Parking and Headlights Lower Console Auxiliary Switch Wiring

I have been collaborating with Lambros Vassiliou on Face Book on a wiring diagram for hooking up an auxiliary switch to activate the Parking and Headlights using one of the lower console's SPDT lighted white rocker switches. According to Lambros this diagram should work for wiring up the Headlights switch using this method on the 1982 Trans Am. I'm not sure about later models, I think it may depend on how the switch is wired so you will need to do some checking on that. Now I have not tested this wiring scheme yet. The Diodes that will be used are the 1N4007 Rectifier type (top right), 
the Relays can be SPST or SPDT rated at 20 to 30 Amps, I have a couple of SPST 40 Amp relays so I'll be using those (right).

I think I have everything I need to give this a shot, I need to pick up some more solder and I'm not sure if I want to mount my Diodes onto a small piece of PCB board or just do them as "in-line" Diodes. But it looks like I should be pretty close to doing a video to show how this works. From what I can see of the wiring diagram it looks like it would be easy to even use one of the Upper Console DPDT lighted rockers for the Parking and Headlights too. ;)


Just to clarify, this is what the plug on my Parking/Headlights combo switch looks like. As you can see it has an Orange, Yellow, Brown, White and what looks to be a fat 14 AWG Red wire on it. Now in the diagram above there is nothing happening with the White wire so I'm still trying to get a straight answer on what if anything happens with that wire??

NOTE: 

OK after some Multimeter testing on the stock OEM switch I had kicking around from the parts car it would appear that in the "OFF" position that there is a continuity between the White and Orange wire. Based on those findings I am going to try this diagram suggested by Mark Rolfe out as it seems to make the most sense with the white wire included into the scenario.

Since the white wire obviously has an internal connection on the stock switch in "OFF" position, the first SPDT Relay makes sense as in off position the white wire would be connected to the Red wire (You could use either Orange or Red as both are 12V). I'll be able to test this out when I have a SPDT Relay, right now I just have 2 SPST Relays and I need the one with the extra 87A pin for the White wire.

Upper Console Wiring Scheme Updated Version

I have updated my wiring scheme for the Season One Upper Console electronics. Basically what I have happening here is my coloured set of four lighted mini-rockers (they go in order of Red, Blue, Red, Blue), the first two rockers are wired to my four Fog Lights through the SPST Relays I have installed under the stock OEM plastic dash. The third switch I will wire up to activate the Upper Consoles LED Displays, and the forth rocker I will have wired to activate the Count Up digital display. I figure this will make for a pretty good trip timer display.

I tested out my Fog Lights wiring yesterday afternoon just to make sure everything was working OK, all good, they work like a dream when the first two rockers are switched on, Red & Blue, the Fog Lights come on and the switch light comes on just as they should. There are other lighted coloured rocker switches that go up into that console that I have not ordered yet and I'm not sure what to do with those so they will be pretty much open to anything much like my buttons on my Lower Console although on my L.C. I do assign the Red and Green "?" buttons to my LCD and GPS screens in my Knight Rider dash. By using this wiring scheme I can effectively turn on my Upper Console electronics with just a couple of rocker switches installed into the console.

Getting Ready To Wire The S-1 Upper Console

I have worked out a work in progress wiring scheme for my season one Upper Console. The way I had it wired before when I was using the season 3 Upper Console which didn't fit quite right, was I had a separate power wire running to each of the switches. For some reason I didn't realize that I only needed one power wire to run to the Upper Console and then just branch off of that so long as the wire is rated the correct AWG to handle the load. I'm still trying to figure out what all of the Season One Upper Console electronics pull power wise plus all of the lighted rocker switches for up there as well. Once I know that I'll have a far better idea of what gauge (AWG) wire to run up to the console. Like I say though in the meantime I have worked out a work in progress wiring diagram for this particular job. Seeing how most of the electronics are LEDs and the switches will be just going to activate the magnetic coils of SPST Relays I can't see the power load being that much, I could probably get away with an 18 AWG or even a 16 AWG gauge wire running from the pawer fuse block I have installed into the lower hush panel on the passenger side. I just want to be sure first before I go to the trouble of running any sort of power wire up there.

