New Painless first power issue

[Torkman66]

Just finished installing a new painless full harness. Added the headlight relays. Following painless instructions hooked up a battery charger on 10 amps per instructions. Guess you do this to check if everything works before providing too many amps.
As soon as I connected power my headlights started to flicker on and off and the relays buzzed. The ammeter gauge on the charger was jumping from 0 to 10 amps every second. Just back and forth. I disconnected the relays to eliminate them from the harness to see if they were the problem. Charger gauge still jumped back and forth.
Thinking maybe a bad light switch? It is new but that means nothing. How else would lights flicker on and off when light switch is off.

 

[DirtDonk]

I just posted this in the other thread, but thought I’d add it here.
It has been my experience that most modern type, or even semi modern type dumb chargers do this. I believe it’s an overly sensitive circuit breaker that just doesn’t let it test all these different things. so I have gone without the battery charger test, just check the wires one last time and then hook up the battery.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I’ll typically have delicate electronics disconnected, at least at first, but everything else just gets hooked up and tested with the battery.
Good luck!

 

[Torkman66]

OK, got it all straitened out. Two major issues, one my fault and one Painless.

After testing the headlight switch, it was determined that it worked correctly. Basically just ensuring that continuoity exited at the various posts when switch was off, parking, lights on. Next did same to dimmer switch. Worked fine. Went back to headlight switch and confirmed power from fuse box...that is where things started looking odd. Here is the diagram from painless for light switch wiring and another that provides letter id on the switch:

Brown 929 is the power out to the parking lights goes to R on the switch.
Red/Yellow 907 is the power to the dimmer switch on the floor that then goes to the headlights. It goes to H on the switch.
Notice that B is not used since A and B are actually always connected internally in the switch, so one power in to A is fine.

Problem was that the prewired Painless harness had wire 929 brown (power to parking lights) connected to B...wrong.
Painless also had red/yellow 907 (dimmer switch power) connected to R...wrong.
Painless had no wire connected to H which is power that goes to dimmer switch then on to headlights.
So after rewiring, thought everything was gonna be fine....nope.

When adding power, lights off, no more issue...everything seemed fine. But as soon as I turned on lights, the 30 amp headlight fuse would pop.
Discovered it pooped when just the parking lights were turned on (first pull detent on switch).
Removed brown 929 (parking light power) from the switch and lights came on and no fuse pop. So, problem in the parking lights.
Disconnected all 4 parking lights front and back, reconnected 929 to switch, no fuse pop.
Reconnected front left light, no pop. Front right light, no pop. Rear left light no pop. Rear right light...POP!
Opened up the light socket and because I was still waiting on the new bulbs to arrive, there were no bulbs installed. The two small little copper contacts were touching each other and that was causing a short and popping the fuse. I have now discovered that those little light bulbs actually have a small glass mid section that ensure the two copper leads in the socket are separated.

Put in new bulbs and everything works perfect. Just hoping this long winded explanation helps someone else.

 

[DirtDonk]

Absolutely helps!
Interesting find with the socket. I’ve seen that before in different vehicles over the years. But in the sockets I looked at, it was just a matter of damaged contacts. Not that they required a bulb to keep separate. But that’s good to know.

 

[Torkman66]

I did not know that either. The issue only applies to the side parking lights with the tiny bulbs that push into a knife slot.

 

[DirtDonk]

Right. Thanks for the clarification.
But still, a socket in good shape should not require the bulb be present. If these are older, perhaps the contact wires have been "stretched" a bit or have come loose from their retainers, and are now capable of touching each other.
But no matter what the cause, glad you found it and were able to literally cure it by installing a bulb. Now the trick will be remembering this 32 years from now when you are messing with them again!

Paul

 

[Torkman66]

Brand new sockets from WH. I examined them closely. The contacts without a bulb can easily touch. Nothing holds them apart except for the bulb when inserted.

 

[DirtDonk]

Interesting. Don't think the originals were like that, but I can't be sure because I almost always had bulbs in them.
But I'm reasonably sure that there were times we've run without them and not had short circuits. Now I'm going to have to go look at some old originals.
Not sure if that's even a legitimate test though, since after 50 years or so, they may have changed their nature.

But this is an important thing for all to note. When dealing with new sockets, always insert the bulbs before turning on the power!

Paul

 

[Torkman66]

Agree.

 

[bigmuddy]

OK, got it all straitened out. Two major issues, one my fault and one Painless.

After testing the headlight switch, it was determined that it worked correctly. Basically just ensuring that continuoity exited at the various posts when switch was off, parking, lights on. Next did same to dimmer switch. Worked fine. Went back to headlight switch and confirmed power from fuse box...that is where things started looking odd. Here is the diagram from painless for light switch wiring and another that provides letter id on the switch:
View attachment 934085
View attachment 934087

Brown 929 is the power out to the parking lights goes to R on the switch.
Red/Yellow 907 is the power to the dimmer switch on the floor that then goes to the headlights. It goes to H on the switch.
Notice that B is not used since A and B are actually always connected internally in the switch, so one power in to A is fine.

Problem was that the prewired Painless harness had wire 929 brown (power to parking lights) connected to B...wrong.
Painless also had red/yellow 907 (dimmer switch power) connected to R...wrong.
Painless had no wire connected to H which is power that goes to dimmer switch then on to headlights.
So after rewiring, thought everything was gonna be fine....nope.

When adding power, lights off, no more issue...everything seemed fine. But as soon as I turned on lights, the 30 amp headlight fuse would pop.
Discovered it pooped when just the parking lights were turned on (first pull detent on switch).
Removed brown 929 (parking light power) from the switch and lights came on and no fuse pop. So, problem in the parking lights.
Disconnected all 4 parking lights front and back, reconnected 929 to switch, no fuse pop.
Reconnected front left light, no pop. Front right light, no pop. Rear left light no pop. Rear right light...POP!
Opened up the light socket and because I was still waiting on the new bulbs to arrive, there were no bulbs installed. The two small little copper contacts were touching each other and that was causing a short and popping the fuse. I have now discovered that those little light bulbs actually have a small glass mid section that ensure the two copper leads in the socket are separated.

Put in new bulbs and everything works perfect. Just hoping this long winded explanation helps someone else.

Interesting find and from what I am hearing this type of wiring issue is not uncommon for painless. I had similar issues with mine and I am certain we had a similar issue with wipers on another rig that was rewired.

Good friend of mine builds custom broncos for a living and told me that he has started using the autowire or just builds his own harness due to issues with Painless lately.

 

[bigmuddy]

Interesting find and from what I am hearing this type of wiring issue is not uncommon for painless. I had similar issues with mine and I am certain we had a similar issue with wipers on another rig that was rewired.

Good friend of mine builds custom broncos for a living and told me that he has started using the autowire or just builds his own harness due to issues with Painless lately.

Additionally my builder friend said that he has found that Painless made changes to their harness but not to the provided schematic. Harness worked fine but differed in the actual build of the harness.