Technical need help diagnosing my electrical woes on a new wiring job

Last week, I finished wiring my 32 roadster project.
I have an aluminum Auburn style – panel with Stuart Warner gauges. SoCal speed shops push pull on off. Switch and push pull headlight switch with no dimmer are mounted to that gauge panel.
The high beams, low beams and parking lamps are run through four pin relays.

When I first connected the battery and engaged the kill switch, everything was fine until I started pulling the headlight switch. The light switch feed fuse popped

I did some work underneath the dash and found a few problems which I remedied and put fresh fuses in and hooked everything else up- this time, I pulled the light switch out of the gauge panel and let it hang on the wires. This time, I got no blown fuses (which is great).

The problem I have now is:
In the parking lamp position, the tail lights work great and so does the hazard flashers - The turn signals do not work.
In the low beam position, the headlights are great, but the parking lamps go out.
Same thing in the high beam position, no tail lights but the high beams are bright.

Looks like something inside the switch may be shorted or grounded to something else? This may explain why pulling the switch out of the gauge cluster gave it more functionality and didn't pop any fuses.

Thoughts?

 

Hey, go back and turn the third image right side up . Did you change the wire color on the Left front turn signal? You've got it as Green and the schematic shows a Light Blue. Right front shows Dark Blue.

 

You have to have something still wired wrong. You found some of it... find the rest! Hard for us to figure it out without being there.

 

You do not mention if the 4 ways work with the headlights on. If they do, I've found that the 4 way switch may not be returning all the way when you turn them off. Just ran into this on a 442 I wired up. I actually had to use a little screw driver on the switch to get it to return all the way. If it doesn't return, your turn signals won't work.

On the park lights, when you turn the headlights on, does the blue wire at the switch still have power? If it doesn't, you won't have park lights.

 

Duh, 4-way ???
If you mean the push/pull light switch, I only have 3 positions: park, low, high...no twist dimmer

 

3 position headlight switch has hi-beam, low-beam, park light, and tail/instrument terminals. You won't have the park lights on in any other position than the first position. The tail/instrument lights will be on in all three. It shouldn't take but a minute to check the switch for operation with either a test light or meter. Since the switch is hanging by the wires you could also check it for a short in any position with the same tool.

What is the relay on right end of the row labeled "INT LIGHT" supposed to be doing?

 

I would presume interior lamp (dome light).

 

4 way refers to the hazard flashers. I assume they are operated via the turn signal switch in the steering column.

 

On his drawing he doesn't show any wiring for the tail lights. Are they supposed to be in the instrument light circuit?

 

Yes.

 

But a dome light that is only functional when the parking lights are on is not standard; that is why I questioned the purpose of the relay.

 

For some reason, everything works completely different with the switch attached to the gauge cluster versus hanging free- I'm certain that the gates cluster grounds the case of the switch, but I'm not sure if that's necessary or not.
Probing around with the test meter led me to believe that the switch was shorting because with the switch mounted in the dash panel, the headlight switch feed line had continuity with the bezel on the switch... But maybe that was through the light bulbs?

 

There are no front turn signals

 

Okay, now we're getting somewhere- so, there's a difference between parking lights and tail lights?
The wiring diagram that came with the switch doesn't say anything about tail lights - only "parking lights". I looked up parking lights on Google and they are the same thing as marker lights - the yellow bulbs on the four corners. I have none of those on my car, just headlights and tail lights.
Here is the highly sophisticated wiring diagram my switch came with...



Nevertheless, shouldn't those parking lights stay on when the headlights are on too? The pin labeled parking lights only connects to power in the first position of the light switch. In the low and high positions, the parking light pin on the switch has no power.

 

I've used on of those (SoCal) switches previously with no problem, but cant recall the wiring.
Having high beams and low beams on the switch seems illogical as surely the headlamps are simply 'on' with the dipswitch controlling high and low?
I suggest the 'low beams' terminal is for the front parking lites and the tail lites and the 'parking lites' is a 12v + for them.
Suggest you check switched continuity between parking lights and low beam terminals with everything disconnected. Also similarly check hl feed to high beam, as well as checking hl feed doesn't power anything else up. Wiring can be a pita!

