DIY Offroad Light Electrical
 

Hello everyone, I bought a 2000 Jeep TJ this summer. It had some old offroad lights mounted at the windshield level, but they had never been hooked up. This thread is a blog of my attempt.

Re: DIY Offroad Light Electrical
 

Step 1 was to take the lights off and find the two wires that I needed (power and ground) as they were stuffed inside the housing of the light.

I actually made a mistake here: I failed to identify the ground pin. I assumed that since there was not a separate wire for ground that it must have been grounded in the screw that mounts the light to the frame of the car.

This is incorrect. I have identified the ground pin in the attached photo for all to see. You are welcome!

Re: DIY Offroad Light Electrical
 

Next I ran a black cable that splits between the two lights and goes to the relay inside the engine compartment (relay is not there yet we will put one in later - they are inexpensive). I threaded them through the rubber bushing before connecting them to the light.

Note that I later had to run a second cable to the light through that bushing (the ground wire). Do it right away and you won't have to dis-assemble the light a second time (which I had to do).

I ran the cable under the panel of the jeep into the engine compartment. I used a flat head screw driver to push it under the panel... no problem (I had to loosen one of the screws on the panel to let it lift up a bit).

* note on my third picture that the +12 is NOT from the battery. It goes to the relay.

Re: DIY Offroad Light Electrical
 

Next I ran two cables (one from the battery + terminal and one from the relay) to the switch.

I had to go in through a hole in the firewall (I plan to put a rubber bushing here so it doesn't cut my cables), under my gas pedal, through my centre console, and to the switches which were conveniently already mounted on my Jeep.

I had to go through my cigarette lighter plastic, so I drilled a hole to thread the cable (see photos).

You can see that the previous owner simply bent a piece of metal to mount the switches.

Re: DIY Offroad Light Electrical
 

I connected the two cables to my switch (consult relay diagram to figure out which connects to which pin on the switch - blue is live +12 volts for me in these photos).

... just a FYI I went on ebay and ordered 4 yellow LED illuminated carbon fibre protected switches to replace the 3 switches in this photo. $13.00 for 4 of them. woot.

Re: DIY Offroad Light Electrical
 

Now that all the wires are run from the engine compartment to the switch and to the lights... it was time to hook them all up to the relay.

I have attached the wiring diagram that I used to this post. I also mounted the relay to a bolt that was already on the jeep.

Re: DIY Offroad Light Electrical
 

Now I just flick the switch and BOOM ! Daylight!

... I plan on putting that rubber bushing in the hole in the firewall to protect my wires, add the 2A fuse to the +12V live wire going to my switch, and relocate the ugly green ground wire that I ran to the front of the engine compartment because I was a rookie.