RA23 Dash Wiring

[fuzz!]

Fuzz - how much were the Narva hi/low 5.75" lenses ???

haven't bought them myself yet.. repco quoted me $147 each set. so you're looking at $294 for a complete conversion.

expensive.. so for me there's no point in ordering them now and have them sitting around for ages while the car's being built.

i will see if anyone else will stock them for a better price.. but i still intend to buy them when the time comes.

[o_man_ra23]

Nah, my guages arent glittery, I had the foresight to pull them apart. Just gotta try and make posts as idiot proof as possible, cause you never know when a holden driver is going to read the forums for tech tips.

Cheers, Owen

[fuzz!]

Just gotta try and make posts as idiot proof as possible, cause you never know when a holden driver is going to read the forums for tech tips.

good call...

i'm thinking i'll do the same to mine.. and repaint all the needles with some nice fluro orange..

[ra23celica]

the BEST thing you can buy from narva is the halogen headlight conversion kit..

part no 72048 = high/low beam kit, 72058 = high beam kit

Have you fitted these lights, did you need to wire in a relay for it, and how do they look now?
Thanks.

[fuzz!]

Have you fitted these lights, did you need to wire in a relay for it, and how do they look now?
Thanks.

as mentioned above, i have not yet bought the halogen conversion kit. but, yes, you would need relays for them. (i am pitching the 30 year old toyota relay for some new parts)

[fuzz!]

guys i need some general wiring help here.. i have a few questions i hope someone may be able to answer..

what is the purpose of a 'main relay'? following the celicas wiring, the 'on' position on the ignition barrel runs to the fuse box and then the main relay. the output of the main relay runs back to the fuse box. i don't see why you couldnt just ditch the main relay altogether (as it doesnt really do much remote high current switching) and just run more lines from the ignition barrel to the fuse box.



in the above picture you see the 4 inputs running along the bottom. 'battery in' is permanently connected to the battery. 'accessory in' is closed when the ignition barrel is in the accessory position. the 'ignition in' is connected to the 'on' position of the ignition barrel - and to the main relay through a fuse. like i said, the main relay feeds back into the fuse box and lights up the 'main relay in' rail.

there must be a purpose to it that i can't see.

i hope that wasn't clear as mud and someone knows what i'm on about. (owen i hope you can help me out here )

also.. i havent yet traced this stuff completely (obviously).. but how the hell will the stereo get power when the car is on? it was the only thing hooked up to the accessory line on the fuse box, but the thing is.. that doesn't seem to be live when the ignition barrel is in the 'on' position. this would mean the stereo loses power when the car is running (which obviously isn't the case). is there some trick to the accessory circuit, or am i smoking crack?

lastly.. tracing the steering column controls i can see that the high/low beam lights run to ground through these switches. easy enough i thought at first. ill just wire the relay trigger ground to them. but then how will i get the high beam pilot light to go off? it has its own seperate ground (shared with the indicators). running the trigger 12v line to it will just result in it being on all the time, and they all share the same ground so i can't use that..

anyway.. any comments would be appreciated but i will get to the bottom of it in my own time (a snails pace). just sick of following wires and fighting with my multimeter at the moment..

[o_man_ra23]

Accessory position SHOULD be live when the ignition barrel is in the on position, you may have a faulty ignition barrel. I believe the accessories go dead when the barrel is in the start position. The Main relay is there to relieve the stress off the contactors in your ignition barrel, they are only flimsy and it is harder to get a solid contact with a rotary switch. As for the high beam light in the dash, there are several ways of connecting this. One is to have a power wire from the high beam output of the relay going to the dash. Using a small wire will limit fault currents. Another is to re-wire it with power from the ignition position, and earth through the same high beam switch as the light relay. Your light relay may also have a high beam indicator output. Check the factory wiring diagram from the haynes manual to work this out.

Cheers, Owen

[fuzz!]

Accessory position SHOULD be live when the ignition barrel is in the on position, you may have a faulty ignition barrel.

dang.. i must have fucked up testing it because it worked just fine when the car was running.. i'll triple check everything tonight. if it is live then that will make a lot more sense.

