Relays Are Our Friends..Relays...What Are They Good For..?????

[Viet Nam Vett]

This thread was suggested by "67Heaven" from another thread . So I have Volunteered to Strart the ball rolling... Any one who would like to add or correct me ...Bring it on....

Yes...Relays are our friends. They do all the hard work carrying the heavey current load while letting us activate the load using very little current. As of now I am using 2 realys to operate my lights and 2 relays to operate the cooling fans on my radiator. Also..one relay to operate the electric fuel pump for my thirsty 502.

Heres a Link to Relay Activated headlights for your Midyear. The Site listed below was originally posted by John Z... Check out the listing under "Brighter HeadLights" http://www.madelectrical.com/electrical-tech.shtml

If the topic does not appear on the link look at the page top under Electrical Tech. You will find this very interesting...Thanks again John Z.

The Headlight Relays I have mounted on the Driver side and the Fan Relays on the Pasenger side. The fuel pump relay (No Pic) is mounted under the passenger side hood latch.

By doing the Headlight relay conversion you will see an increase in headlight brightness as well as less of a load on the insterment cluster as well as your headlight swithch.

I have to get out of here and head to work... Here are some pic's of my install
to date. I will also be adding a fan control switch and a fuel pump control swithch.. This will bring the total of relays to 8......

Driver Side Headlight Relays

Passenger Side Fan Relays

Fuse Block Assembly

Switches and Relays For Fan And Fuel Pump Control....Future Project

What Have you done with your relays......

 

[67HEAVEN]

Ex-cel-lent! Thanks VNV.

I know I'll have questions for you when you finish work today.

 

[IH2LOSE]

Ex-cel-lent! Thanks VNV.

I know I'll have questions for you when you finish work today.

No mistery here and once you start using them you use them in alot of places you never thought of I have a quick diagram I made and if some one has a scanner i can fax it to them so it can be posted or I will scan it tonight.

 

[IH2LOSE]

One of the use's I used a relay for.Is a simple theft deterant.I used the parking lamp signal from my head lamp switch to fire a relay.I then ran my started solinode wire thru the relay.

You guys may not have noticed but in order for me to start my car I had to turn on the parking lamps so that the starter solinode had power.

With out the parking lamps on the circut to the solinode stops at my relay. In order for the car to be hot wired they would have to crawl under it to get to the starter solinode to jump it.

Some quick terms

NC normally closed -this means with no power to the coile the relay is normally closed and power will travel thru it

NO Normally open=this means with no power thru it the relay is always in the open position and no power can flow thru it.

SP-single pole Means the switch only has one set of working contacts in it

DP- double pole means it has 2 set of contacts in it to control multible items

DT-double throw -this is a realy that will be eather NO or NC

DPDT double pole double throw this is my favorite and you can make anything electrical work with this and build some neet set ups

Coil- this is where you bring your control circut/trigger wire.the coil in a car should always be the same voltage as the cars battery .You just connect a ground to one end of the coil and then your 12 volt trigger wire and it pulls in the relay

Line- this is your power source.This is the fused size of your battery power to fire the componet you want to use.

Load- this is the product you want to power with the relay

In stephin wolfs case He would take the 12 volt power from his brake switch and jump it over to new clutch saftey switch that should be a KO switch (meaning no power can go thru unless the clutch is depressed).He would then take the other end of that switch and connect it to the coil side of his 12 volt KO relay,the other side of his 12 volt relays coil he would connect to a good ground in the car.

Now when he depress his clutch it send power thru his new clutch saftey switch and energizes the relay.

Every one ok so far


Now on the load side of his relay he take the wire from his ignition switch that gose to the solinode and brakes it thru the relay and its done.

the load side of the relay is what carries all of the current of the starter solinode and the saftey switch is just carring the current of the relay witch is mili amps

As soon as he step on the clutch
A relay is just a switch that has a coil in it. for our cars the relay is a 12 volt coil.so once we bring 12 volts to it it open the relay

 

[BarryK]

All

if anyone wants to send me any papers or articles on this subject such as a listing of the terms Larry just supplied, or any wiring diagrams they wish to share i'll be happy to host them up on my site in the tech papers section so others could benefit from it. I don't have a scanner, but anything you can email me as either a Word doc, Excel doc, PDF file, or whatever, I'll be glad to host.

