73 Giulia Super Rebuild, Alfa Romeo, Automobile Work, Automobilia

Electrical Improvements – Headlight Relays and more

Older Alfa Romeos are well known for having very basic electrical systems that is constructed with good quality components and last a long time. But eventually wires and connections age and build up electrical resistance reducing voltage and creating heat. A poor connection could build up enough heat to melt a wire on a circuit without a fuse or a wrong sized fuse. The system could also be taxed with modern power draws such as GPS, smartphone and other accessories that require charging via the often corroded cigarette lighter. Headlamps require the largest amount of amps especially if the bulbs have been changed to brighter halogen type that draw too much power for the original wires, through the aged fusebox and the small contacts in the light switch.

With this in mind  a new secondary 100 amp fuse box has been installed that is given the task of distributing power to the most amp hungry items; the four high beams, two main beams, four usb plugs and a new cigarette lighter outlet to be used with high draw items such as coffee machine, flood lights etc.  Powering this new fusebox is a 12 gage wire running directly from the alternator with an inline 50amp fuse. To take the strain off the headlight switch, relays were utilized, so now the original wires powering the lights only trigger the relays that are fed power via the new fusebox.  The new USB sockets and cigarette lighter now both have individual heavy gage wires run to the new fusebox as well. A bonus feature of the USB socket is the voltmeter that displays the voltage of the battery and output of the alternator.

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2 Comments

  1. Ivan Ortiz says:

    Great! But no socket to the relays, anyhow thanks for sharing!

    1. Fred Frey says:

      I did purchase sockets but did not like the wires that came with them – too thin

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