strangethursday Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 Has any1 re-wired the lighting system & used toggle or some other kind of switches instead of the combo switch? I'm having no luck finding the problem with my lighting system & now thinking of a complete re-wire. I've heard this is difficult because of the design of the system. I always drive with the headlights on anyway so I was thinking a single toggle to power all lighting interior & exterior, possibly a push button or a separate switch for the high beams & something like push on/push off buttons for the signals. The hazzard switch would be stock & wired in accordingly. Any thoughts on my design? My car is a 73. Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlderThanMe Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 I started out all fresh and removed the entire wiring system. I am putting my wiring together with the help of my Electrical engineer father...Don't do it unless you know someone that knows about wiring or you will spend a LONG time doing it... I removed my combo switch btw... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strangethursday Posted May 16, 2007 Author Share Posted May 16, 2007 In a perfect world my friend. Unfortunately I think the PO was edward scissorhands. The entire wiring harness has so many splices, add-ons & re-routed ♥♥♥♥ that I need to eventually rebuild the whole thing. I'm not even sure the harness is from a 73. The car has a L28 & electronic ignition swap. The fuse box appears to be stock. I have yet to find 1 fusable link. The alternator looks to be a later internally regulated 1 but the external regulator is still hooked up. They had an electric fan installed which was wired into who knows what & since there was never any electric fan stock (no wiring for a trigger), it didn't even work. I found a 5 prong aftermarket relay on the passenger side of the engine compartment near the regulator that has only 4 wires goin into it. 2 of which in traced back to the passenger footwell & don't connect to anything. There's another 6 prong relay that appears to be stock but the connector on it only has 4 wires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtmny1999 Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 Painless wiring? I just got mine and I am going to re-do all my wiring. I will just follow the sticky and hope it works out =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strangethursday Posted May 16, 2007 Author Share Posted May 16, 2007 I've looked at that a lil. I'll look into it. I don't have the money for that right now tho. I do want the individual systems separated (lighting, ignition, fuel, etc) anyway which is another reason I want to rewire. The POs wiring is just rediculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 The HybridZ standard upgrade http://alteredz.com/Headlight_Relay_pg1.htm If you stock harness worked at all, then Black Dragon Auto sells a relay conversion kit for Z's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strangethursday Posted May 16, 2007 Author Share Posted May 16, 2007 Thanks. I've got that & some others printed out. I was mainly wondering who has successfully removed the combo & turn signal switches altogether Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rejracer Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 My headlight and running lights were bypassed with two toggle switches when I purchased the car. The switches are mounted underside of the steering column trim. All the wiring for this is done at the console as well. If this setup were any more mickey mouse, it would only be found in disney land roller coasters. As mentioned above the dual relay setup is the way to go. I like the controls to be stock because its simple. But electrically the bypass switches are the same exact thing. So if you wanted a "cleaner" look and get rid of the headlight switch then go for it. The relay mod is still in order as well. The previous owner did not use switches that were heavy enough, and the switches kept burning out. I have since wired in a headlight relay to pull the load off of the switch. I wired this up about 10 years ago. I have not addressed the running lights in any of this either. I want to rewire the car, and the painless harness appears to be the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deja Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 The wiring in my 280Z V8 was pretty much like yours. The idiot that wired the car after the V8 conversion removed all the fusible links and replaced them with nothing! I had so many fuses blowing it was scary to even start the car assuming it would get connection to the starter relay. I tore into the harness many times and found very scary stuff like wires that went nowhere and not taped over and connections that were just twisted together and not soldered. I would fix those and things would work for a while then something else would quit, it got very frustrating. I couldn't run the heater fan with the headlights on and the clock and dash lights only ran occasionally. The final straw was when the 2 taillights quit working because the ground wire was not making connection…somewhere. I'm an electronics tech and after several attempts at fixing the wiring in this car I decided it had to go. So when I started my LT1 swap I tore all the wiring out of the Z and am replacing it with the donor Camaro harness. Not the easiest thing I've ever done but it has to be easier that fixing all that Datsun trash. If you need any Datsun connectors give me a shout, I saved almost all of them. I am still going to used the Datsun ignition switch and wiper switch but the lights will be controlled with the Camaro switch and relays. I also have another entire dash harness for a 280Z I will sell cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strangethursday Posted May 23, 2007 Author Share Posted May 23, 2007 How much power is actually runnin through the combo switch? Right now I got all my lights except the dash working. The dome light works & all the gauge bulbs are new but for some reason they don't work now. The head lights a directly powered off what I believe was once the windshield washer through a switch (only powered with ignition in "on" position). The rest of the lights are still controlled by the combo. The light for the hazzard still comes on. I found a white wire in the harness inside the engine bay that shorted out & burned but, I'm not sure what it is since everything but the gauges works. I'll re-wire everything when I get the money. This is my daily driver for the time being so there's another issue. My wantin to bypass the stock switch was more because I thought that was the problem & couldn't find a replacement but when I rewire everything it will be taken out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmanco Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Stock headlights pull around 4-5 amps each (~10 total) which is switched by the combo switch. If you do the relay conversion, the only current carried by the combo is the coil current for the relay which is usually around 200 mA (0.2A). That makes a big difference. You could rig up a temporary switch to control the lights via a relay until you have time to do it right. The combo switches come up on ebay regularly. If your existing switch isn't too worn out, but rather the contacts are just dirty, you can take it apart and clean them. I did that on my 73 and at least made the switch reliably turn the lights on and off. But cleaning won't help much if the contacts are too worn, or the plastics are too worn to keep the contacts aligned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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