 

[cesully]

good read... I've also enjoyed troubleshooting electrical problems...especially with Mr. Fluke.


Sully

 

[67HEAVEN]

VNV,

What type of headlights are you using? Original style? Halogen? Other?

Following the addition of relays, did you see a noticeable difference in brightness? Are the dash lights brighter at night? Any other comments?

As you know, I have all-new original-style wiring harnesses throughout the car. How would I go about adding headlight relays without cutting into the harness?

Thanks, Mark.

 

[Viet Nam Vett]

VNV,

What type of headlights are you using? Original style? Halogen? Other?

Following the addition of relays, did you see a noticeable difference in brightness? Are the dash lights brighter at night? Any other comments?

As you know, I have all-new original-style wiring harnesses throughout the car. How would I go about adding headlight relays without cutting into the harness?

Thanks, Mark.

I'm using standard Halogen Lamps. Even if you use the standard original T3's you will notice a difference in brillance. Here's a Quote from the artical at Mad electrical
http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/brighter-headlights.shtml

Read down to ....How Bad Is It


Bob..The first thing I would do is meaure the voltage at the head lamp's Low Beam and High beam connectors with the Motor running and the lamps lit. This will let you know what's going on with your electrial system. You could use one one those wire piercing testers right at the head lamps and jurry rig your voltmeter into the circuit.

I am using a standard Halogen head lamp. I did notice the difference with the relays installed. There should also be a difference with the standard "T3"'s also.

As far as not cutting the harness goes..that can be done but you would have to make all of the splices at the head lamp connector and run the wires back to the relays on the driver side fendor near the radiator as pictured in my first post.

So..you would be cutting the feed from the head lightswitch...(Low Beam)..
which would feed one side of the relay COIL.... The other end of the relay COILwire would go to ground at the Radiator support.

Power to run the Head Lamp would come from the Horn Relay Buss Across Thru the top Channel of the Radiator Support to the RelayCONTACT and out of the Relay to the Head Lamp wire that feeds the Head Lamp. I would also add some sort of in line fuse in this circuit.

You would do the same for the High Beam Circuit. But I would measure the Voltages first to see what your charging system is doing . Rev the motor with the high beams on and see how much loss you have at the head lamps.

At that point you can deside what you want to do. I was showing only 11.75 Volts at the Headlamps..so I desided to go for it. Now my lamps are nice and bright and my dash lights are steady and bright and I don't have that heavy 15 Amp load on my Head Light Switch causing it to run hot.

You can also measure at the horn relay while your lights are on and the heater blower and or other accessories are on and rev the motor and you'll see what your Alternator is doing in the way of keeping up with the load.

Remember...the Battery only starts the car... The Alternator is what supplies power to run all the loads that are called for. The Alternator is only trickel charging your Battery..

Hope this info helps....Any one please feel free to commet on this post.
Your input is always welcome...

 

[stepinwolf]

One of the use's I used a relay for.Is a simple theft deterant.I used the parking lamp signal from my head lamp switch to fire a relay.I then ran my started solinode wire thru the relay.

You guys may not have noticed but in order for me to start my car I had to turn on the parking lamps so that the starter solinode had power.

With out the parking lamps on the circut to the solinode stops at my relay. In order for the car to be hot wired they would have to crawl under it to get to the starter solinode to jump it.

Some quick terms

NC normally closed -this means with no power to the coile the relay is normally closed and power will travel thru it

NO Normally open=this means with no power thru it the relay is always in the open position and no power can flow thru it.

SP-single pole Means the switch only has one set of working contacts in it

DP- double pole means it has 2 set of contacts in it to control multible items

DT-double throw -this is a realy that will be eather NO or NC

DPDT double pole double throw this is my favorite and you can make anything electrical work with this and build some neet set ups

Coil- this is where you bring your control circut/trigger wire.the coil in a car should always be the same voltage as the cars battery .You just connect a ground to one end of the coil and then your 12 volt trigger wire and it pulls in the relay

Line- this is your power source.This is the fused size of your battery power to fire the componet you want to use.

