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First: I am a cheap bastard. I know this, and accept it as a factor which often appears in my world view. Order the bloody switches!
My Bronco was not ordered. Now I suffer the consequences. But, Hey! I get a crappy sunglasses holder as a sorry ass consolation to the trouble exerted to upfit my own switch and relay bank. Yay me!
Fortunately I have a rather extensive knowledge of, and background in, 12v DC electronics, and this stuff really isn't mentally taxing or requiring of much more than a basic skill set. Populating a relay block is very simple, it just takes a bunch of time. Fortunately, I have time to fart with this stuff and don't really mind doing it.
First up, I installed my switches in the windshield trim piece.
I have 2 "always live" switches in the bank, and the "power" button will turn on the relay which is otherwise "accessory on" for my ham radio. I'll need a diode in that line to prevent back-feeding everything else on that switched circuit. The other 4 switches will be accessory switched to run aux lighting.
This is a Nilight switch bank, but I painted over the branding.
I also rewired the switches so the locator lights in the switches are on with the running lights rather than always on (as it came), but did that after this pic was taken. Rather than using the original ground jumper wires, I soldered a bus wire across the ground spades. There isn't enough room behind the panel for the daisy chain, so this was strictly to prevent needing to deform the windshield frame or cut a recess for clearance.
The 18/9 cable was then ran across the windshield with the factory harness for the visor mirror lights, and down the passenger A-pillar, and through the big grommet in the firewall above the passenger foot well.
I added a plate of aluminum between the module (no clue what it does) and factory bracket to mount the new relay/fuse box.
This is only mocked up and looks saggy, but it does sit square when bolted in. I'll add another bracket to tie it to the air box to stiffen it up. You can see the harness and additional wires temporarily wrapped around the washer fluid reservoir neck. I need to pull a couple more wires through that grommet (accessed by removing the overflow tank) before I work on plugging everything into the new box.
Power for the new box will come from an 8ga wire run from the 60A breaker over the cowl to the other side.
I have most of the wiring done in the relay/fuse panel waiting for the +12v wires from the harness to the relay's, and then the load wires from the fuses.
And that's where things sit for now.
To be continued...
My Bronco was not ordered. Now I suffer the consequences. But, Hey! I get a crappy sunglasses holder as a sorry ass consolation to the trouble exerted to upfit my own switch and relay bank. Yay me!
Fortunately I have a rather extensive knowledge of, and background in, 12v DC electronics, and this stuff really isn't mentally taxing or requiring of much more than a basic skill set. Populating a relay block is very simple, it just takes a bunch of time. Fortunately, I have time to fart with this stuff and don't really mind doing it.
First up, I installed my switches in the windshield trim piece.
I have 2 "always live" switches in the bank, and the "power" button will turn on the relay which is otherwise "accessory on" for my ham radio. I'll need a diode in that line to prevent back-feeding everything else on that switched circuit. The other 4 switches will be accessory switched to run aux lighting.
This is a Nilight switch bank, but I painted over the branding.
I also rewired the switches so the locator lights in the switches are on with the running lights rather than always on (as it came), but did that after this pic was taken. Rather than using the original ground jumper wires, I soldered a bus wire across the ground spades. There isn't enough room behind the panel for the daisy chain, so this was strictly to prevent needing to deform the windshield frame or cut a recess for clearance.
The 18/9 cable was then ran across the windshield with the factory harness for the visor mirror lights, and down the passenger A-pillar, and through the big grommet in the firewall above the passenger foot well.
I added a plate of aluminum between the module (no clue what it does) and factory bracket to mount the new relay/fuse box.
This is only mocked up and looks saggy, but it does sit square when bolted in. I'll add another bracket to tie it to the air box to stiffen it up. You can see the harness and additional wires temporarily wrapped around the washer fluid reservoir neck. I need to pull a couple more wires through that grommet (accessed by removing the overflow tank) before I work on plugging everything into the new box.
Power for the new box will come from an 8ga wire run from the 60A breaker over the cowl to the other side.
I have most of the wiring done in the relay/fuse panel waiting for the +12v wires from the harness to the relay's, and then the load wires from the fuses.
And that's where things sit for now.
To be continued...
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