Trouble with Cali raised ditch lights

Hey all,

Having some issues with my Cali raised ditch lights. I got the harness installed, red wire connected to battery +, black wire connected to ground bolt, relay bolted as well.

The lights don't turn on unfortunately. I connected the OEM switch. Followed the instructions on Cali raised. Green to white, black to black, and red/Yellow to blue. The switch backlighting turns on/off when I press the switch, but the lights do not turn on..

Wondering if I did something wrong. Any insights or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
C

 

You only have one wire connected to the battery?

There should be a positive and negative connected to the battery. There is also a ground that connects to the ground bolt.

Edit, disregard above, went and checked mine, been a few years. yeah, sounds like a different wiring issue

 

Sounds like the relay is wired wrong

 

The switch sounds like it has 12v because it's lighting. You need 12v at the "trigger" on the relay to flip it and power the lights. Does the relay plug directly into a harness socket? If so, check the trigger wire that should be switched 12v from the switch. I'll bet if you put a meter on that, I'll bet you don't have voltage to the relay.

 

Here is how I have the wires connected. There is a positive, negative and a relay. Please see images attached.

The negative isn't connected directly to the battery but to the negative wire that runs from the battery to the grounding bolt

 

The wire harness has a red, black and a relay. That deal with the battery. on the switch side of things, there is a blue, white and black.

The OEM switch has green black and 2 yellow/red lights. Cali raise says to do black to black, white to green and combine the 2 yellow/red lights to the blue.

-C

 

I'm confused when you say "OEM switch". Are you using one of the OEM style Ditch Lights switches or connecting it to something existing?

 

My bad, the Os OEMtyle ditch lights switch from Cali raised.

 

the relay you have is either 4 or 5 post relay. there should be numbers on it, 15, 30, 85, 86 or 87 depending on 4 or 5 pin. Pin 30, whatever wire color that is should go to the light(s), pin 15 should go to a power source capable of taking the electric load. pin 85 should go to a switch power source and 86 or 87 should be grounded.

 

Ok, I looked at the website. Green is +12v, black is -, and the two reds would be tied so the switch LED gets power when the red to the relay is energized. I'll bet you aren't getting a good ground where you have it. Do you have a meter?

 

Let's take a step back and start simple. Check to see if your polarity is right. Swap the wires at the plug and see if that fixes it. This graphic is from caliraised.

 

Looking at your pic, that looks like your ground should be good. Do you have a picture of the switch side wiring? I'd test resistance (ohms) between the battery negative and your relay and the black wire at the switch side. Also test the battery positive resistance to switch side Green wire.

 

That's a good thought

 

95% of the time I see an issue like this pop up, it's solved by swapping polarity. Hopefully it's an easy fix for OP.

 

Should I connect the negative directly to the battery and the ground

So what tool do I need to do that? I am going to orielys right now anyways for some stuff

 

I'm guessing that keyed connectors are wired differently because China. That sucks for that to be a possibility.

Look at the connector polarity first

 

Will switch this when I get to orielys

 

Multi-meter. I would highly recommend everyone have one anyway. Even if you don't know how to use it and don't want to Youtube it, it can help remote diagnosis.

 

Ok will do. Do you know what bolt I need for the inside of the truck? I need to buy a bolt for the relay so it isn't just flopping around

 

Ok cool. Yea going to buy one now.