Ok so I have a 3 yr old son and when were out and about whenever he spots an xj he says there's a blue daddy's truck or white daddy's truck whatever the color might be. So I know of a pull your parts place in ny that's got cherokee's not picked to the bone like here in pa. So I thought with my wife giving me free reign over decorating his new room( sisters old room), how awesome would it be to get a header panel from an xj and light it up and put it on his wall? Well I asked what color he wanted and he said red, and wouldn't you know it there was a red one there so I grabbed it. So I can power it in the garage with a battery but I'm wondering how I'm gonna power it in his room. To haven't been able to find a small thin 12v battery. So if anyone knows of where to get one, let me know. I need to replace the headlight, I've got one laying around, and the one turn signal bulb there. Not bad though for like $50.

 

Either replace the bulbs with low voltage leds or get a 12v power supply that plugs in the wall. Those headlights may pull too much juice though. They would be awfully bright too for indoors. Maybe just get some cheap ebay housings and put some low voltage leds in them. Plenty of light for indoors.

 

I have the lower passenger side dash panel from my 79 Camaro mounted to my work bench in my garage. The panel includes the radio, glove box, and vent. I used a 12 VDC power supply I bought on Amazon to power the radio. It is switched by an ignition switch from a 70 CJ 5 mounted to the side of the panel. The panel is now the face of a drawer housing all of the electrical components. The setup includes a power supply, ignition switch, car radio, and household amplifier.

I used an amp meter to measure how much power I needed. 5 amps was plenty for the radio. If you need a lot of power, you can use the power supply from a desk top computer.

 

Thanks for the info, I had no idea about the PC power supply. I got one a buddy was gonna throw out and I did the hack to it. I was getting 12v in the house and when I hooked it up it worked only thing was the lights were like pulsating, kind of like a blinker but a bit faster. When hooked up to a battery it's fine so not sure if it's my hacking of the power supply or maybe too much power or something. I'll have to figure it out. Thanks again!

 

What is the wattage of the headlights and what is the wattage of the power supply? I think you are drawing too much amperage on the power supply to cause it to flicker. IIRC, when I used a PC power supply for my radio, it had a couple 'channels' for lack of better word for the power. A couple 5v and a couple 12v, with differing amp outputs on each 'channel'. You may be tapped into a lower output channel. It's been a while since I played with a power supply, so PLEASE research what I'm telling you to verify.

 

Ok so here's the specs on the power supply




And here's the lights

 

Ok. So the power supply will put out 14amps of 12v + power. 14x12=168 watts. ( Amps x volts = watts). The lights are rated at 35 watts on low beam. You should be good on the power supply, assuming just 2 headlights, no turn signals. Depending on the draw of the turn signals, you may be able to add those in.

Where I see your issue may be is, you may be tapped into the 12v - side of the supply. It is only rated for .3 amps of 12v -.

 

I don't believe it's the 12v - but I'll check that. It's low beams and parking lights. If it was 12v - would it have showed up on the multimeter?

 

A good meter will read - not all do.

 

I'll mess with if tomorrow after work and let you know what I figure out. Thanks!

 

Well after messing around with this thing I figured out what was wrong. There's a green wire that goes into the motherboard and I read that you had to hook that to the grey wire to trick it to come on. Well it tricks it to come on but when a load was applied the voltage was fluctuating between 8-12v. I hooked the green wire to ground and no more pulsating. The only thing is when I turn it on it takes a few times switching on and off before coming on. Im guessing there's some kind of protective circuit of some sort?