ARB Headlight Loom - strange workings

Submitted: Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 14:54
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They all said it was easy ... plug and play ... any goose could do it.

However ........... the installation of this new ARB headlight loom on my 80 series is proving to be a drama.

The loom is in, and the fuses and relay boxes are all fixed. All seem to be kosher according to the ARB instruction bible, but ........... flicking high beam gives low bean and low beam lights up the surrounding area for miles.

I have run the loom (facing the vehicle) from left to right so as to be able to use the cranking battery, but we can't seem to trace where we have gone wrong to give us back-to-front lights.

Any advice will be helpful, otherwise it's off to the auto electricians. Do they do house calls????

Thanks in advance.

Jack
The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get. (Lewis Carroll-Alice In Wonderland)

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Reply By: pdm3006 - Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 15:45

Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 15:45
Hi Jack.
Could you give us some more detail please.
Are you saying that when on low beam the high beam lights come on and when on low beam the high beam lights come on ?
Are you sure the loom is for a Toyota which uses negative switching and is not designed for a more common positive switching vehicle ?
That may explain the back to front operation. Is so it is easily fixed.
Cheers,
Peter.
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Follow Up By: Member - Jack - Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 15:57

Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 15:57
Hi Peter

When we have the lights on normal, both high and low beam are on, with the outer light in high beam mode. When we then switch to high beam (by pushing the stalk forward), we just get the single (outer) headlight.
on low beam.

Tempers are becoming frayed : )

Thanks

Jack
The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get. (Lewis Carroll-Alice In Wonderland)

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Follow Up By: Member - Jack - Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 15:59

Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 15:59
The loom is the standard loom sold by ARB, which they say is fine for use on an 80 Series. There is reference to 80n series in the instructions. We have followed these things to the absolute letter, but get this result.

Jack
The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get. (Lewis Carroll-Alice In Wonderland)

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Follow Up By: pdm3006 - Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 22:21

Sunday, Aug 01, 2010 at 22:21
Hi Jack.
The description you are giving says to me the loom is for a positive switching vehicle and not negative switching like the Cruiser.

Your ARB loom will be switching on high beam when the voltage on the high beam pin is high voltage (+ve 12V or thereabouts). That is it is expecting positive switching.

The Cruiser uses negative switching. The common pin is high voltage (+ve) and NOT low voltage (-ve).

This means on low beam the high beam pin is high which is telling the loom to switch on high beams. On high beam the high beam pin is low which is telling the loom to switch on low beams.
Have a look at this link from LCOOL which describes 80 series headlight wiring.

http://www.lcool.org/technical/80_series/lights/80wiring.html

Probably the easiest way to fix this is swap over the high and low beam switching pins (where it connects to the original loom) on the ARB loom.

Cheers,
Peter.


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Follow Up By: Member - Jack - Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 07:19

Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 07:19
That did the trick.
So much for the 'any goose can do this'. This goose couldn't without your help.
Thanks

Jack
The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get. (Lewis Carroll-Alice In Wonderland)

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Follow Up By: pdm3006 - Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 10:03

Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 10:03
Your welcome mate.

Happy to be of assistance.

Unfortunately the Cruiser is a little unusual with negative switching on the headlights. I discovered this a while back when playing around with the loom on my 75 series.

If you buzz out the pins with a multimeter, you will at first think the pins are all back to front until you work out it is actually using negative switching.

Cheers,
Peter.
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Follow Up By: Member - Duncs - Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 10:31

Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 10:31
Jack,

You have failed to deduce the obvious...you are NOT a goose!

At least according to ARB.

Duncs
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Follow Up By: Member - Jack - Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 11:44

Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 11:44
Thanks Duncs ... but I won't shop that around for a second opinion.

Cheers
Jack
The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get. (Lewis Carroll-Alice In Wonderland)

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Follow Up By: Member - Trouper (NSW) - Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 15:52

Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 15:52
Hello Jack, I have a Tropy 2000 model, in the back they have a tiny interior light thats useless, I decided to run some LED strip lites of the original switching. Well when I test the switch (with a test lite) I discover both sides of the switch are positive mmmm scratch head may times, re test same result mmm scratch head, think about it for a while and operate switch and note via test lite that now one side is neg the othewr pos. and lite is on.....Therefore when lite is off there is power to both sides of the switch, when you "turn" the light ON you now have pos. & neg. to the switch
WHY would they do that????

regards..............................Jeff
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Follow Up By: Member - Jack - Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 20:12

Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 20:12
Hi Jeff:

I have no idea why many things happen. My son has just fitted out a mate's car with LED lights, so I will ask him on the weekend if he calls by.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful.

Cheers
jack
The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get. (Lewis Carroll-Alice In Wonderland)

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Follow Up By: pdm3006 - Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 21:57

Monday, Aug 02, 2010 at 21:57
Hi Jeff.

I don't know why Toyota use negative switching but they do.

The reason you see positive on both sides of the switch when the lights are off is because of negative switching.

Jack hit this very problem with his loom. See above discussion.

With negative switching, when both sides of a circuit are high (+ve 12V) then there is no current flow and the device (headlight, interior light, LED, etc) is "off".

Now comes the negative switching bit. When the device is to be turned on, the voltage on one side is held low (-ve) while the other side remains high, a circuit is formed, current flows and the device turns on.

It requires a bit of reverse thinking to understand but it works.

Cheers,
Peter.
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Follow Up By: Member - Trouper (NSW) - Wednesday, Aug 04, 2010 at 14:04

Wednesday, Aug 04, 2010 at 14:04
Yeah thanks Pete
I understand the issue now but still think it's a crazy way to do it

Regards.......................Jeff
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