Driving lights electrical issue

[henryk]

Well I'm back with another problem. Don't know what i would do with out KawaNOW and all you guys/gals.
Last year I installed driving lights from Wal-mart. Everything worked fine, I had no issues with them. I put the relay into the headlight bucket.
This last week I wanted to move the relay into the leftside panel were the tool pouch is. So I finished the wiring and tested the lights. They came on fine just like before BUT
this time they go off when I turn on the HIGH beam on the head light and then come back on when I turn the high beam off. I did not have this issue before,
before I was able to run the high beam along with the driving lights on. I double and triple checked everything.
Does anyone have any idea on what I might have done wrong this time?

Thanks, henryk

[cactusjack]

Does the relay have a post 87a and a post 87b, by any chance?

[henryk]

Not sure right now. I will check it when I get home from work. Do you think
I flip/flopped the wires?

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by henryk

Not sure right now. I will check it when I get home from work. Do you think
I flip/flopped the wires?

Well...possibly. If it's a 5-pin relay, then it has an 87a and an 87b. If it's a 4-pin relay, it has an 87a. 87 is the output from the relay. I've never used a 5-pin relay, but I believe the difference between 87a and 87b is 87a is normally closed and 87b is normally open. So you would want to use 87a to connect to the driving lights. If you used 87b, I think you would get the opposite behavior of what is desired. Just a guess.

[hammer]

On most of the 5 pins the 87B does stay hot so the driving lights would be on without the ignition being on. You do have to test the relay because most that do are unaffected by a working connection to 87A. That way you can daisy chain power to another relay. I have run across some where an 87A connection does switch 87B off though.

[upside22]

Are you *sure* you are using the same wire in the headlight bucket to activate the relay? Sounds to me like you've tapped into the power lead for the low beam.

The wire I tapped into is a blue/white wire on the *backside* of the connector in the headlight bucket. If you use a wire on the headlight side of the connector you'll likely have a problem just like you are experiencing.

[mercianbike]

You might want to review Gadget's instructions on wiring driving lights. With the discussion and diagram to compare with, it might be easier to diagnose your problem.

http://www.gadgetjq.com/wiredrivinglights.htm

[henryk]

CJ, The relay is a the 4 pin kind.

upside22
I believe I'm using the same wire I used when the relay was located in the headlight bucket, but I'm not 100% sure. I will go back in and check it out. I do know that I'm using the wire thats hot only when the engine is running.

Thanks guys

[henryk]

upside22

Just want to thankyou. Your diagnosis of my problem was head on.
I did tap into the low beam wire. I have it corrected and everything is working fine. Thanks to everyone who responded to my problem.
I love KawaNOW, don't know what I would do without it.

Henryk