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Re: Relay for Driving Lights

To: healeys@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Relay for Driving Lights
From: Charlie Baldwin <ewsinc@suscom.net>
Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 21:13:35 -0500
Larry,
When I recently installed a fog light and a driving light on my MG TD, 
this is what I did.

I'm not very good at electrical or electronic things, so I heeded the 
lists' and others' suggestion to use a relay.  Problem was I had no idea 
really what a relay was or what kind to get or how to hook one up.

I searched the internet and came up with a very nice sketch that shows 
how to hook up the circuit.  Go to 
http://www.classictruckshop.com/clubs/earlyburbs/projects/bosch/foglites.htm

It talks about Bosch relays, so I went searching for such a creature.  
Little did I know at the time that what was meant by a Bosch relay is 
really a Bosch type relay.  Apparently Bosch has set the standard for 
this type of relay and the terminals are marked with the same numbers on 
any Bosch type relay.

Somewhere I found a reference to a company called MCM that has relays 
for around  a dollar (US).  Seemed to me to be a good price.  I found 
this website:  
http://www.mcminone.com/search.asp?keyword=relays&btnSubmit.x=8&btnSubmit.y=7&btnSubmit=GO&restrict=3829443
I liked the 40A relay because it looked like the mounting flange is 
metal where the 30 A doesn't appear to be.  The 40A is 4 pin and the 30A 
is 5 pin, but the wiring diagram appeared to only need 4 pins, which is 
correct.

You can also get relay sockets, but I chose not to because I wanted to 
use appropriate color wiring, not what came with the socket.  They also 
have fuseholders, but again they already have the wires on them and I 
wanted the correct color wires going in and out of everything. 

I don't know if any Austin-Healeys had foglights or driving lights as a 
factory option, but since I was working on an MG, which did have that 
option, the correct wire was already there in the stock wiring harness, 
and also a switch on the dash.  The color wire is red with a yellow 
tracer.  I figured I'd need some more wire, especially since I was 
wiring up two different lights (fog and driving), so I checked British 
Wiring's website and they do sell wire by the meter and also sell inline 
fuseholders that you solder the wires to their terminals and also sell 
the fuses.  I bought all of that from them.  They have a very nice 
online catalog which I had to print out to make much sense of it.  I'm 
old school and usually prefer a hard copy.

You will need to decide where you want to feed the relay from.  I fed it 
from a brown wire which means it is hot all the time.
Since you are doing driving lights, you should feed your switch from the 
high beam wire, which I believe is Blue/red.  Check your wiring diagram 
for your car and the harness to see where you can hook up to one that 
color. That way you can only use them when the high beams are on, which 
I believe is legal in most states.  This was just covered recently on 
the list.  I fed my fog lights from a parking light wire at the light 
switch.

I was quite happy with the result and was glad I did some research and 
then didn't just use some generic auxiliary light kit.

Good luck.
Charlie




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