electric relays

[edward ericson]

Crappy, rainy day out so I was not able to do any additional work on our retaining wall.:D

Decided to get after Bridget’s electrics. Added a horn and horn relay to the mix. Easy but, word to the wise: don’t bother with the Harbor Freight cheapo horn kits. Only one out of the two worked. So I just added that one to Bridget’s bleating and sad little stock horn. Sounds much louder now.

Then on to the headlights. I bought the Moss Motors kit which is supposed to be a plug-in for any MG. By that I guess they’re talking about the fact that it comes with bullet connectors. I cut them off and spliced the relay kit into the headlight wires and, boys, what a difference! The lights look to be about twice as bright when juiced through the relays instead of the switch. Pain the ass job ’cause the wire harness is on the opposite side of the underhood area from the opening, but otherwise, painless process.
 
Moved on to my genuine Lucas 576 fog light avec genuine patina. Tested and it works. Again, really bright when wired to the battery, and the ground through the badge bar was A-OK. Got the relay for that spliced in ahead of the line fuse in the headlight kit. Now all that remains is the wires back to the switch. Thinking I’ll wire it to the high beam toggle on the horn. That way, if I ever run the rest of the headlights through, the fog will toggle off when we’re low beam only.

Gotta aim the thing too but, overall, good progress today.

Totally recommend the relays if you don’t already have them.

edsnova2012-03-24 21:14:04

[Royal]

Ed.  This is really eerie…..-  Look at my question that you were answering before I asked it. 

[john barry]

looking good Ed

[edward ericson]

Got the switch for the fog light working, aimed the light and wrapped the wires under the hood.

Here are the headlight relays (left two) and the new fog light relay tucked in under the steering shaft.

Now I’m under the dash again, trying to clean everything up and maybe find out why my volt meter has consistently read about 2 volts low since I installed it. Wish me luck.

[Royal]

Ed, My voltmeter also read about 2vdc low when I put it in about 3 months ago.  Weak battery.  One dead cell. 

[edward ericson]

Yeah. I swapped out batteries and tested the batteries with another volt meter. Got 13.2 or so on both with the engine running. I seem to have low voltage to the instruments, as read on this meter.

I think it’s the meter. But I have not yet pulled it to test it directly at the battery.

[Royal]

It’s easier to just run a temp jumper direct from the gauge to the battery.

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