Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 07:46:53 -0500
Reply-To: Larry Alofs <lalofs@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Larry Alofs <lalofs@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Headlight relay kits
In-Reply-To: <BLU437-SMTP480F23AA3498DB30645EE6C0C30@phx.gbl>
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It's hard to guess what might be wrong without knowing the details of the
instructions from "Vanagon westfalia parts" or the year of your van.
Instead, I will describe the relay upgrade that I did as well as I
remember, and what I would recommend to anyone.
I bought an in-line type of fuse holder, 30 amp perhaps and enough hefty
wire to reach from the battery to the headlite area at the front. I
attached a loop terminal to one pigtail of the fuse holder so that it could
connect to the postive battery terminal (solder, heat shrink tubing,
dielectric silicone "tune-up grease"). The long wire was joined to the
other end of the fuse holder and then routed up to the front headlite
area. As I recall this involved drilling holes thru the battery box and
firewall, installing grommets, and raising the carpet to some extent. Once
this is done you have plenty of current available there to power headlites,
louder horn, foglites, etc. without disturbing or over loading the
fuse/relay assembly. A terminal block of some type can be installed up
front.
For the headlites, two relays are needed, one for the high beams and one
for the low. Dual socket assemblys are available. Some provision to
protect them from the weather would be a good thing. The postive supply
wire should connect to one side of each relay's switched contacts (pin 30,
I believe) and the postive leads from both low or both high beams to the
other contact connection (87). The coil of each relay should go to ground
on one side (86) and the other coil connection (85) is powered by the wire
coming from the dash/steering column. Now the headlite switch, etc. needs
to only supply the very small current needed to activate the relays.
While you are there, it is time to take all the ground wires from the
headlites and connect them securely to the body near by. All connections
should be shined with sandpaper and protected with silicone grease. Coming
from an electronics background, I tend to solder other connections when
possible but I understand that there other philosophies and that there are
crimp connections that are very good.
The above approach improved the brightness of my headlites a noticeable and
measurable amount. The was an increase of more than one volt in the
electrical potential delivered at the headlites. An added benefit of
course should be extended life of the headlite switch, etc. It has worked
fine for more than 5 years now.
Try it ; you'll like it.
Larry A.
On Wed, Jan 20, 2016 at 9:23 PM, Mike Saint-Amour <
mikesaintamour@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Group
>
> I purchased a headlight relay kit a few years ago. Recently I have been
> challenged with the issue of heat on fuses 5 and 6 when using the high
> beams. Fuse 6 even melted once. Everything works fine as long as I don't
> leave the high beams on for long. Do you know what would cause that
> problem? Do I need to replace the relays? Change wiring? My kit was
> from Vanagon westfalia parts.
>
> Go now. Because later has a terrible habit of becoming NEVER.
> Anonymous
>
> Mike Saint-Amour
> www.slowcarfasthouse.com
>
> Go now. Because later has a terrible habit of becoming NEVER.
> Anonymous
>
> Mike Saint-Amour
> www.slowcarfasthouse.com
