aftermarket headlight relay wiring

[leonhart]

I am (very, very slowly) trying to work out the wiring on my '67 1600. In my member thread last year (the last I messed with it) I noted that I finally hooked a battery up and tested for power. I had dash lights, tail lights and parking lights, but no headlights or brake lights.

I haven't checked on the brakes yet, it may just be that there isn't enough hydraulic pressure on the switch.

The headlights I have confirmed not to be a lamp/bulb issue.

I went to the garage today and looked over things for a minute and noticed that in the headlight relay wiring (remember this is an aftermarket EZ DIY harness started and 85% or so completed by P.O.) it looks like he was also using the "Victoria British" headlight harness that is shown in the tech wiki. At least, it has yellow sleeving and looks very similar, maybe not be exactly that product.

Most of it seems to be wired up to the respective areas it should be going (wiring to headlight pigtails make sense and there are connected grounds for each side), but there is a blue w/white stripe wire hanging out from the sleeve near the relays. It just has a ring terminal on the end, as if it is a ground. If the wire was black, I'd just assume it is a ground and attach it to the body. As it is, I don't see anything that it should be connected to. There is also a blue w/white stripe wire jumping between the two relays. Attached is a picture (the jumper section goes out of the picture, but is just looped over)


Does anyone have experience with this harness to give me a clue what that wire should be doing? It's hard to find a relevant diagram since the rest of the harness isn't OEM and can be hard to figure out what wire is coming from where, etc (ie, my EZ harness doesn't have a blue w/white stripe wire as part of the headlight wiring). But - I figured if someone had experience with these, they may have some knowledge to impart!

Thanks!

[theunz]

I can’t help you with the headlight harness, but can offer a little advice on the brakes. Hydraulic pressure has nothing to do with the brake lights. The brake lights are activated when you move the brake pedal away from the small button switch which rests on the brake pedal arm under the dash. Check to see if that switch is working.

[Daryl Smith]

Early cars have a hydraulic brake light switch on the passenger firewall.

Sorry, have no idea on the harness wiring either.....

[Nissanman]

Because it has a eye terminal, I would suggest that it is a power lead meant to be screwed to the fuse terminal.

[leonhart]

Here are a few more pictures to give a better idea of how things are wired/routed.

Nissanman - what you say certainly makes sense, but since I don't have the OEM harness or fuse box (fuse box replaced with the EZ Wiring Harness kit fuse box), I'm not sure if the ring indicates the fuse box, or if it's just an end from the relay kit that isn't even Roadster specific or what. It certainly may need to go to power though.

Here are pictures. One showing the wiring as it comes from the firewall to an initial 5 pin relay (I'm believe replacing the original relay), then it goes from that relay to two separate 4 pin relays for each headlight.





Reminder, the blue w/white stripe wire loops from one of the "secondary" relays to the other. Then the relay that has two of the same blue white stripe wire is where it traces back and is the hanging ring terminal (near the 5 pin relay).

Hopefully this makes sense to someone on here more familiar than I am (zero) with adding in headlight relays! Or if anything isn't clear in the pictures, ask and hopefully I can at least answer what is where!

Edit: also, I should probably rewire the one pin that has some bare wire showing as well. But, that's off subject.

[Curtis]

If you do a web search for Victoria British headlight relay instructions there are a couple things that pop up.

[MattC]

From what I can see, the first 5Pin relay is the hi/low relay. It will click on when you select hi beams and send power to the hi beam relay. It appears the 4pin relay with the brown wire in it is for low beams and the 4pin with the white wire is for hi beams.

That would mean that on the 5Pin relay it should be:
White wire that splits to two pins (yellow tape) - +12V battery
Green - negative trigger from hi/lo switch on steering column
Brown - out to low beam relay (+12V trigger)
White - our to hi beam relay (+12V trigger)

Low beam 4pin:
Brown - trigger in from hi/lo relay
Red - +12V battery
Blue (2 wires together) - +12V out to each headlight
Blue/white - chassis ground (from other relay)

Hi beam 4pin:
White - trigger from hi/lo relay
Red - +12V battery
Yellow (2 wires) - +12V out to each headlight
Blue/white - chassis ground (screw that eyelet to the frame)

The wires that I’ve labeled as +12V battery should be fused wherever they are connected to the battery (be it the fuse box or the battery + terminal itself).

[leonhart]

Thanks guys!

I had done a Google search once upon a time, but I probably missed some valuable info.

MattC - I'll print this out next time I go out to the garage and try to give it a check over. The way it was hanging there by the chassis suggested it was a ground to me, just thought it was odd that it wasn't black!

Thanks again!

[MattC]

Yeah, trying to guess a wire's purpose just by color can get you in trouble.

[leonhart]

Yeah, trying to guess a wire's purpose just by color can get you in trouble.

For sure! That's why I started this thread! Glad to get some help from those more knowledgeable about it than myself!

Of course, likewise, it's never good to just decide to ground a wire just because it's black.

[leonhart]

I took your notes out to compare more fully with the car, and it was lining up. So I went ahead and grounded the blue & white stripe wire.

I had to pull the battery out of my FR-S to test (the FR-S battery bit the dust over the winter so it got the battery formerly intended for the Roadster), but anyway, hooked the battery up, and I have headlamps! I'm not actually positive how to switch to high beams (maybe push/pull the lever that the turn signals are on?) so I didn't check high beams. But both headlamps came on!

Thanks for your help!!

[MattC]

Yes, forward and back on the stalk.