Show me your headlights!

[FMS88]

MrPaco,
On my ’88 the buzzer is located just above the hood release handle.
PICT0021.jpg Two wires, a yellow w/white stripe which is from the door switches, and a green w/orange stripe from the ignition switch, connect to the buzzer. Hopefully your buzzer is there and only disconnected. If there and connected, check fuses #1 and #7 and the buzzer itself. The buzzer serves as both a key and fasten seat belt reminder.

To wire the buzzer as a headlight reminder, you’ll need female blade connectors, some 14 gauge wire, a quick splice connector and a crimping tool. A volt meter or voltage tester is recommended. Disconnect the green/orange wire and prevent it from grounding. Attach only the yellow w/white stripe wire to its original buzzer terminal. Use the original connector or crimp on a new female blade connector. Attach an 8-12” length of new wire to the other buzzer terminal.

Find the harness connector with a green w/white strip wire that powers the dash lights. On my truck which has four stock speakers, this connector is white with yellow side rails and 10 wires in two rows of five.
PICT0026.jpg On trucks with two speakers, this connector has six wires, one row of four and the other with two at opposite ends of the row. I don’t know its color. Hopefully it’s white and yellow, too.

On either connector the green/white wire is in a corner location. Confirm it’s the dash light’s wire by back probing the connector using the volt meter or volt tester and with the headlight switch in the on and off positions. If correct, touch the end of the wire you connected to the buzzer to the volt meter/tester lead with the lights on and off. If it buzzes when on, splice the new wire to the green/white wire to make the change permanent.
PICT0023.jpg
The pics show my test-of-concept using a wire with alligator clip ends and a male pin connector to back probe and connect the 10-wire connector’s green/white wire. I just never got around to making it more permanent. You can also connect the new wire to the load side of fuses #1 or #12, but the connector I used is more accessible.

Hopefully the above matches your ’87. Also, with this change the buzzer will no longer sound as an unbuckled seat belt warning. However, the fasten seat belt indicator light in the dash cluster will illuminate for 5-10 second like before.

I hope this is clear.

[MrPaco]

Wow, thank you, this is amazing.
I will get down there tomorrow and poke around and compare to your photos.
Your explanation is very detailed and clear, I think I should be able to follow, but if I have any questions I'll probably ask for some more help

Thank you for guidance and patience with these questions, that I'm sure seem pretty basic to you and the more experienced members here. Everyone's willingness to help has been very encouraging.

[MrPaco]

MrPaco,
Hopefully your buzzer is there and only disconnected.

I found the buzzer, and you were right, it was disconnected. I connected it, and found out the reason it had been disconnected... it makes a horrible sound (when it's supposed to: door open or seatbelt unbuckled). It's not the normal annoying sound that it's supposed to make to remind you to do something, it's a painful sound that makes you want to put the thing out of its misery, which is I guess what the previous owner did by disconnecting it.
I want to attempt your mod and wire it to sound off when the lights are left on, and I have 4 speakers so I think I'll be able to follow your instructions, but before I do that I think I need a new buzzer. Is this a common and easily sourced part? Is it specific to these trucks or any buzzer of this type would work? Does it have an official name, or is it just "buzzer"?

[FMS88]

it's a painful sound that makes you want to put the thing out of its misery, which is I guess what the previous owner did by disconnecting it.

LOL. I agree. Disconnecting the buzzer is the first thing I did after I got my truck years ago. I looked online for two-prong 12v warning buzzers and didn’t find much. Even tried the P/N printed on my buzzer and got no matches. I suspect any two-prong buzzer will work, but will it sound any better? As a head light warning, I don’t mind it’s obnoxiouness much because the need to have the door open and lights on is rare.

[MrPaco]

LOL. I agree. Disconnecting the buzzer is the first thing I did after I got my truck years ago. I looked online for two-prong 12v warning buzzers and didn’t find much. Even tried the P/N printed on my buzzer and got no matches. I suspect any two-prong buzzer will work, but will it sound any better? As a head light warning, I don’t mind it’s obnoxiouness much because the need to have the door open and lights on is rare.

Agreed, It's doing what is designed to do. It's actually working fine now, just the sound is dumb, but I guess that's the point.

