John
| Hope this one is better, the box says connect to the wire of the park
light.
Thanks for the slightly clearer jpeg.
OK. We still don't know whether the blue lead is -ve or +ve switching,
but it doesn't really matter as it's now clear what you should do: that
red lead needs to be connected to something that goes to +12v when the
sidelights are on. But we don't know whether this is needed just to
illuminate the switch or whether this also provides power to switch that
relay.
So leave the red wire disconnected (and out of the way), connect up
everything else and turn the switch on. If the spots come on then we
know it's just for illumination and you can leave it disconnected if you
want, or connect it to other the dashboard lights if you want the switch
to light up. If the spots don't come on then you know that you need a
good solid 12v feed to run that relay.
Assuming that you do need to connect it then, unless anyone else has any
better ideas, I would suggest pulling out your radio and having a look
at the power leads round the back. Most vehicles are wired with two +ve
leads for a radio: one is the power supply, but the other is for radio
illumination when you turn the vehicle lights on.
I don't know if the TLC has this, but it's worth a try as there are
almost certainly some spare sockets back there. Take the radio out. Get
your multimeter (you do have one, don't you?), set it to the DC volts
scale, connect the -ve side to chassis earth (any bare metal), turn the
sidelights on and stick the other lead into all the sockets on any plug
you can find in there till you find +12v.
Now turn the sidelights off. If the voltage drops to zero you've found a
likely candidate. Turn the sidelights back on and adjust the dashboard
dimmer knob from max to min. If the multimeter needle moves up and down
you've found a feed from the dash lighting circuit (adequate to light up
a switch, but not to run a relay). If the needle doesn't move you've got
your "parking light", alias sidelight, feed.
If the spots worked WITHOUT that red wire connected then you can connect
the red wire to either the sidelight circuit or the circuit that runs
off the dimmer. (This is because the current to run the bulb won't
overload the latter.)
If the spots did NOT work with that red wire disconnected then you must
only connect to the sidelight circuit, as the current required to run a
relay could damage the dash lighting circuit.
I hope that's clear. To summarise: anything in the dash area that
- provides +12v when the sidelights are on
- zero when they are off
- and doesn't react to the dimmer knob
Is a safe candidate.
Christopher Bell
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