My name is Rob, I go by crackedback. Been on the moparts, FABO, FBBO and other mopar related boards for about 10+ years in some cases.
I build bulkhead wire around products and relay actuated wiring harnesses for headlights, power windows, convertible power top motors. The kits are essentially plug and play for the most part. My items are not the most expensive and they are not the cheapest on price. I'm middle of the road on cost while using only top quality relays (Tyco/Bosch), well thought out engineering, and as much US sourced product as possible. I don't use wire from outside the US except by accident. I pay more for US sourced wire because it's better quality. I only build items that I would put on my cars, and I use what I build.
I've built a couple of headlight relay kits for C body cars. All my kits are custom tailored to the buyers wire lengths/specifications. No generic one size fits all kits.
Joined: Sat Aug 19 2006, 05:03PM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 2919
Hi Rob, welcome to the Dock!
I never thought of adding relays for the convertible top motor. That sounds like an interesting idea. I hear mine laboring a bit, especially when raising the top without the engine running. For those kits, you recommend tapping into power at the alternator power stud, same as for your headlight kits?
Thanks for the welcome. I'm a Mopar guy from early on, yet, I still appreciate a lot of other cars/models.
I would tend to pull power for a power top from the starter relay. It's a 50/50 call. if you never raise or lower the top with your engine off, then the alt stud is the way to go. If you raise/lower with off, the starter relay is the better origin point. You have a situation that would end up taxing the bulkhead connectors in either of the two situations using the OEM charging harness.
I like to pull headlights from the alt because rarely are the headlights on with engine off.
If you have done a bulkhead wire around, either location would work well.
The vert top relay set up really wakes up the pump motor and takes that 20ish amp load off the expensive up/down switch.
Joined: Sat Aug 19 2006, 05:03PM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 2919
crackedback wrote ...
I would tend to pull power for a power top from the starter relay. It's a 50/50 call. if you never raise or lower the top with your engine off, then the alt stud is the way to go. If you raise/lower with off, the starter relay is the better origin point. You have a situation that would end up taxing the bulkhead connectors in either of the two situations using the OEM charging harness.
That is exactly what I was thinking. The starter relay post may be a better place to grab top motor power, because it's on the battery side of the ammeter. It might even be the best choice even if you do put the top up and down with the engine running. On the early charging system (single field wire) at least, the alternator isn't outputting much at idle if you have a stock engine ticking over at low RPM, so most of the current to drive the top motor is going to come from the battery.