruction guide. Got it arse about compared to the ones you buy already wired in but that's ok as I don't normally do river crossings so it's not likely to get wet anyhow.

With respect to tapping the high beam wires, I prefer to be able to remove the terminals from Toyota's H4 housing and tap the terminal rather than in the middle of the wire. Cant do this as Toyota used a molded one. Best to get a new H4 socket and cut and join up the present and new wires and terminate everything myself. Makes a neater join. Only costs $1 or so. Strange pricing. A H4 socket with pigtails costs $1. A H4 socket without wiring is over $2.50 ea if you can get just one. Paying more for less, wtf??!! Decided not to cut anything so need a male to female extension and add the loom wires direct to the male terminals as found a seller for 2 male H4 without wires for under $2 so now will have a spare. Buying a female H4 with pigtail for $1. So I can just join the wires of both the loom and the female H4 pigtails together in the male terminals. This way everything will be neat and I can remove the loom if needed and just plug back the original wiring.

Anyway, I've now decided against cutting the H4 socket or tapping the current wires. They're so short and there's not much room. It's easier to use an extension male and female and add a pigtail or just wire into the terminals if I can. That's another thing I don't understand. There's plenty of extension male to female being sold and they're all short like 20cm but no additional wires for tapping, what's the point? Where's the stuff for all of us who want to tap into high beam? I think I've only ever seen one for sale.

[kenwahoo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kenwahoo]

Just to finish off as the H4 plug and sockets arrived. Wired everything together, plugged it in and no light?!!! Forgot that I hadn't yet connected the positive to battery. Did that, put the fuse in, turn on high beam and voila we have light. So everything's good except for the switch I bought from Supercheap. Should have been a reject as down is off and up is on. Switch light is on regardless when high beam on but not really fussed about that as it is underneath my keys so not likely to see any light from there anyhow.

Now the next step is adjusting the angle and that is painful as need to remove the light bar to do it. Still, only need to do it once. Anyone have a simple method to follow?

[kenwahoo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kenwahoo]

Well, tested the lights. They're so bright that when I turn them off the high beam looks very yellow and dull. Now wondering I should upgrade the wiring to the headlights.

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Yellow is the temperature of the light. Probably 3600K or thereabouts. Looks worse in comparison to the 6000K of an LED.

[jaco150 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jaco150]

... So everything's good except for the switch I bought from Supercheap. Should have been a reject as down is off and up is on. Switch light is on regardless when high beam on but not really fussed about that as it is underneath my keys so not likely to see any light from there anyhow.

Hi kenwahoo... Funny finding, I installed a similar switch, and had the same issue when I tested it... It baffled me for a few moments... Then realised my wiring was wrong, had the the poles connected on the wrong connectors.
Not saying you have the same issue, but as far as I have it, these electronic type switches may have a positive switching requirement to work properly.
Mine was not a supercheap switch,.but these switches are just rebrands, all the same thing.

After retest and with correct poles (with Pos switch) it worked fine.

(i ran an alarm cable with 8 wires from dash to swithboard on engine bay, thus if I ever have to add more switches, im good to go - no more wires to be pulled)