Rewiring headlights to ignition switch?

[Jb1rd]

Has anyone rewired their headlights so that they turn off/on with the ignition? I damn near stranded myself when I left them on unknowingly, it's hard/impossible to tell that they are on in the daylight and I am accustomed to lights that turn off with the key or by themselves.

 

[PhulesAU]

Smart azz say" You can't look at them and tell if they are on???"

Wire them to a switched power circuit using a rely. you'd only need a mall amount of powe
r to trigger the circuit

 

[flightcancled]

I'm planning on removing the door switch from the alarm circuit so that the only reason I hear "ding ding ding" when I jump out of the van is that the headlights are on.

 

[Jb1rd]

Smart ******** indeed sometimes I do not walk in front of my rig and the interior dash lights are not terribly bright in the daylight.

Smart azz say" You can't look at them and tell if they are on???"

Wire them to a switched power circuit using a rely. you'd only need a mall amount of powe
r to trigger the circuit

 

[hobovan]

As stated, shouldn't be hard to work this out at all. Also as stated, use a relay! Ignition harness is pretty accessible on these.

 

[PhulesAU]

I felt compelled to throw that out there, 46+ years of legal driving and I've never left the lights on. Grand Pa trained me good. Walk around before you walk away.

 

[REDOVAL]

If the wire on the clock spring assy that controls the buzzer is working as intended from the factory you won't have that issue. The wire is held to the ignition cylinder case mount with a small clip that frequently breaks and disables the buzzer.

Ford vans do not use a relay in the headlight systems from the factory.

Scott

 

[Bikersmurf]

Napa used to sell buzzers that plugged into the fuse box and squawked if you left em on... 5 minutes to install.

Or tap into the headlight circuit and add a relay that cuts power when the truck is turned off. Easy in principle, just cut power by headlight switch.


I don't have that problem with the ambulance since it has 4 batteries

 

[verdesardog]

For cutting off headlights you could just put a relay directly in the wires going to headlights powered by a hot with ignition only source. Probably need two, one for high beams and one for low beams.

 

[villageidiot327]

if you installed a headlight relay system, like one from:

http://www.headlightservices.com/Wiring.html

but rather than run it direct from the battery, you ran it off a keyed ignition source, it should go on and off with the key. it wouldn't require any cutting of any harness, and would still be triggered by the stock headlamp switch (one stock headlamp plug plugs into the harness to activate it all)

if you ran a constant duty solenoid off the battery, that switched power to the headlight relay harness, you would still get good voltage with almost no drop and the lights will be brighter as well.

 

[villageidiot327]

This works for key control of headlamps. What about taillamp, instrument, etc. ?

He didn't ask about all the other stuff.

 

[villageidiot327]

I suppose you could get creative and pull the exterior lighting fuses out, and run a secondary fuse box, fed off the same continuous duty solenoid that then had wires with spade terminals that plugged back into the factory fuse box.