Aux Light Wiring Frustratio

[ronward]

Afternoon all,

Man am I frustrated with this 1997 D90!! Wiring up the Hella's up front and the rear work lamp this afternoon. Mounted my switches on the dash panel just under the winshield and in the center of the dash (large removable piece used to hold the rear window wiper and defrost switches on SW models). Anyway, how the hell to you run the wires to the fuse block below the dash and just in front of the transfer case lever? Any advise? I've looked at drilling holes, but the AC is in the way. Thought about routing the wires behind the instruments, no clear path. Also, I'm planning on using the two auxilliary 20AMP fuses in the main fuse block just under the dash. Does this make sense? Should I be trying to route the wires to the fuse block in the engine compartment? I hate wiring......

Nest step is to just say f&%$ it and run with the non-wired poser lights!!!

Thanks y'all, I appreciate any insight into this. :confused

[javelinadave]

Grad power from one of the plugs behind the plate such as the rear wiper switch and use it to power the relay.
Run that wire thru the back of the instrument panel into the engine bay. You can hide the wire under the trim on the package shelf.
Grab your power for the lights from the fuse block bolted to the left inner fender and hook it up to the relay.
Now wire up your lights to the relay. Best part is that the ignition has to be on to turn on the lights.
As for the back work light, you should be able to take the power from the same place in the dash. Use the same path as the relay wire and wire it down the firewall and back to the worklight without a relay.
That is what I did it and so far so good. If you lived in Phoenix I would be happy to give you a hand. The front lights will pull a lot of power so the only true way of hooking them up is to use a relay.

[ronward]

Maybe I'm not reading that right, but I don't understand. Power the relay via an already hot wire behind the dash panel (rear wiper), which wire? Add an extension piece of wire connected to that hot wire and run it into the engine bay. Connect up the relay in the engine bay and then route the wires going to the switch back into the dash. The "hot wire" from the wiper motor harness takes the place of routing a wire to the battery? Would it be possible to drill a hole in the package shelf that runs into the engine bay?

I'm done for the night...bunch of work and no light..... :(

[javelinadave]

To power a relay you need two sources of electricity. The wire behind the cover will go thru a 5 amp in line fuse then to one side of your switch. The other side of the switch will go thru the firewall to your relay. This is your low draw of amps. #86
From the battery bus that is located under your hood on the left fender you will get your high amp source. It goes into the relay. #30
From the relay you will run your wires out to your lights. #87
The last wire from the relay will go to a common ground (AKA hook it up to anything that is solid metal like the fender)#85
Hope that helps, it sounds a lot harder than it is. See the attachment below to figure out the numbers that I am refering to.

[ronward]

Thanks Dave!