1982 xj550 maxim headlight issue.....no high beam

hey all

Okay, so here's the story:

replaced the front turn signals with aftermarket 2 wire turn signals along with an electronic flasher. it works! However, there was a black wire hooked up to the 3rd wire on the original turn signals which i'm assuming is some sort of trigger wire for the instrument panel/headlight. I ran this wire back to the headlight relay which gives me cluster lights and headlight, but no high beam. I've got 3 lights here and no high beam on any of them so i can't imagine that it's a bulb issue......could it be something in the switch, or am i missing something?

Thanks!

Mark.

 

Sounds like you have an issue, so bear with me here.

The third wire on the signal lights would have been so the signals also acted as running lights. But black wire on the harness side should be ground wire.

A couple of questions so we can get things sorted out here.

1. Did you have a high and low beam before changing out the signal lights?
2. What color are all three wires that were hooked up to the old signals?
3. How did you run the wire back to the headlight relay? Did you just trace it there or did you actually tie it into the relay/headlight harness?

 

Any black wires (with no color stripe) are GROUND wires in the original harness.

You've simply mis-wired something in the headlight shell; you need to use a wiring diagram and positively identify wires before you decide to just "tie them in" somewhere.

Either that or all the banging around on the headlight assembly broke the "high" filament in the bulb loose. You sure it's not just the bulb?

 

hey guys

the black wire (which i was sure should be ground as well) was just coming out of the harness at the headlight assembly by itself. It was connected to the third wire (black) on the orignal turn signals. The other 2 were brown and also orange.

The odd thing with this wire is that when one of the turn signals are turned "on" then this wire gets power it seems........

I couldn't get the dash lights or the headlight to works at all but when I connected this wire(just ran a longer wire) back to the headlight relay (advice from another buddy on another board.....didn't make sense, but what the heck) to the power side of the relay, then i get power. i dunno.

I think it's some sort of trigger wire/relay wire for the headlight relay????

i didn't have a high beam before either, but like i said, i tried 2 other bulbs and i suppose they could all have the high beam burnt out but it seems unlikely. Thanks!

Mark.

 

The same wiring diagram will aid in diagnosing the high-beam problem. It could be the switch, the relay or the wiring.

 

You need to figure out where exactly that wire goes. one end was hooked to the turn signals, the other end has to be hooked to something.

Some possibilities:
a. Previous Owner, wiring genius that he/she/it was, could have painted the wire. I had a few black wires from PO painting the frame.
b. PO could have run a wire from whatever power source he wanted to run signals as running lights, using whatever color wire he could find cheap.
c. PO could have looked at the manual and diagram and thought to himself, "how can I make the next owner have a major headache?".

Get a manual and trace exactly where that wire goes and we will try to get ya fixed up.

 

makes sense to me! i'll get it traced out tonight.........

i hate wiring! LOL

 

For every XJ owner that hates wiring, there is a previous owner that thought they knew everything about wiring lol