not your standard headlight relay upgrade

[dkn1997]

I just got my car back from 7 months in the body shop. some changes along the way were the addition of an evans radiator with two spal fans and headlight upgrade to hella H4's.  I had a single fan pusher and electric fuel pump already wired to relays...but these were old relays that my friend who works at the dealer just gave me from when he took alarms out of used cars....it worked, but now i needed relays for the following;

hi beams
low beams
fan 1
fan 2
Fuel pump

so now I need 5.  I decided to go balls to the wall and get the nicest stuff I could find.  aux fuseblock, nice relays, color code the wire, good connectors.  I also want to use as little of the cars wiring as possible.  The only wires I will be reusing are the headlight harness from battery forward, and original wires from headlight and floor switch to trigger relays for hi and low beams.  adding everything else.  I want to make it easy to go back to stock in case I need to troubleshoot down the road..I can always plug the stock stuff back in and use my FSM

Worked on it today and I have a ways to go, but made some progress:

Here is what I started with, engine bay, battery removed, all old wiring for fuel pump and old fan removed. Note the pink stuff.  It's that wax paper used under wood floors.  I thought I should mask off anything I didn't want getting scratched.  fast forward a year from now and I will be throwing shit all over the car when I do projects...I'm in new paint paranoia right now.

[dkn1997]

Here is the aux fuseblock I bought. It's from west marine and meant for a boat. I like it because it has a nice weather resistant cover, and it's not like the usual fuse blocks from the parts store where you have to run feed and load to every single fuse...with this one, you feed just one main lug with a big wire (I'm using an 8g) 

second shot is one of the relays I'm using.  It's a delphi relay found on lots of gm cars..but it has a weatherproof gasket where the relay snaps into the base (blue in pic)  also has gm weatherpack type wire connectios for the base.  no water will get into this. 

[dkn1997]

Here is about what I got done today.  a friend who works in a speed shop told me that in front of the core support is a good place for relays because it's close to headlights, fans...and it's cool.  I made this bracket...I don't fabricate, too fancy for me...  by taking a strip of aluminum and bending it in my vice.  I filed the edges smooth and hit it with ome black paint.  then I got some really cool stainless allen bolts to attach it to the core support.  then I tapped it (it's pretty thick) for 10-32 machine screws to hold the relays to it.  I can add one more If I want.  I wanted it to look ok and be serviceable...it will be very easy to remove relays if I want to. 


I also got the fuse panel mounted..you can see it on the inner fender.  that's where I had the old junction block and relays and I decided to keep the new one there because it's easy to get to and it covers the old holes. 

[tan top]

looks a  good conversion    clever stuff 

[dkn1997]

jesus this is taking a long time.  I got most of the wiring done, just need to install my temp sensor for my electric fans and I have to get another molex connector...bit of an accident.

I have to say that while the delphi (Oem type) connectors are a pia, they are totally worth it.  nothing is ever getting into these. 

here is a shot of the fuse box all wired and done. I wanted to get all different colors of wire to make future troubleshotting easier, but i could not find any.  I bought a value pack of colored electrical tape and made my own different colors by slitting the roll down the middle and wrapping around the wires creating a candycane type of color mix.  I also made a chart of what color is for what and what fuses are for what.  I am gong to label the fuse panel and relays with my ptouch also. 

when you start on a project like this, you find out part of the reason that people hack up the wiring in their cars....there is barely any good stuff to do it with.  try finding noninsulated connectors!  I do all mine non insulated and then heat shrink .... I find i get a more positive crimp and i think it's more weatherproof.   while not cheap, West Marine has a lot of nice stuff. I got all my wire and the fuse box there. 

If I had it to do over again, I would buy it all on line, I just didn't know what I'd need. 

here is a shot of the fuse box all wired and done.

[dkn1997]

wires laid out and ready to be cut and connected....

[dkn1997]

relays buttoned up and ready to go.  I just wrapped all my wires in tape so it loosely resembles factory.  looms are nice, but I used to have them and I thought they looked cheezy.

[dkn1997]

grounds all together running along the fender.  the original connector for the forward lamp harness was totally shot.  I decided to save a few bucks and use one of those trailer lighting 4 wire connectors.  original had 6 but I took high and low beams out, leaving me with 4.  I figure this plug will handle the park, turn, and marker lights...and it's weatherproof...

[mikepmcs]

Looking good!

[dkn1997]

Done!  Lights are just as bright as my 02 tahoe..

[mikepmcs]

 

[Rolling_Thunder]

I am running the same thing...   H4 and H1 lamps with high / low relays...     forgive me with not having a photo as my car is currently still in the reconstruction phase...   

[tan top]

Done!  Lights are just as bright as my 02 tahoe..

dang  those things are bright    good job 

[firefighter3931]

Nice work Kevin ! 



Ron