What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[Rick W]

I figure this hot pin problem is an ancient post in here its been bone stock for over 18 yrs and now I'm addressing stuff that bugs me

I’m still having some minor problems with my headlights in the 87. If you look at my “Missing Linc” thread, I changed from a single headlight to quad headlights when I did the “Lincoln” conversion. I obviously had to add the extra low beam circuit, and I’ve always felt that that may be overloading the system. I like to think it’s designed to handle that extra load, but I’ve already burned out one multifunction switch, and I keep having some dimming.

Anyway, just recently I put in a new higher (90A vs 40A OEM) alternator when the old one died. While that fixed my power problem, the headlights are still not what they should be.

Anyway, here’s where I’m going with this. I think I may have a bad ground to all of those headlights. I don’t know if it’s a single common ground. I just tied into the wires that were there when I added the two new low beams. But I just decided, rather than just try to trace down that ground, I’m going to find where the ground, low beam and high beam wires originate, somewhere in front of the driver, and I’m going to run new wires to all four headlights and probably multiple grounds. I may even head into relays, so that operationally works the same, but the headlights get fed direct from the battery/alternator, and the multifunction switch and headlight switch only close the relays. That’s the Plan B. If replacing the wires doesn’t work.

I’m not doing it for a few days, but I’ll be posting in the “what did you do to your Ranger“ thread when I do it.

Hope it helps.

 

[JohnnyO]

Another car cruise/show. One I hadn't been to before.
Turnout was light, it started at 4:00 but there was a much larger cruise earlier nearby.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I’m still having some minor problems with my headlights in the 87. If you look at my “Missing Linc” thread, I changed from a single headlight to quad headlights when I did the “Lincoln” conversion. I obviously had to add the extra low beam circuit, and I’ve always felt that that may be overloading the system. I like to think it’s designed to handle that extra load, but I’ve already burned out one multifunction switch, and I keep having some dimming.

Anyway, just recently I put in a new higher (90A vs 40A OEM) alternator when the old one died. While that fixed my power problem, the headlights are still not what they should be.

Anyway, here’s where I’m going with this. I think I may have a bad ground to all of those headlights. I don’t know if it’s a single common ground. I just tied into the wires that were there when I added the two new low beams. But I just decided, rather than just try to trace down that ground, I’m going to find where the ground, low beam and high beam wires originate, somewhere in front of the driver, and I’m going to run new wires to all four headlights and probably multiple grounds. I may even head into relays, so that operationally works the same, but the headlights get fed direct from the battery/alternator, and the multifunction switch and headlight switch only close the relays. That’s the Plan B. If replacing the wires doesn’t work.

I’m not doing it for a few days, but I’ll be posting in the “what did you do to your Ranger“ thread when I do it.

Hope it helps.

Relays. If you’re going to fix the wiring, put relays in.