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Car Forum / Jeep / April 2005YJ added interior light wiring tip
I just finished installing an interior roll bar light in my YJ. I used wire ties to fasten it to my rollbar cover. I used one of the cheap lights off ebay that use a standard bulb with one wire to the center and a cheap push on push off type switch. The tip I have is by running three wires you can have the interior roll bar light work when the door(S) with switchs are opened or when the roll bar switch is turned on the roll bar light will illuminate AND the underdash lights come on. It is real easy. What I did was install the switch so it interupts the ground wire instead of the hot wire. This ground wire from the switch goes straight to the frame and is grounded under a screw. OK now I ran a ground wire from my underdash lights ground wire to the new roll bar light bypassing the switch on the roll bar light. while I was under the dash I also used the underdash lights + wire to supply power to the new rollbar light eliminating the additional work of installing a fuse. Now when the doors are opened the overhead light and underdash lights come on. When someone turns on the overhead light by using the switch mounted on the roll bar light, the ground backfeeds to the underdash lights and they come on at the same time as the new roll bar light. Pretty cool huh. Offgridman Until you blow one of the now called 'bulb fuses'.... Man I had a motor bike that died and had to be pushed a few miles home only to find out the damn burned out tail light was the ignition fuse..... Mike 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's > I just finished installing an interior roll bar light in my YJ. > I used wire ties to fasten it to my rollbar cover. I used one of the [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > time as the new roll bar light. Pretty cool huh. > Offgridman It was my 4H electrical project to find a resistor to run parallel with the tail light an a '57 Cushman scooter like: http://www.hobbytech.com/Homepage~pix/MVC-595S.JPG for a very frustrated club member that kept popping them on our dirt roads, which killed it's magneto. God Bless America, ßill O|||||||O mailto:LWHughes3rd@aol.com http://www.billhughes.com/ > Until you blow one of the now called 'bulb fuses'.... > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 > 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Get this, I just remembered my bike is a German Daimler as in the owners of Jeep! So he is wiring it like they like! LOL! That is a nice old scooter in the link. Mike "L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote: > It was my 4H electrical project to find a resistor to run parallel > with the tail light an a '57 Cushman scooter like: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 > > 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's I am not sure what you mean by bulb fuses. The same fuses that protect the underdash light will protect the circuit. I used it because it is labeled correctly and has enough amperage and wire capacity to illuminate another bulb. Can you clarify what you mean please? You told us that your added bonus was the dash light came on, meaning they were needed to complete the circuit. Like all the lights must work in a cheap set of Christmas lights. God Bless America, ßill O|||||||O mailto:LWHughes3rd@aol.com http://www.billhughes.com/ > I am not sure what you mean by bulb fuses. The same fuses that protect > the underdash light will protect the circuit. I used it because it is > labeled correctly and has enough amperage and wire capacity to > illuminate another bulb. > Can you clarify what you mean please? Actually they are not needed to complete the circuit. The ground for them comes from the door switch when the door is open or when the dome light switch is activated (remember it is on the negative wire) then a ground path is provided for them through the dome light switch. Any one light going out will not stop the others from illuminating. I never understood why some care manufacturers put a switch on the ground wires before. Now I see it makes it easy to control things with one wire from different locations. When the power goes to a bulb first and the switch is the ground, the bulb filament becomes a 'fuse'. Daimler wired one of my motorbikes this way, with the tail light bulb in series with the coil power line. I am not sure how you wired all of them, but it sounds like you have several bulbs in series using the ground from the door switch or light switch to 'power' it up. If they are wired this way, any one bulb burning out will break the 'ground' line and shut the system down. If however you have multiple grounds running and everything in parallel which would be quite the rats nest, then one bulb blowing would just be one bulb blowing. Maybe I wasn't reading your description right? Mike 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's > I am not sure what you mean by bulb fuses. The same fuses that protect > the underdash light will protect the circuit. I used it because it is > labeled correctly and has enough amperage and wire capacity to > illuminate another bulb. > Can you clarify what you mean please? I think my description was not very good. Actually switching the ground to the frame eliminates the rats nest you envision. Let me try this again, one fused hot wire is common to all three of the bulbs center posts and is wired in parallel instead of series so they do not operate as a fuse. imagine a ground wire that is connected from one door post switch to the the other door post switch that interconnects both under dash lights grounding wires. IF you connect this to ground by opening the drivers door (this is what the door switch does) then both lights come on. If you close the drivers door and open the passenger door then current reverses direction and now flows to the passengers door switch and to ground. I just added a third door switch so to speak when I installed the overhead light. I only had to have three wires from the dome light to the underside of the dash to make it all work. two are ground wires, and one is a hot wire. one ground connects to the underdash lights ground wire. This ground wire is connected to the dome light directly and causes the dome light to come on when the underdash lights become grounded from one of the doors being opened. The other ground connects to the frame of the vehicle under the dash continues up to the dome light switch to on one side and to the dome lights ground wire on the other side of the switch. When this switch is activated a ground path exists from the frame under the dash up through the switch to the dome light bulb. Since the underdash lights connect directly to the dome lights ground wire a path for the electricity now continues backwards down this ground wire to the underdash lights which makes them illuminate. Now when the dome lights switch is on a ground path will exist Thanks for taking the time and being polite. Offgridman Gotcha. I also prefer ground switching. When I ran my Hella Black Magic's I just had to run one small trigger wire to a micro mini switch on the dash to ground the relay. I just got confused with your description. Mike 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's > I think my description was not very good. > Actually switching the ground to the frame eliminates the rats nest you [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > Thanks for taking the time and being polite. > Offgridman |
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