I need some electrical help

Alright TW electrical gurus. While I am fairly mechanically inclined, electrically, not so much, so I'm asking for help. I am in the middle of installing some Rigid Industries Midnight pod lights on my A posts. After I got all the wiring connected, I notice two issues. The AOB switch for the accessory I'm installing is lit without the keys in the ignition, and the the part thats lit is the part that should tell me the lights are actually on. In connecting the light, the switch actually doesn't turn it on or off, it just stays on. The next thing I noticed is when I turned the key to the accessory position to see if all my other switches light up, they dim in reverse of everything else. That wire was tapped in the shifter light, green and white wire. Thoughts?


No keys in ignition


Car on, all lights dimmed


Car on, all lights at full


Fuse block


AOB wiring instructions

 

@GHOST SHIP

 

The Green wire with a white stripe is the ground wire.

The solid green wire is the power wire. So the blue and yellow wire needs to connect to the green wire not the green with a white stripe.

 

Thank you. I will try that.

 

Tried it. That didn't work. Now the buttons don't dim at all.

 

There's a couple things going on here. First for the lights always on it could be one of two things: the wire you tapped into for illumination is most likely a constant hot OR if you didn't tap into a wire and ran straight from the fuse block then that's obviously constant hot so the lights will be always on.
For the switch illuminating in reverse, it's just a matter of switching which wire goes where. Each light has its own power feed and you likely have them backwards. Easy fix.
Third: light dimming issue.
I read somewhere here that our dimmers are on a ground dimmer. But I'm not really much help there because I don't dim my switches. I'm on my phone or I'd look it up for you. When I get back to my laptop I'll check back here if the problem hasn't been resolved yet and do some sleuthing.

 

The fuse block I am tapped into for main power is hot all the time. I don't mean that my switches illuminate in reverse as far as switching the transmission. It's only one wire. How can I have that backwards? Looking forward to your assistance when you get to your laptop. I have tapped into dimming before for all my cupholder lights and I've never had an issue.

 

The dimmer is in the ground circuit.

Tie the green wire to the Blue and Yellow wire. Tie the black ground wire from the switch to the green with a white stripe. If you do this the lights should dim as the dash lights do.

Sorry I thought this was obvious from my other post.

 

I'll have to try it tomorrow.

 

Sorry Ron, on my laptop now. I was typing with my thumbs and trying to be brief as autocorrect was not helping me earlier. What I meant with the switches illuminating in reverse was the icon (picture) lit up all the time and the label (words) illuminating when you turn on the accessory. Each one of the LEDs has it's own power lead and the wires just need to be switched around. As far as the always on and dimming problem they might be intertwined. If you have the power lead tapped into your secondary fuse block then the power leads will be constant hot, so the lights will always be on. The way to correct this is to connect the power lead to an ACC-on fuse under the dash using an add-a-fuse. It'll shorten the wire run and you don't have to worry about overloading a factory circuit since this wire will only power the LEDs in your switches and combined they will most likely be pulling less than 0.5 amps. With your power now coming from there, all you should need to do is tap into the "dimming" ground where @Jimmyh suggested and you should be good. I have a suspicion that the constant hot may have been messing with the dimming ground and causing a back flow somewhere in the harness which gave you the dim/bright reversal. If I'm reading the wiring diagram correctly, the you might be able to join the blue and green wires from the switch harness together and run that to the add-a-fuse. I could be wrong on that, but it's a little hard to tell. I'd suggest testing that before you install and button everything up. I've never used the AOB switches, but in theory the wiring should be the same as OTRATTW switches which I've wired dozens of times. Let me know if this makes sense and secondly, let me know if it works once you get a chance to test it. I can elaborate with some crudely drawn scribbles if I need to.

 

Some of this makes sense and some of it doesn't in the sense that neither of us are probably clear on the "reverse" issue. The switches illuminate correctly with the text being lit with the accessory off, and then the picture when. The switches are all hooked to an accessory add on fuse under the dash. The accessory I'm installing is wired to the fuse block in the engine compartment. At any rate, I'll have to wait til tomorrow to troubleshoot. I'll keep you posted.

 

Yeah, wiring is one of those things that would take a couple minutes to help with if we were both at the truck and I could just point to stuff and say "that one". Trying to do this using my words isn't easy for me. I'm still willing to help, but I don't was to throw you off due to a miscommunication. Keep us posted and we'll sort it out. If wiring has taught me anything, it'll most likely be something stupid that we overlooked and end up being a simple fix.

 

First
Ok
So obviously you have done the wiring to the other switches and everything works? I assume.
Now the switch you are having problems with....
Is wired in the same fashion? I assume.
And you have done all the work?




Do you have a mult-meter with continuity tester?

 

Yes I've wired a few switches without issue. Not 100% sure they're wirdevthe same. First time using the fuse box I installed in the engine bay from my dual battery system (constant hot). Yes I did all the work, but this is not my specialty by any means. Will tinker with it tomorrow. Yes I have a multi meter, but not very proficient with it.

 

Test the switch

 

I'll bet I wired something wrong. Just got to troubleshoot it tomorrow.

 

The good news, is, the backwards dimming has been fixed. Three issues solved this, a connector with a loose wire, moving the ground wire from the chassis to the green/white wire, combining the green and blue wire from switch to the solid green wire from the shifter light. The one problem remaining is actually getting the accessory to not be constant on. I switched the red wire from the accessory away from the always hot fuse box in the engine compartment to an add-a-fuse hooked up to an engine-on accessory fuse under the dash. Still the light is always on. I'm thinking this accessory, absolutely needs a relay. Any other ideas? If this is the route I need to go, any recommendations for the appropriate relay?

 

Glad you got it mostly worked out. For a relay, your standard 30/40A relay will do. There's no magic there. Pretty standard across the board.

 

Thanks, I will buy this immediately.