I was looking under there and noticed two things:
My truck does not have that black box that is in your photo, right above the buzzer, what is that? Here's what mine looks like:
IMG_7918.jpg

And also, I found this black wire that seems to have been cut. It's coming out of that little blue plastic plug or connector or whatever that is, right behind the fuse box. You can see the cut tip of the black wire in the front of the picture, and the little blue plug where it comes out of, in the back.
As far as I an tell all electrical things are working, so not sure what this might be. Any ideas?
IMG_7917.jpg

[FMS88]

I was looking under there and noticed two things:
My truck does not have that black box that is in your photo, right above the buzzer, what is that? And also, I found this black wire that seems to have been cut. It's coming out of that little blue plastic plug or connector or whatever that is, right behind the fuse box. You can see the cut tip of the black wire in the front of the picture, and the little blue plug where it comes out of, in the back.
As far as I an tell all electrical things are working, so not sure what this might be. Any ideas?

Ignore the black box. It's an aftermarket relay I added for driving lights. I'd be very surprise if you had one in that location.

The blue plastic thing is a splicing connector, the type to use to connect the green/white wire to the wire to the buzzer. Looks like a PO started and gave up or removed a modification they made by splicing into a wire from the fuse box. What color is the wire that passes through the splice connector? If it's black with a white stripe, that's hot with the key in the ON position. Tape the end of the black wire and secure it so it doesn't inadvertently ground out.

[MrPaco]

MrPaco,
On my ’88 the buzzer is located just above the hood release handle.
PICT0021.jpg Two wires, a yellow w/white stripe which is from the door switches, and a green w/orange stripe from the ignition switch, connect to the buzzer. Hopefully your buzzer is there and only disconnected. If there and connected, check fuses #1 and #7 and the buzzer itself. The buzzer serves as both a key and fasten seat belt reminder.

To wire the buzzer as a headlight reminder, you’ll need female blade connectors, some 14 gauge wire, a quick splice connector and a crimping tool. A volt meter or voltage tester is recommended. Disconnect the green/orange wire and prevent it from grounding. Attach only the yellow w/white stripe wire to its original buzzer terminal. Use the original connector or crimp on a new female blade connector. Attach an 8-12” length of new wire to the other buzzer terminal.

Find the harness connector with a green w/white strip wire that powers the dash lights. On my truck which has four stock speakers, this connector is white with yellow side rails and 10 wires in two rows of five.
PICT0026.jpg On trucks with two speakers, this connector has six wires, one row of four and the other with two at opposite ends of the row. I don’t know its color. Hopefully it’s white and yellow, too.

On either connector the green/white wire is in a corner location. Confirm it’s the dash light’s wire by back probing the connector using the volt meter or volt tester and with the headlight switch in the on and off positions. If correct, touch the end of the wire you connected to the buzzer to the volt meter/tester lead with the lights on and off. If it buzzes when on, splice the new wire to the green/white wire to make the change permanent.
PICT0023.jpg
The pics show my test-of-concept using a wire with alligator clip ends and a male pin connector to back probe and connect the 10-wire connector’s green/white wire. I just never got around to making it more permanent. You can also connect the new wire to the load side of fuses #1 or #12, but the connector I used is more accessible.

Hopefully the above matches your ’87. Also, with this change the buzzer will no longer sound as an unbuckled seat belt warning. However, the fasten seat belt indicator light in the dash cluster will illuminate for 5-10 second like before.

I hope this is clear.

Finally got around to doing this very easy mod. FMS88 instructions are very clear and accurate, the hardest part was the contorsioning needed to get into position under the dash to do this work.
Highly recommend to anyone who routinely forgets to turn off the lights...

[StarquestMan]

I have been thinking of doing something similar myself since i always forget my lights are on all the time. me being OCD about my truck has me thinking i will cut the connector off a broken headlight switch i have and the truck connector from my new parts truck so i don't have to splice the trucks wiring harness. i may even add some relays into the mix for my headlights so the current doesn't go through the switch.

[geezer101]

OK, so this isn't 'exactly' about my truck but as I was planning on using H4 LED inserts in my Gen 1 I road tested Isincer H4 LED lights in my 2000 Lantra wagon. Low beam slayed - good penetrating white light that made the original H4 halogens feel like driving with Dolphin torches. Road signs and reflective white lines leapt out from a long distance. The high beam wasn't great though but with the lows as good as they were, they are acceptable as a trade off and they're relatively cheap. Been driving with them for about a year and had one fail. It looks like the body of the light got really hot and the SMD type LED's delaminated from the board. The LED inserts go into a spacer disc that fits like the mount for a standard H4 halogen. It probably isn't ideal but I am going to drill some holes into the spacer/mount to allow some air to flow around the body of the LED insert and hopefully reduce the heat being retained by the body of the thing (they do have a heat sink on the back of them with a small cooling fan but for obvious reasons they aren't very big or efficient)

[claych]

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