jfilion2

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.

jfilion2

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!

jfilion2

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.

jfilion2

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.

jfilion2

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.

jfilion2

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.

jfilion2

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.