Light Install Troubleshooting...

[bartonmd]

I'm not sure this even deserves a thread, except for posterity, and for others to post their experiences.

Installing a set of Hella 500 series driving lights on my sister's van, last night, we ran into an issue.

I tapped the control side of the relay to the high beam wire behind the headlight, so that the lights come on any time the high beams are on. Fused wire to the battery for power, etc. Normal stuff.

The factory cylinder fuse popped when I first tried to turn them on, and I didn't have another, so I switched it out with a blade style fuse holder that I had, which I did have fuses for. Ohmed out from the light side of the relay connector at 30ohms. I checked the wiring and everything, and just to see that it wasn't just a bad or undersized fuse in the other one, I turned them on again and it popped a 25A fuse in this one. Checked the wiring again, and didn't find anything. Ohmed out the circuit to a different bolt as ground, and got 0 ohms, vs. the 30 that I got before. Just must have been that the bolt I used before didn't have a good ground.

So, I took the lights apart. One of the lights had the positive lead inside it smashed between the ground ring on the back of the reflector and the back of the plastic housing. The ground ring on the reflector had cut through the clear plastic boot, and was basically ground the light internally.

Repositioned the wire inside the housing, put in another fuse, and clicked the brights on. Boom, good to go.

No pictures of the cut insulation, because it was dark and we were in a hurry, but here's a pic of the install, that she took this morning.

[navigator]

for some reason that wasn't the van I was picturing when you said you were installing Hellas on your sister's van.
I was thinking "why does Mikes sister want driving lights on a mini-van, that will look ghetto!".

Looks great man, glad you got it working.

[bartonmd]

for some reason that wasn't the van I was picturing when you said you were installing Hellas on your sister's van.
I was thinking "why does Mikes sister want driving lights on a mini-van, that will look ghetto!".

Looks great man, glad you got it working.

LOL, no. She traded in her '06 Vortec Max 6.0 1/2 ton on this '08 1-ton 12 passenger length Ford van (that she took the seats out of), so that she can have her show dogs (90-120# Cane Corsos http://www.rockhavencanecorso.com) in heated or air-conditioned space for travel, while towing her travel trailer. I also installed a 12k class 4 hitch, brake controller, and a flush(ish) mount trailer connector through the bumper for it, last week. Having said that, It would have been MUCH easier if it was like all the Chevy stuff that, even without the tow package, has all the wiring in place to just hook up the brake controller and plug. Turned what would have been a 2 hour job into a 10 hour job. Thanks, Ford.

Pic:

[Trail X]

Seems a lot of aux lights have a similar design, where that insulation can get into weird spots and end up close to ground.

I've got a hella fog right now that needs a new positive blade connector because the old one arc'd out.