Left Foot High Beam

I started driving in the 1970's and I've owned more vehicles with the dimmer switch on the floor than the column. I just don't see an advantage either way. I could operate a column mounted dimmer switch just fine with a cigar in the hand, or put it in my mouth if I couldn't. The only possible advantage to having it on the floor is to make it easier to replace if it does go bad. And I've had to replace a couple of bad ones over the years. I've never had a column mounted dimmer switch go bad.

 

I started poking around at the wiring in the truck to try and find the high-beam lines.

Below are a couple of pictures and a wiring diagram for the body ecu.

Would be great of someone could point out the terminal / ecu / place where the wires are located? Was thinking of just disconnecting and see when the lights no longer worked but thought I'd try this first...

Specifically the "Body ECU".


Left / bottom of drivers side.


Fuse box left of the steering wheel.

 

The floor mounted dimmer switch could be mounted under the dead pedal, above the floor, poking through the dead pedal. Just a thought.

 

Excellent idea! Hadn't gotten that far but will do that.

 

Sounds awesome! My '58 Bug had the foot switch!

 

I too miss the foot switch, so I will keep an eye on this thread!

I imagine the biggest reason it was moved to the stalk was to accommodate drivers with disabilities.

 

I’m 95% sure this is the red/green wire. It’s on the back side. It would probably be easier to find the wire where it goes up to the steering column.

 

So if I'm thinking about this correctly the HF or red/white would go to the center post of the switch and the HU red/green would go to either left or right side. Doesn't matter since it switches between. This way the switch would not be active unless the low beams were on. Sound correct?

 

What I was thinking. Mount to the upper underside of the dead pedal. No holes through the cab at all that way.


I had a ‘79 CJ 7 with the switch in the floor. Was on the side of a mountain one night out in the country. Hit the high beams and everything went out. Ended up pulling over and not hitting anything and messed with it till I got it working again. Good times. Lol

 

No. The red/white wire is some kind of Voodoo black magic hocus pocus shit. It gets grounded on the flash so the headlights come on when you flash with the headlight switch turned off. Don’t do anything with red/white wire. Are we clear on that?

The only thing you want to do is ground the red/green wire for high beams and have the red/green wire not connected to ground for low beam.

 

Ok. So the red/green goes to the center post and a ground (to the frame) is on the left or right on the switch. Stretching my knowledge on electricity. Wouldn't grounding the red/green blow a fuse if it is hot?

 

Yes, that is what you need to do. The red/green wire is only a signal for the ECU to let it know that it should turn on the high beams. It’s like if someone knocks on your front door, it’s a signal for you to open the door. They haven’t done anything to open the door. They just sent the signal.

 

Also, if you’re following the red/green wire up to the steering column, make sure the red/green wire you are following actually goes to the headlight switch. There may or may not be other red/green wires that go to something else.

 

So there are 2 clusters of wire going to the steering column. One goes to the passenger side and up (I'm thinking the instrument cluster). The other goes to the fuse panel. I've found a green/red wire on the one going to the instrument cluster. Picture below. Seem to be green red to me and not red green. Same thing? I'm thinking horn relay.

 

Haha, I came here to say the same thing.

How's this coming along?

 

Any updates on how it's going??

 

Got home last weekend and catching up on house stuff. Going to be a couple of weeks before I get back to the left foot high beams. Stay tuned....

 

I am also a big fan of the floor mounted dimmer switch. I'm waiting patiently for someone to positively identify the correct wires to tap. (@caribe makaira).
Until then, i've started a prototype using the dead pedal, without drilling thru the floor. Works great so far, just need to wire it in.

 

C11 is connector to turn/headlight stalk, under the steering covers (bottom)

 

i gotta learn not to rush my reading.. I spent half my time trying to figure out why you were shifting with your left hand, holding a cigar, and steering with your right..