Overview Diagram For Wiring My Lower Console To My 12 Position Fuse Block

Here is an overview diagram of my initial plan to wire my lighted lower console switches to my 12 position fuse block which is rated at 105 Amps Max, although I'm going to keep it at an even conservative 100 Amps Max. In this diagram you can see I have marked each switch circuit for what the switches are rated for and times that by the number of switches. These are simply controlling SPST Relays, I'm using a 10 AWG power wire to link up all of the switches, this wire is pretty short and then goes into a nice 16 AWG wire that is a little over 6 feet to reach the fuse block I have installed under the passenger side. According to my wiring charts it should be WAY more than I need to handle any load the lower console may consume.... even less if I eventually switch out the bulbs to LEDs. As near as I can tell this should be good.

Digital Power Distribution Block And In-Line Breaker Switch Are Installed

I have wired up the digital power distribution block and in-line breaker switch. I pulled the 10 AWG wire that I had going to the 12 position fuse panel on the passenger side and upgraded it to a nice beefy 4 AWG run through the digital power distribution block, in through the 100 amp breaker switch, down along the fender and in through the old antenna wire hole. This way I can minimize the amount of wires that were starting to get crammed in through that hole. I pulled the fog lights wires with their 20 amp in-line fuses as well. I figure I will run the fogs off of that 12 position fuse panel as it has plenty of room and is rated at 105 amps, with a max of 30 amps per circuit. So running the fogs through there just seems to make good sense. Makes for a cleaner install with a lot less bunches of wires running all through that passenger side of the engine bay. There are plenty of free ports on that digital power distribution block should I ever need more power so that's great to have standing by should I have the need.

More Work On The Digital Power Distribution Block And In-line Breaker Switch Mounting Bed

I did some more work on the mounting bed for my digital power distribution block and in-line 100 amp breaker switch mounting bed. I stopped in at Canadian Tire with my sweetie she new ducked out to go for a quick nibble at Perkins for some fries and gravy.... Mmmmm Fries and gravy :P While at Canadian Tire I picked up a length of 1 gauge battery cable for connecting to my digital power distribution block on the Lexan plastic mounting bed I made to fit into the engine bay. That red wire you see (top right) coming from the power distribution block and going into the 100 amp breaker switch will continue on to that 105 amp Bussmann 12 position blade fuse block I have mounted under the passenger side of the car. I'll keep it a conservative 100 amps max to be extra cautious that way there is very little chance of any overloading of the circuit or fuse block. Almost done my set up on this little project, I need to add a ring terminal to the little black ground wire coming from the back of the digital power distribution block so I can found that to the car. I then need to run some 4 gauge to the 100 amp fuse block although the 10 gauge is most likely more that good enough but I'll beef it up to the 4 gauge just in case I decide to run my fog lights through the 100 amp fuse block.... I have to admit it would cut down significantly on the wires currently running from the battery down the inside of the fender, through the old antenna wire hole and up under the dash.... just might make good smart sense to do it this way, less wires to worry about coming loose or rubbing up against sharp metal edges although I have been careful to foresee anything like that and take measures against such things happening.

More Work on the Upper Console

While working on getting those Fog Lights working I came to realize what an Octopus of wires I had going on in that upper console. I mean I had taken precautions and made sure everything was labeled and tucked away neatly but pulling it down to have a look at my lighted rocker switches that the Fog Lights were using it was quite a complex mess of wires. I have added four more lighted rocker switches to the front part of the console, this time I  went with mini-rockers.

My next job to tackle will be to take all of those somewhat chaotic wires and organize them better and make it so they are connected using a multi-pin connector, most likely 2 or 3 Molex Multi-Pin Connectors. I'm figuring at least a 16 pin for the Rocker Switches along the side, a 12 pin for the mini rockers at the front of the console and 6 pin connector for the Push Buttons. One of the other things I am going to do to save on having a lot of wires running around up there is to combine my ground wires from the rockers like in my diagram on the right. I will run the ground wires from the rockers into a slightly larger gauge wire and run that into a terminal on one of my Molex Multi-Pin Connectors and then run the other end into my ground bus I made in the T-Bar on the car. This should hopefully save a lot of unnecessary wire. I did a similar thing on my car Relays for the Fog Lights and it's working out very well so far. One other thing I did was to make the rocker switches for my Fog Lights into green lighted rockers just to give them some more distinction from the others that are unassigned. 

Fog Lights Relays Being Added

OK some of you may recall some of my past posts about my work on the Fog Lights install. Now I was rather surprised that no one chimed in and let me know that the way I had it wired would not work or at the very least be a potential fire hazard.

Now here was the issue. I picked up two sets of Fog Lights from Canadian Tire made by Pilot Automotive, and of course like a good little newbie I followed the wiring instructions to the letter. Well not long after my scanner had arrived and I wired that up, then waited for the Marine Speakers to arrive so I could hook those up before going to all the trouble of re-hooking up the battery to test out what I had done.... well as it was my scanner worked fine but my Fog Lights did not work. What The Heck!! I thought, I followed the damned instructions to the letter, what gives!!?? I thought possibly a bad ground, so I checked my grounds, nope not the grounds. The Rocker switches for the Fog Lights was lighting up, in fact they were on all the time which I thought was a bit odd considering over time they would drain the battery unless I hooked up some kind of battery kill switch. Was it bad switches I thought.? Somehow I could not see two switches going at the same time, brand new switches at that. So I thought OK lets experiment and move my connections to the other Rocker Switches I had added to my upper console....

Well this time the switch remained unlighted but when I flipped the switch my Fog Lights came on!! What The Heck!! This makes no sense I thought. So off to the Internet and the forums to try and find some answers.

YouTube videos were indicating that my Rocker switches were wired up correctly so what the heck is going on here?!?

Much to my surprise I was to learn that what was needed here were "Relays" to be installed! 

Now why the heck would the instructions from Pilot Automotive mention that anywhere?? Especially considering that without Relays you run the risk of melting your switches and causing a fire!!

So anyways, I go out and pick up a couple of Car Relay wiring kits with 40 Amp Relays, my Fog Lights are only 55 W Halogens so I realize it's a little over kill but that's OK in my book. So I have them currently mounted onto my dash in that area where the dash documents pocket used to be mounted. The Knight Rider dash sticks out quite a bit in that area from what I understand so there should be plenty of room to utilize the space and that way my relays are not under the hood in the engine bay where they are subjected to the elements more.

So far I have just the power wire (+) Positive fused line from the battery connected to the number 30 terminals of each Relay. I have my ground wires connected I only need to add a ring terminal to the end of the wire and connect it to the ground on the side of the Fuse Block panel.

Now onto another bit of confusion I was having. In my original diagram that came with my Fog Lights kits it showed the Rocker Switch wired with the power wire ( [+] Positive)  connecting to the first or number 1 terminal on my switch, but yet the wiring diagram I was trying to follow for the relays hookup showed the (+) Positive from the battery connecting to the middle terminal??? What the Frack!! Why are all of the YouTube video stating that the middle terminal goes out to your accessory, Lights, motors.... whatever you are trying to power??? Now this was REALLY beginning to bake my little "Cat-Like" brain. lol

Anyways after much help from some awesome people on the Face Book Knight Rider groups I was to learn that the discrepancy is due to the fact that we now have a relay added into our wiring scenario. Case Solved!! lol at least we hope so. I still need to switch my rocker switch connectors to match the diagram above, and make sure I snip my power wire from the switch and add some wire to make a connection to the Relay's terminal 85 and the other part of the wire connect to terminal 87 of the Relay. Everything else is basically done, the Fog Lights are grounded as are the Rocker Switches so if all goes well it should work.

Now my last and only concern is that I get some mixed opinion about connecting wired directly to the battery. Some say it's bad and that you should connect from the power distribution centre or Fuse Block and other say it makes no difference so long as your wires have a fuse such as an in-line fuse. I can't see there being a difference outside of it being less wires running around in your engine bay... but I have run my wires along the side and have done my best to keep them as far away from other engine components. I have wire protected them, added extra insulation to any potential area that could come in contact with sharp metal edges and possible ware through due to vibration over time, cable tied them securely so I'm not worried about that happening... I went over kill on that stuff lol

I'll follow all of this up with a nice 2 parter video for all you cool cats and we'll see how this plays out for me once I have this all wired according to that last diagram with the Relays... Wish me luck :)