Load- this is the product you want to power with the relay

In stephin wolfs case He would take the 12 volt power from his brake switch and jump it over to new clutch saftey switch that should be a KO switch (meaning no power can go thru unless the clutch is depressed).He would then take the other end of that switch and connect it to the coil side of his 12 volt KO relay,the other side of his 12 volt relays coil he would connect to a good ground in the car.

Now when he depress his clutch it send power thru his new clutch saftey switch and energizes the relay.

Every one ok so far


Now on the load side of his relay he take the wire from his ignition switch that gose to the solinode and brakes it thru the relay and its done.

the load side of the relay is what carries all of the current of the starter solinode and the saftey switch is just carring the current of the relay witch is mili amps

As soon as he step on the clutch
A relay is just a switch that has a coil in it. for our cars the relay is a 12 volt coil.so once we bring 12 volts to it it open the relay

IH2LOSE

Thank's for your input, but a picture is worth a thousand words. I will try and figure it out when I'm rested

Stepinwolf

 

[stepinwolf]

VNV,

Someone should have posted the link to " MAD " long ago. I have just spent the last two hours trying to take everything in, and I have learned more during that time then in the past year. I have just prepared a 250$ order for the next couple of restos I am doing.

Stepinwolf

 

[67HEAVEN]

I will try and figure it out when I'm rested

Stepinwolf

At the rate you build cars, Bob, I don't think you ever rest.

 

[stepinwolf]

At the rate you build cars, Bob, I don't think you ever rest.

Actually Bob, I am able to get some rest while I care for both dogs, do the laundry, wash the dishes, clean the house ( 2 dogs ), iron my t-shirts, vacuum the house, mow the lawn, shop for groceries, prepare my meals, run errands, post to the Forum, and a few other things that don't come to mind.

All this is over and above what ever time I get to spend in my garage, working on Corvettes, so you see Bob, by getting up at 5 AM I still am able to git-R-done :W .

I am sometimes grateful to not have a job, ( too old, and not enough skills ) otherwise how would I ever find time to do everything. :ugh

Stepinwolf

 

[IH2LOSE]

by getting up at 5 AM I still am able to git-R-done :W .


I can tell you nothing is better then starting the day early.

Do you still need a scetch on the wiring,PM me a fax number I am having troubles with my scanner.

 

[BarryK]

........( too old, and not enough skills )
Stepinwolf

Bob, between your posts on here and your website showing the cars you have done, lack of skills is NOT something you suffer from!

 

[stepinwolf]

Bob, between your posts on here and your website showing the cars you have done, lack of skills is NOT something you suffer from!

That's not what my X wife use to say, but then I didn't get much practice either.

Stepinwolf

 

[stepinwolf]

That was quick for 7AM

With the speed the responces are coming this morning, it look's as though I am not the only one doing the eary bird/worm thing.

Stepinwolf

 

[BarryK]

That's not what my X wife use to say, but then I didn't get much practice either.

Stepinwolf

i'm not going there..........

 

[BarryK]

With the speed the responces are coming this morning, it look's as though I am not the only one doing the eary bird/worm thing.

Stepinwolf

i'm usually up by 5-5:30am everyday. if I don't wake up on my own than the dog usually wakes me up

 

[Viet Nam Vett]

VNV,

Someone should have posted the link to " MAD " long ago. I have just spent the last two hours trying to take everything in, and I have learned more during that time then in the past year. I have just prepared a 250$ order for the next couple of restos I am doing.

Stepinwolf

It was posted a while back by John Z. I did give him credit in my one of my posts. I went to the site and read every artical.. Then printed them all. Some great info their. Worth the long read.....

Also before ordering... I would email the Site owner to make sure he is up and runing again. He was out of commision for a while and not excepting orders.

 

[Tyler Townsley]

I don't have a scanner,

If you have a digital camera you have a scaner. Just take a picture.

Tyler