Chris

 

Never been a fan of the four position headlight switches (which appears to be what you have, even though the RS instr says ‘3’). Reaching forward and lightly pushing the switch in when someone flashes me because I forgot to dim my lights in time (being an old fart, it happens) versus hammering my foot on the floor mounted dimmer is too challenging for me.
All that crap aside, this AA instr. sheet may help a bit. Probably all made the same
Cheers.

 

Also, I’ve seen guys that really like switches (aircraft look I guess) use a separate toggle for dash lights and a separate dimmer (marine style) to really clutter things up. Might be kinda fun to play Maverick and flick a bunch of extra switches.
Me, I’m a simple man.

 

I'd hook the taillights to the same post on the light switch as the dash lights. Then they would be lighted anytime the switch is turned on.

 

"INT" light circuit is two LED panels I have behind the dashboard and they are connected via a separate ground switch to light up under the dash- the reason they are on the relay with the parking lights is so that there's no way to leave it turned on and kill my battery unless the parking lights are on.

What you guys have said solves my parking light problems- I have the tail lights hooked up to the pin that says parking lights because my instructions only said to hook the gauge lights up to that pin that the tail lights are also supposed to be hooked up to.

 

The hazard lights work- the brake light circuit goes through the steering column and the hazards work great, but I'm getting nothing out of the turn signals

 

Did you see if the hazard switch is returning all the way when you turn it off? If it doesn't go all the way, the turn signals and brake lights will not work.

 

I'll throw in my .02 worth...

I'm another guy who doesn't like that type light switch. With that said, its labeled rather poorly IMO. I'd check it with a meter to identify what each terminal does at the various positions and connect to get the desired function, ignoring the labels. I'd also check for continuity to ground in each position to make sure you don't have a defective switch. I will recommend that you connect the low beams to the hot terminal 'live' when the knob is fully out, that will make it much easier to dim your lights. Trying to push 'in' to dim can cause you to overshoot and suddenly have no headlights. I can't for the life of me figure out why they label those the way they do.

I don't really understand why you're using four relays. With properly-sized wiring feeding the fuse panel and switch they shouldn't be needed. You can at least eliminate the two for the 'park' and 'int' lights if not the headlight relays. You do need a relay for the horn however.

You mention that the hazards/turn malfunction when the headlights are on. Check the grounds at the headlights. If you have one of the hots and ground switched, the lights will still work but will 'search' for a ground and may be getting it through the tail/brake lights, preventing them from lighting.

 

Yellow bulbs on the four corners of normal cars are side markers, not parking lights.

Parking lights are on the front of the car, while tail lights are on the rear. Parking lights used to go off when the headlights were turned on; but in the mid '60s the feds decided the parking lights should stay on when the headlights were on. Guess as a safety feature so you didn't think a car with burnt out head light was a motorcycle.

You mentioned you don't have parking lights; so how would you know if you left them on?

Did you function test the signal switch before hooking it up?

Have you checked the signal flasher wire at the column connector for power?

What exactly happens when you try the signals and the brake lights; does the selected side brake light go out?

 

Thanks for the tip, I will wire the switch that way - makes great sense. We have determined that the SoCal switch has a momentary short in it, so I've ordered a Painless unit. If anyone has a pereferred alternative switch, please let me know.
I have individual ground wires coming from the headlights and the tail lights - they go to a ground bus next to the fuse panel. The current theory is that, as I have no front turn signals (just headlights), is - that only having one 1157 bulb per side (rear) connected to the flasher/turn signal circuit doesn't make enough load to activate the flasher. I am wiring a pair of higher resistance 194 bulbs into the column to simulate the load of front turn signals and will test the turn signals again.

 

With a regular thermal flasher if there is insufficient load, the signal light will illuminate; but not flash.

 

My wiring harnesses on all 3 of my old cars aren't setup to have park lights in front on with headlights. In park position my front park lights are on, along with taillights, dash lights, and license plate light. But in headlamp position the park lights go off.

 

Just so you know, the Rebel Wire instructions are free to download on their website. It might be good for you to look that over.

 

Get an electronic flasher that isn't load-sensitive like the thermal units. They're out there. I don't think a 194 lamp will have enough load to do the trick.