Help! Wiring Light Bar to OEM style Switch

Hello, I’m having issues installing my Baja Designs S8 light bar to a Cali raised led switch. The issue I’m facing is that once I connect the wires from the switch to the Baja harness, the led backlights on the switch come on and STAY on indefinitely.

After some research, I was advised to connect the 2nd red wire on the Cali raised switch to an add a fuse set up in the cab. No luck, because as soon as I connected the primary red wire to the harness the backlight powered up again. Even with the add a fuse unplugged lol. Out of ideas here if anyone has any advice that would be greatly appreciated!

 

It would help to show how you have it wired up right now. Pics of the switch or a drawn diagram of what wires you have to what pins on the switch.
You may simply have a power wire on the wrong place on the switch.

Edit to add
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/wiring-up-caliraised-leds-w-oem-switch.514284/

 

This might help

 

Or this

black goes to black
2 red goes blue.
Green goes to white.

depend on wire colors.

My switch and liights has this set up

 

I can't find the wire colors from the harness. More information would help me be more precise. I assume that there is only 2 wires from the harness to connect to the switch?

The Switch has 4 wires

4) Connect the black wire to ground.
3) The red wire (next to the black wire) - This wire is designed to turn on a light inside the switch when you turn on your dash lights at night. If you want it to work correctly, you will have to find a wire (behind the dash) that goes to your dash lights. Connect this wire to the positive conductor of your dash lighting wiring.
2) Next red wire - connect this wire to the lighting harness wiring. Specifically the wire that send power to the relay / light.
1) Green Wire - This wire connects to the 12 volt source of the lighting harness.

If you get 3 and 4 backwards, the light will stay on all the time.
If you connect battery power to #2, the light will stay on all the time.

 

Ok fellas, thanks for all the response. Here are some pics of the wires in the Baja Harness




There are two sets of wires inside of the harness. One set (green red) powers the ambers back ups on the bar, and the second powers the light bar (red yellow black)

I have tried the following combinations from the Cali switch with no luck.
Red/red-red
Green-yellow
Black-black

and I also tried
Red-red
Red-add a fuse
Green-yellow
Black-black

For the back-up ambers I tried mostly the same except green/black on the switch are connected to the green on the harness.

The led backlight to the switches come on immediately once everything is connected. It came on regardless of my add a fuses that I ran to the cigarette lighters which I figured would work because it is an Ignition only point. So it would go truck on-switch gets power-I flip switch-light bar comes on

 

EDIT:

Let me do this again.

What picture is the wiring for the switch?

 

Soo if you want the white and amber to come on separate you will have to use a 2 position switch or 2 switches.
Do not hook anything to the prong in the picture I post and your backlight should not come one.
Hook a separate keyed wire to it later on.
If you want both amber and white on at same time hook both like wires. Power in and out to the respective prong. Still dont hook anything to the prong pictured.

 

[Edit] I have two switches for both sets of wires in the harness. They toggled on and off just fine. The issue is both switches led backlight stay on.

Neither. There are 2 sets of wires inside of the harness for the light bar. That’s what I pictured. This is the wiring to the switch and the diagram I’ve been following

 

The way I have my switches hooked up are as follows, I think it is similar to how Cali has their switches wired.

Green - Power Source (fused/from battery)
Red1 - To Load/Relay Terminal 85 (this will light up when you activate/push the switch on)
Red2 - Illumination Circuit (add a fuse to a circuit that is "hot" when ignition on) **
Black - Ground

Do you have a diagram for the light bar themselves? Meaning which wire is which on the harness? Are you running a relay to power the light bar?

**EDIT: My mistake on RED2 (pin3), with an add a fuse on a "hot" when on circuit it will come on as long as power is present. What you want to do is tap this one to an illumination circuit like the GREEN wire that is on the cargo light switch harness. That way it will only come one when you have your parking lights on or your headlights.

 

I'm still confused on the harness side (for the lights).
The post I made in post 5 is correct for the switch. I just described it in reverse order. (I edited post 5 and changed the numbers to match the switch drawing)

If the lights stays ON you could have the two wires reversed. If they are backwards, the light will stay on.

 

I am not familiar with the harness so I am going to ask this. Is the harness connected to a power source on the other end?

If so, this will make sense.
The red wires in your harness are bringing power in.
Black is ground.
Yellow is switch power to the light
Green is switch power to the light.

If you put yellow and green on the harness together, both color lights will come on with switch on.
If you want the color lights separate, you need two switches.

In theory, you need black to black.
Reds(harness)to green (switch)
Yellow and green( harness) to Red 1 on the switch.
If you want the back light to come on, you need to tie into the dash light circuit.

This is all assuming the harness is connected to battery power somewhere else and the reds are hot coming in. If that is not the case, then disregard anything I have said.

 

Are you running the switch directly to the light bar? I would recommend using a relay harness, from what I can find peak amps for the light bar is 4 amps and the switch is rated for 3 amps.

 

I looked thru the BD website. There is a harness that they recommend for this light. But I cant find a good schematic for the harness. Looks like the BD fixture has two different lighting switch-legs. 1 for the main light. And 1 for backlighting?

 

We may have a winner.

 

This is the only thing I can find for the S8 wiring. But the wire colors in the diagram doesn't match what he is showing? But I think daddy_o got it and I still recommend wiring a relay harness to the light bar.

 

Ok! A few things. This IS the recommended BD harness and yes, it came with a relay. It is tied directly to the battery. I will try the suggest combination of wires as soon as I get home and advise from there. Thanks again all!

 

You will need to tap into a dash light circuit. If you have your switches mounted on the left side of the steering wheel, where the cubby is, I would tap into the cargo lamp switch GREEN wire. That is the illumination wire, it only comes on when you have your parking light/headlights on. So the LED on the switch will not come on until you turn on your parking light.

 

UPDATE: Big thanks to Daddy_O for nailing it. Everything works perfectly now. I left red 2 disconnected (and capped) on both switches and the back light now toggles on and off with the switch.

 

I have had to rewire switches the factory hooked up wrong on some boats, that helped me figure out this situation.
Glad you got it working, and glad I could help you out.