86 BRAT custom headlight integration

[zmarrott]

In the past I've had harness shorting issues and random blown fuses for head lights, so what I did was bypass the stock harness for the headlights, only reusing the relays for the new headlight harness I put together. I've also done an H4 headlight conversion. What id like to do now is integrate the stock light switches into my system to clean up my dash a bit. At the moment I have a pair of switches at the flat spot under the wiper switch for my headlights that I need to fix the mounting. I've identified the connector in the dash for the headlights switch, but not where the high beam wires are. Wires on the harness side of the connector are:

Red

Red w/yellow

Red w/white

Red w/green

Black

I'm wanting to know what each wire is in the connector I found and where the high beam wires are.

[TomRhere]

http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/--Old%20Models--/

 

That link will get you to a downloadable FSM for the '83 Models.

 

The Electrical Section is missing some pages, but the headlight wiring is there.

[skishop69]

The high beam wiring comes out of the steering column as it is switched by the turn signal lever.

[musubk]

Just get a multimeter in there and test continuity between pins in that harness with the headlight switch in various states. I did this last fall to integrate the stock headlight switches into my H4 conversion with added relays, I can't remember which pin does what exactly but it's easy to figure out by testing - don't worry about what each pin is 'supposed to do', just find pins that do what you want them to do. For example if you find two pins that have no continuity when the switch is rotated all the way back to 'off', but have continuity when rotated forward once and twice, use those pins for parking lights. If you find two pins that only have connectivity when the switch is rotated forward twice and not when rotated once, use those pins to turn the headlights on and off. 

 

IIRC the high beam switch is not in that same harness, look for the wires coming out of the steering column and test connectivity across pins while flipping the high beam lever forward and backward.

 

I ended up wiring mine with two underhood relays; relay #1 is turned on from the rotating switch on the dash that turns the headlights on, and that sends power from its 'pin 87' to 'pin 30' on relay #2. Relay #2 is turned on by the high beam lever, with pin 87a (connected to pin 30 when relay is off) to my low beams only, and pin 87 (connected to pin 30 when relay is on) to the high beam circuit in all 4 lamps. So the behavior with respect to the dash switches is like this: Rotating the headlight switch forward only once turns the parking lights on but not the headlights. Rotating the headlight switch forward twice sends power into the low beams if the high beam lever is back, or to the high beams if the lever is forward. Rotating the headlight switch to off turns all the lamps off regardless of if the high beam lever is forward or not.