I believe the accessories go dead when the barrel is in the start position.

yeah they do.. maybe that's what messed up my testing.

The Main relay is there to relieve the stress off the contactors in your ignition barrel, they are only flimsy and it is harder to get a solid contact with a rotary switch.

yeah okay.. makes sense i guess.. the wires coming off the barrel and into the fuse box are huge though.. but if it's the contacts that are the weak point........

at any rate i'll wire in the relay as per standard.

As for the high beam light in the dash, there are several ways of connecting this. One is to have a power wire from the high beam output of the relay going to the dash. Using a small wire will limit fault currents.

this is the *ONLY* way i figure it could work.. bit nasty though.. i will check if the pilot inputs are connected to the relay outputs..

Another is to re-wire it with power from the ignition position, and earth through the same high beam switch as the light relay.

this wouldn't work as the high/left/right pilots share the same ground. if i did that they would all be on whenever high/left/right was on.

Your light relay may also have a high beam indicator output. Check the factory wiring diagram from the haynes manual to work this out.

i'm using aftermarket narva relays.. they do have two output pins.. will make it convenient to run the pilot 12v line..

thanks heaps for the input.. will have to get my arse into gear and finish off the rest of the wiring pics..

ben.

[o_man_ra23]

put an inline fuse of a small value between the relay output and the pilot light... last thing you want is an under dash fire. May seem like a silly thing with such a small wire, but if you get a solidly earthed fault, then the time for the fuse protecting the headlights to blow will be quite a while with that wire, and the wire will get red hot in the mean time.

Cheers, Owen

[fuzz!]

put an inline fuse of a small value between the relay output and the pilot light... last thing you want is an under dash fire. May seem like a silly thing with such a small wire, but if you get a solidly earthed fault, then the time for the fuse protecting the headlights to blow will be quite a while with that wire, and the wire will get red hot in the mean time.

will definately be fusing that link...

i've wondered about fuse ratings before.. i will run a wire to the pilot rated at 10amps.. should i run it through a 7.5amp fuse to be sure it will blow before the wire, or should i keep the ratings the same and run a 10amp fuse in there?

thanks again,
ben.

[fuzz!]

okay, so i just quadruple checked the ignition barrel and the accessory circuit is definately NOT LIVE when the ignition is in the 'on' position.

either my ignition barrel is fubar, or....

the accessory rail must be linked to the main relay output. so when the ignition is 'on' the main relay is triggered and power is once again supplied to the accessory output.

[TA-022]

ok ok ... ill get you a wiring diagram well at this time this arvo

***watch this space***

[fuzz!]

ok ok ... ill get you a wiring diagram well at this time this arvo

***watch this space***

hey thanks man.. if only my wiring wasn't so not stock.. not to mention so not hacked to pieces..


"following the red wire... following.. it ends in... a frayed stump, how handy"

[o_man_ra23]

Mate, when picking fuses you need to look at how much current draw will normally be on it, then make it the next size up. A pilot light of 5 watt will draw close on half an amp at 12V. From this, a 1 amp fuse will be plenty, 10A will be much overkill. For a 22AWG wire, you are looking at a current capacity of about 1.8A, so the fuse must be smaller than this, and 22AWG is about what you would run to a pilot light.

Hope this helps your search for information.

Cheers, Owen

[fuzz!]

okay, so i just quadruple checked the ignition barrel and the accessory circuit is definately NOT LIVE when the ignition is in the 'on' position.

yeah okay i should mention that the next day i hooked up the battery to the input terminal of the ignition barrel and as if by magic, accessory was live when in the ignition position. i was a bit confoozed.. maybe there is some sort of solenoid switching going on inside the barrel. who knows, all i know is it works and it's made life a lot easier.

what i've done (and my recommendation to others) is get 3 single-input fuse blocks, hook one up to the battery direct, and the other 2 to their own relay, and only use the ignition barrel as a relay trigger switch. so you have a simple battery/accessory/ignition fuse block setup without so much current running trough the barrel contacts.

thanks to owen for pointing out the obvious to me about why the main relay is there - i've just taken it further and have 2 relays instead. demonstrated in this crude kindergarten wiring diagram: