headlight wiring help please.

mustanggarage · Sep 4, 2016

Hello. I am trying to find a definitive answer. I have this wiring diagram, but I guess I am too stupid to figure it out. I am adding some gauge overlays and it says to wire it to the grey wire in the center that is the key on hot wire. this diagram is very difficult to understand at least for me. I have pulled the connector off the switch in order to wire it, and when I test it It still reads ground even with the switch on, and the wire is brown not grey. before I do anything to the wiring can anyone give me some insight into how to interpret this stupid diagram. thanks. I have several questions actually. my horn doesn't work, and my ac does not work. I know the compressor clutch is not engaging. basically I had been ignoring those problems. now I am in the middle of this and I can't seem to find a switched positive wire on this connector so I am trying to figure out if I have a blown fuse causing this or what. so first of all, is the brown wire in the middle of this connector supposed to be my switched positive. if I can be sure of that I can start figuring out where the problem lies.

..

this is the instructions I received.

and here is my wiring harness.

thanks. I have actually done a lot of wiring over the years, but I am not sure I am interpreting that diagram properly and the pictures in the instructions do not match what I have. I have been planning on getting a repair manual but I have not done it yet. hopefully someone can help me here so I can button this up this weekend. thanks in advance.

ttocs · Sep 4, 2016

brown wire in the middle should be parking lights and will work. It will show 0v off and 12v in both the parking light and headlight position. But with that you will not be able to vary the voltage/output like you could with the old ones. If you have installed an aftermarket stereo and we all have, you can hit the orange wire in the aftermarket harness that plugs into the deck.

mustanggarage · Sep 4, 2016

ok never mind I am stupid. it says switched on hot wire not key on hot wire. and that brown wire is the switched on hot wire just in case anyone else wants to know lol. but if anyone has any insight into what is wrong with my horn I would appreciate some help there. I read somewhere there is a relay under the hood that goes bad sometimes is this common in 94 mustangs?

mustanggarage · Sep 4, 2016

thanks for the quick reply. I typed my response before I saw you had replied, and actually the kit has a little rheostat that is in the wiring harness to adjust the lighting.

mustanggarage · Sep 4, 2016

ok got it. So like I said in my introduction I have been playing with mustangs for over 30 years. So I guess I am a bit old school. I like white face gauges. that was all the rage when I started building them. now people are starting to like the black face gauges again, go figure. anyway I prefer the white face, and I can read them better so that is what I decided to do.

so anyway, here it is before.

as you can see the lens is all scratched up and of course there is a bunch of dirt in there and the needles are all faded. so I took it apart. I asked my wife if she had any fluorescent orange fingernail polish, and she looked at me like I had lost my mind lol. but she was going to walmart and she found some traffic cone orange fingernail polish. before she could return I got called back to work. she surprised me by painting all the needles for me. I had planned to remove the needles and mask them all off and everything so I did not get the paint where I didn't want it. she did it freehand and it looks better than I could have done it. I guess practice makes perfect. anyway then I put the new gauge faces on and I bought a new lens for it and replaced it as well, it is a little dusty in this picture but it is all on the outside.

then after I figured out how to read the stupid instructions I wired it up and here it is.

white95 · Sep 4, 2016

Glad you found an answer and figured it out. [MENTION=11896]ttocs[/MENTION] is always on point with circuitry questions!

ttocs · Sep 5, 2016

I always thought they were cool but just a tad to busy for me and too many horror stories of not aligning them up correctly. The scretches on the plastic lens can be easily buffed off if you know a freind that has one.

Out of curiosity how did you splice into the wire and did the gauge face have a fuse on the power wire?

mustanggarage · Sep 5, 2016

no there wasn't a fuse, but the wires were so small I am sure if there is much of a short they will fry before they damage much else. as far as how I spliced I could not get the stupid little brass connector to release out of the plastic connector so I spliced into the wire itself. I stripped about half an inch of the insulation off the wire being careful not to cut any of the little cable strands. then I separated the cable strands with an o-ring pick. then I threaded the new wire through the cable strands. wrapping it around the original wire. then soldered the two together and wrapped it with self vulcanizing tape. that is the best way I know of to splice into a wire you don't want to cut.

mustanggarage · Sep 5, 2016

ttocs said:
I always thought they were cool but just a tad to busy for me and too many horror stories of not aligning them up correctly. The scretches on the plastic lens can be easily buffed off if you know a freind that has one.

Out of curiosity how did you splice into the wire and did the gauge face have a fuse on the power wire?

yeah I initially planned to just buff the scratches. I have some headlight restoration polish. and a powerball, that works pretty well, but I found this new one and decided to just swap it instead. I saved the old one so if I need to do it again, I can buff it out and swap it. I do stuff like that a lot. no it is not money efficient, but it is time efficient. so any suggestions on my horn issue? any common problems that cause the horn to fail. I have not had time to really start troubleshooting it yet.

ttocs · Sep 5, 2016

same thing there. Start simple and look at the fuses. Don't just pull the fuse you think the horn is associated skip the manual and just pull/inspect them all to be sure. If they are good then then the clockspring in the steering wheel would probably be next. Gave you takne the steering wheel off, or did the prior owner?

mustanggarage · Sep 5, 2016

I have not removed it, I don't think my Dad took it off, but there were some cruise control buttons in an envelope in the trunk come to think of it, so he must have replaced those. so he had to at least take the airbag off.

ttocs · Sep 5, 2016

if he has been in the air bag/CC switch area I would go there first. Pull the air bag and see if the horn switches are there/mounted and if so see if the clockspring is bad somehow.

rz5.0 · Sep 5, 2016

Most my horn problems have always been the horn it self..

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ttocs · Sep 5, 2016

rz5.0 said:
Most my horn problems have always been the horn it self..

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so are you saying the horn doesn't blow, but the driver?!(and at this time take a good look at his avitar

)

rz5.0 · Sep 5, 2016

I didn't say that

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ttocs · Sep 5, 2016

rz5.0 said:
I didn't say that

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I could not resist...

rz5.0 · Sep 5, 2016

I giggled a lil

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mustanggarage · Sep 6, 2016

I will look into it when I get back. I have to take my daughter to college. It is a major SNAFU. She is going to school in Idaho so it is a pretty long drive. we had planned to take her out there and spend a few days getting there and helping her get situated before coming back. well as things happen last year she was homecoming queen, and this years homecoming happens to fall on the same day she is supposed to be checking into her dorm/apartment and new student days start that day as well. So she was of course distraught and you know how it is when you are a teenager. everything is very important and some times it seems the whole world is conspiring against you. so naturally she was completely beside herself when she found out. the obvious answer is oh well let someone else crown the new queen, but My daughter felt that she had a responsibility and did not want to let her school down so anyway long story short, my wife and I are trailering her jeep and all her stuff to Idaho taking off early wednesday and my daughter is flying out on friday. we will have to take her stuff, move it into her room, and do a lot of other stuff for her because she is missing that first day. then meet her at the airport. lol anyway, the things you do for your kids. but I will start looking into that horn problem when I get back. I honestly have not even started to troubleshoot it. I have been more interested in other areas. speaking of which I ordered a set of maximum motorsports subframe connectors today. As I learned from my 89 these convertibles really need subframe connectors.