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- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 5,365
- State - Country
- GA - USA
- Vehicle Year
- 1999
- Vehicle
- Ford Ranger
- Engine
- 5.0
- Transmission
- Automatic
- Total Drop
- few inches
- Tire Size
- ~30"
Lets start by telling you what I have and what I want to do. I have a 1986 Ranger, I have a 98 Explorer that I am swapping the wiring harnesses from. I'm not interested in getting into a debate about why I should do this or how I should do that. Just want to get some answers about what I am trying to do. I'm sure that there will be more items in the future, but for now it is the headlight wiring.
So my plan is to use the Explorer's body harness and electronics being controlled by the dash switches in the Ranger. There will be a few exceptions like the instrument lighting will remain from the 86 or will be custom wired by me, and the AC wiring will remain stock with the exception of using a fuse on the new panel. I have no problem doing that part. Where I am running into an issue is with the headlight lamps them selves. The first gen rangers used a fusable link feeding into the head lamp switch, through the dimmer switch and straight into the lights. The first thing I will be changing is the power source for the lights, it's been discussed many times and we all know that they should have had the dimmer switch run into high and low beam relays providing power straight from the battery. That wiring is not a problem aside from figuring out what size relay to use. Where my problems come from is the fuses for the system.
In 86 they used a 16 gauge fusible link to power to the head lamp switch. I want to get away from fusible links and run a fuse.
So my first question would be what size/style fuse should I have feeding the relays? My thoughts are to have the Hi beams and Lo beams on separate fuses that way if the high side fuse blows I still have the low side. So a single fuse will never see the draw of both at the same time and need to be sized accordingly. This will be fed straight off the battery not going through the power distribution box. I think that 30 amp relays would be overkill for the harness, but I don't guess that really matters.
The power distribution box for the explorer has a 30 amp fuse to the headlight switch. Will there be any problem using this as the power source for my early headlight switch? Since I will be just feeding the relays should I drop back to a smaller amperage, like 10 amp (I think I could go smaller since powering relays).
Any help is appreciated!
So my plan is to use the Explorer's body harness and electronics being controlled by the dash switches in the Ranger. There will be a few exceptions like the instrument lighting will remain from the 86 or will be custom wired by me, and the AC wiring will remain stock with the exception of using a fuse on the new panel. I have no problem doing that part. Where I am running into an issue is with the headlight lamps them selves. The first gen rangers used a fusable link feeding into the head lamp switch, through the dimmer switch and straight into the lights. The first thing I will be changing is the power source for the lights, it's been discussed many times and we all know that they should have had the dimmer switch run into high and low beam relays providing power straight from the battery. That wiring is not a problem aside from figuring out what size relay to use. Where my problems come from is the fuses for the system.
In 86 they used a 16 gauge fusible link to power to the head lamp switch. I want to get away from fusible links and run a fuse.
So my first question would be what size/style fuse should I have feeding the relays? My thoughts are to have the Hi beams and Lo beams on separate fuses that way if the high side fuse blows I still have the low side. So a single fuse will never see the draw of both at the same time and need to be sized accordingly. This will be fed straight off the battery not going through the power distribution box. I think that 30 amp relays would be overkill for the harness, but I don't guess that really matters.
The power distribution box for the explorer has a 30 amp fuse to the headlight switch. Will there be any problem using this as the power source for my early headlight switch? Since I will be just feeding the relays should I drop back to a smaller amperage, like 10 amp (I think I could go smaller since powering relays).
Any help is appreciated!
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