Re: Relaying Headlights

[T Berk <tberk@mindspring.com>]

Sal wrote:
> 
> I'm in the process of relaying the headlights on my 81 Scirocco.  The rocco
> comes equipped with H4's and H1's  <snip> I'm following
> the instructions as per http://lighting.mbz.org/tech/how_to/relays/ .
> However, I've noticed that the rocco has separate wires for each bulb.  Does
> that mean that the two low beam wires get connected to pin 86 on the relay
> and then two new wires emerge from pin 87?  And the same thing for the
> highs?  Essentially, I need only two relays, right?  One for the highs and
> one for the lows.  Can someone just say yay, or nay, or guide me in the
> right path.
> 
> TIA
> Sal
> 

Sal,

You are now at the point where people debate one relay or four? Two
relays or three? The point is some folks advocate having four relays,
one per light as a CYA thing. Others say hook one of the Low Left to the
Hi Right to one relay and vice a versa. Other say, just slap a single
relay in for the whole thing and you're done.

Here are the basics as I know them: 

- Existing headlight circuit is used as the trigger line for the relay &
then to (new) ground, (new) large gauge wire is run from battery to
relay to lights to ground. 

- Design should allow for overkill/redundancy. Build it tough and you
minimize downtime.

- You don't want a single point of failure;  Min two relays. Four is
better. 

- You _can_ run one set of lights (two bulbs) off the 12v output of the
relay (there is the simple answer to your question), but consider the
X-over instead. (Takes some creative wiring but it's safer). If your
lights fail while in a high speed corner it would be irritating.

TBerk
gotta run before I could polish this.....

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