Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tacoma switch for Hella lights

So I'm browsing fjcruiserforums and I find a posting about using a Tacoma switch that costs only $13 for the aftermarket Hella 500's that I put on the brushguard.

This is what I did:

Tacoma switch and part number.

Rear of switch. Top is ground, middle is relay wire, bottom is power. These correspond to the blue, yellow, and green wires respectively for the Hella 500's. It works perfectly since there are only 3 wires.

Hella switch that I tucked in until I found this solution for a factory look.

The switch did not fit in the FJ switch hole since it was very narrow. I decided to shave off the plastic on the sides of the switch. I got a little too close on one side and made a hole but it doesn't matter since all of this is behind the dash.

This is what it looks like after shaving it as close as possible with the rotary tool. It was STILL too thick.

Instead of shaving more off the switch and possibly ruining it, I decided to shave some plastic off the opening. I took off the left side and the switch fit perfectly. I put back the original cover to see if it would stay on and it did. It was slightly loose side to side and now I know that I can uninstall this switch if I ever needed to put back to stock.

The final product. This is in the off position when the light is not on.

This is in the on position with the high-beams on. The indicator light glows orange. The light is on only when the lights are on which means that the switch has to be in the on position and the high-beams need to be on.
Not bad for $13. An FJ switch is about $50-$90 and you have to modify the connections for aftermarket lighting kits.

No comments: