Hey all - I put a switch into my 95 so that (when the switch it on and) when the high-beams are on, power is also sent to close the lightbar's toggle switch. Basically so when you hit the high beams, the lightbar comes on too. But - I did put a one-way diode in so that the high-beams wouldn't come on if I turn on just the lightbar swtich.

Everything worked fine for a while; eventually the lightbar wouldn't come on the first few times I hit the high beams, and now it almost never does. The lightbar works just fine from its switch. So I figure the logical thing is that my diode is misbehaving? It's actually a tail light isolating diode from etrailer.com; it's rated to 3 amps and 24 volts. Can I put another one like it in or am I using the wrong type/size diode?

Many thanks - I really appreciate any help!

 

You don't mention what kind, or current rating the diode is rated for.

 

Is this setup on a relay triggering circuit, or on a circuit which powers the lights themselves? The lights will draw way more than 3 amps.

 

Good question, x99 - basically I spliced into the hi-beam wire in the steering column (the one that's powered only when the hi-beams are on). From there it runs through the diode and then it goes to the actual switch I've wired up for the lightbar itself. All the switch normally does when closed is allow a little bit of power to go close the relay for the lightbar, so my wire from the hi-beams is wired into the part of the switch that would get power when the switch is on (closed). So it fools the switch into thinking it's on and sends power to the relay to close it. None of this has any of the high power that the lightbar requires - I promise!

At this point it seems like it would be easy enough to just swap out the diode and see if that fixes it! I've got a few extra so I may try that tomorrow.

 

I'd add a relay and have the headlight output trigger the relay and have that relay tied into the power line of the switch. That was the connection is completely disconnected when the highbeams are off.

 

Thanks for the good idea, Veeb. Today I took the console apart to try and replace the diode with another one just to see if it worked - and lo and behold, I discovered the problem: it's those stupid wire splice terminal things where you use pliers to push a metal bar through two wires to connect them:

https://www.autozone.com/miscellaneo...store_set=true

Those gave me major headaches elsewhere in the XJ, so when I found that a previous issue was caused by them, I replaced all of them that I could find that I'd previously used. I never thought about behind the console where I've got like ten switches, so today I went back and replaced all of those. They work fine at first (and maybe I'm using them wrong) but they simply get intermittent over time and then quit working. They're designed to be an easy way to splice another line in but they've caused me a LOT of problems and no other connectors have.

I hope this might be some help to someone else!! Sure appreciate the help, all!!

 

From your explanation sounds like the diode is failing. A 3A/24V diode should be fine for a lightbar, but since it's acting up, try swapping in a new one first. If it keeps happening, go for a heavier-duty diode (like 5A+) to handle the load better. Check connections for corrosion too sometimes it's just a bad contact.