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Rear work lamp wiring


reb78

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Years ago, an autoelectrician wired up a rear work lamp on my 110. He used the interior light/dash light switch. By rewiring the dash lights so they come on with the sidelights/headlights there was a space on the old switch which was the position to turn on the dash lights and this now turns on the rear work lamp.

I think, the feed for the rear lamp comes from the side/headlight switch red wire so that the rear lamp can only be turned on when other lights are on. Thing is, I can't work out where the fuse for that circuit would be, if there is one, so I'm worried I have an infused rear lamp on the truck. Is the circuit that includes the red wire from the side/main light switch fused anywhere? I've pulled all the fuses in the main fuse box but none made the rear lamp go out.

I hope that makes some sense - I'm not sure it does to me, but any advice appreciated.

Looking at the wiring diagram, it looks like anything on the red wires is fused after the side/headlight switch. I think an inline fuse on the work lamp supply wire would do the trick?

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Early looms definitely didn't!!!... you remember that post I put up about my small loom fire... this was down to that part of the circuit melting itself as it wasn't fused...

If you're talking about an 89 era loom assume the worst and I'd reccomend putting some inline fuses in it...

I posted which bits I found had burnt...

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=86895&hl=

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Cars are often wired like that, with the fuses after the switch, even on far more modern things than a defender.

My A4 for instance has ignition live fed to the light stalk unfused, then the outputs of the light stalk go thru a load sensing module, THEN to the appropriate fuses, then on to the lamps.

One advantage i guess is that if the fuse blows, the bulb monitoring box notices. If the fuse was before the switch, the bulb monitor wouldnt know you've turned the lights on, and thus wouldnt give you any warning that they're not illuminated. By putting the fuse after, the monitor can see voltage present but no current flowing, and flag up the warning. They also have multiple fuses off each contact, as each headlamp bulb is seperately fused, so one popped fuse cant take out all the lighting.

Similarly the fuel pump arrangement, has the fuel pump relay sitting on an unfused feed from the main bus bar, and the fuse positioned after the relay, on the way to the pump.

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Early looms definitely didn't!!!... you remember that post I put up about my small loom fire... this was down to that part of the circuit melting itself as it wasn't fused...

If you're talking about an 89 era loom assume the worst and I'd reccomend putting some inline fuses in it...

I posted which bits I found had burnt...

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=86895&hl=

Oooo dear! That's the bit that's been altered and feeds the light that I'm talking about here! There's definitely some fuses on the way! I wonder if I should put one in near the switch on the column as well?

The reason I was fiddling is that there was no warning light to say the rear light was on, and it was on permanently so had been disconnected at the spot light by someone. It seemed that a red with white tracer had inadvertently been connected to the circuit, so the rear light was getting a feed whenever the lights were turned on from the dash illuminations.

What rated fuse would you put in the feed to the rear work lamp? It's an old spot light with a 55w bulb I think...

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You could of course systematically pull fuses until you find one that kills your work light. Or not

Done that. Nothing killed the light. As Mav and Aragorn have pointed out, there isn't a fuse on the red wire that has been used on my truck. (These wiring diagrams take some time for me to digest!)

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Oooo dear! That's the bit that's been altered and feeds the light that I'm talking about here! There's definitely some fuses on the way! I wonder if I should put one in near the switch on the column as well?

The reason I was fiddling is that there was no warning light to say the rear light was on, and it was on permanently so had been disconnected at the spot light by someone. It seemed that a red with white tracer had inadvertently been connected to the circuit, so the rear light was getting a feed whenever the lights were turned on from the dash illuminations.

What rated fuse would you put in the feed to the rear work lamp? It's an old spot light with a 55w bulb I think...

sounds like it had been joined to the instrument lights circuit.

mine has a 10amp fuse inline IIRC,

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