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Date:         Tue, 29 Jun 2004 10:38:39 +0200
Reply-To:     Calle Fallberg <calle.fallberg@TELIA.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Calle Fallberg <calle.fallberg@TELIA.COM>
Subject:      Re: Driving Lights Circuit
Comments: To: Steve Russell <thenewf1@TELUS.NET>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Steve !

Since living in Sweden Iīm not familiar with your "gauge" system so I cant give you specific advice on the wires to use . But keep them as thick and short as possible ! FWIW I found out that a good place for the relays was behind the glovebox, at least on my vanagon I was able to (gently) bend the restrictors a bit thus being able to take the box out of itīs hinges . Then I attached the relays upside down on top of the protective beam but take a good measure so that there are space enough to open/close the glovebox ! This made it possible to run the main power from the battery under the carpet and it was rather easy to find out where behind the grille to drill the holes for the wire to run down to the lights ( check on both sides before you drill !! - a good advice from the carpenting trade is "measure twice cut once" ;) ) . You also get a dry place for the relay which will make it more trouble free . Donīt forget the rubber grommets wherever you drill a hole and feed wire through - the insulation wear down quickly against the metal !! I use a wire mounted fuse and itīs as close to the battery as possible. (good protection and easy to get to under the pass. seat) The lights are grounded separately on a bolt behind the front grille, no need to feed the wires back to the relay ! And I always put the switch on the ground wire, easy to feed just one wire from the relay and you also get a good grounding point somewhere behind the dash.... The only drawback is the unability to put indication lamps on it but you learn which is on and off ( and hopefully the lights are powerful enough to be visible too :)) If the lights wont work the most common misstake is BAD ground so check that first! And if you run into trouble, P-mail me and Iīll try to help

Good Luck

Calle calle.fallberg@telia.com

PS If you want to read more about lights Iīd recommend http://www.danielsternlighting.com/home.html lotīs of info on light upgrade too

----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Russell" <thenewf1@TELUS.NET> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 12:54 AM Subject: Driving Lights Circuit

Hi Volks, I've been stalling on installing a set of driving lights on our '84 westy for some time because of my limited electrical knowledge, but recently I decided to tackle it. I did some reading on electrical and now I think I can do it. Sounds pretty simple since all I want to do is install the lights on an independent circuit that I manually control with a switch. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I just need to have power from the battery run through a fuse, switch, relay and then to the loads with everything grounded and I'm good to go. Any tips? Is there a specific order things need to be in in the circuit? Should I use a specific gauge of wire or type of relay? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm pretty green at this. Thanks, Steve ('84 westy - Moaning Myrtle)


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