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putco harness........re-designed???????

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Old Apr 14, 2013 | 08:49 PM
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Default putco harness........re-designed???????

got my putco harness last week, i just opened it up tonight to see how to wired it up and i seen that the harness looks different/updated from the pics that i have seen on the forum. the wiring diagram is self explanatory on the back of the package. what i noticed first is that the relay mounts are just plastic. they dont have the metal grounding tabs that ive seen on previous relays. so im assuming there grounded some other way.

i do have one question for the ones that have installed the harness, theres one male h4 plug and 2 female h4 plugs. i am assuming that only 1 of the oem plugs gets plugged into the new harness and the other oem plug just gets tucked out of the way?

here are a couple of pics i took



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Old Apr 14, 2013 | 09:39 PM
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No redesign, that's how it's always come. And yes, only the one male plug goes into the OEM harness. The OEM plug on the driver side gets tucked away
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Old Apr 14, 2013 | 09:40 PM
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See the black wires with ring lugs coming off of each of the female plugs? That's how it's grounded
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Old Apr 14, 2013 | 09:43 PM
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Looks like the one I put on my jeep back in November.
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Old Apr 14, 2013 | 09:59 PM
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Looks like mine that I did in September.
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Old Apr 14, 2013 | 10:49 PM
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i had a feeling that the black wires off the connectors were the grounds. i was picturing something different.

who has a wiring diagram for installing a different relays on this harness. like the bosch style. i know you will have to cut up the harness, but im not a fan of buying replacement relays at $20 a pop.
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Old Apr 14, 2013 | 11:12 PM
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I've had the relays that were supplied with the Putco harness for well over a year with no problems... I say run em for now and maybe pick up different ones and keep them handy for if and when the supplied ones fail
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Old Apr 15, 2013 | 08:56 PM
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I recall reading that the Putco relays crap out if they have bad grounds. I sanded down some metal real nice, bolted those eyelets down with Gardner Bender Ox-Gard, and added a ground from the radiator support to my battery post. My cheap little DMM shows 0.2 ohm between the ground pin in the left H4 connector and the negative battery post
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Old Apr 15, 2013 | 09:16 PM
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what is this harness for?
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Old Apr 15, 2013 | 09:23 PM
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Bypasses the stock headlight wiring. The factory setup is under-sized and convoluted and performs poorly with OE spec lamps, and is dangerous with brighter lamps (headlamp switch melts). This uses relays and properly sized wire to power the lamps directly from your battery or PDC, enabling a much better current delivery and avoiding fires and melts.
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Old Apr 15, 2013 | 09:27 PM
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Originally Posted by salad
Bypasses the stock headlight wiring. The factory setup is under-sized and convoluted and performs poorly with OE spec lamps, and is dangerous with brighter lamps (headlamp switch melts). This uses relays and properly sized wire to power the lamps directly from your battery or PDC, enabling a much better current delivery and avoiding fires and melts.
This applies to alot of vehicles ,the 97 F250 in my sig. has a harness not a putco but a much $$$$ dollar one.
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Old Apr 15, 2013 | 09:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Aljay
This applies to alot of vehicles ,the 97 F250 in my sig. has a harness not a putco but a much $$$$ dollar one.
Ouch. Yeah, when I got my FSM I headed to the wiring diagram section pretty fast. "You have got to be ****ing kidding me..." sums up a lot of Section 8W lol. The way the DRLs work is shameful
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Old Apr 16, 2013 | 07:57 AM
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Thanks Salad, is this for newer rigs or all of them? I'd like to figure out how to have all 4 of my Wagoneer lights on at the same time (6 including fogs).
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Old Apr 16, 2013 | 08:09 AM
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Originally Posted by myslo50
i had a feeling that the black wires off the connectors were the grounds. i was picturing something different.

who has a wiring diagram for installing a different relays on this harness. like the bosch style. i know you will have to cut up the harness, but im not a fan of buying replacement relays at $20 a pop.
Originally Posted by 1996sportXJ
I've had the relays that were supplied with the Putco harness for well over a year with no problems... I say run em for now and maybe pick up different ones and keep them handy for if and when the supplied ones fail
So just any relays would work, but I'd have to cut up the harness? Anyone know of any replacements that just plug in?

I'd like to keep some handy but if I have to cut and splice them in, it wouldn't exactly be an easy roadside fix if/when it happened. Maybe I could find a plug that'll fit that part of the harness...
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Old Apr 16, 2013 | 10:25 AM
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Originally Posted by Coach
Thanks Salad, is this for newer rigs or all of them? I'd like to figure out how to have all 4 of my Wagoneer lights on at the same time (6 including fogs).
It's for the Cherokee modeled XJs. In the Cherokees there's a single H4 connector for each bulb with low, high, and ground pins. I'm not sure how the Wagoneer lights work - separate bulbs for low and high beam? You could modify it to work by splicing into the original connectors but depending on condition and your cost you might just make your own.

Originally Posted by DieselD
So just any relays would work, but I'd have to cut up the harness? Anyone know of any replacements that just plug in
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/putco-relay-167330/

Amazingly the in-site search found that and Google could not.
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