# Western Plow Lights (Relay) Problems



## PasionitGrandpa

Hi I am a newbie to this site and what a site, vast amount of knowledge here and I am glad I found this site.

I have a 99 Dodge 2500 4x4 that I just bought 2 weeks ago, in my 40 plus years this is my first Dodge but anyway, I have been pulling my hair out what little is left the past 2 weeks trying to figure out this wiring problem.

I have downloaded every manual off the western site and still cannot figure this out. I have the 9 pin 5 relay setup and have checked the schematic time after time and looked at the wiring and everything is wired correctly to western's wiring schematic, I have double and tripled checked it each day and cannot figure where the problem is.

With the truck shut off and the lights off, my plow lights are on constantly, when I turn the lights to parking lights everything is fine, when I turn my headlights on my plow lights come on and my headlights stay on, it seems to me I have a constant power source to a relay when all my lights are off and the plow lights stay on but what could it be??

Also I thought with this relay system when you turn on the plow lights your headlights are suppose to go out and vise versa right? Any help would be much appreciated..

I am going bald....LOL

Early Happy New Year!
Regards,
Kev


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## ProSeasons

When you bought the Dodge, did it come with the Western Plow?


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## PasionitGrandpa

Thanks for getting back to me! Yes it did, it was bought like that with the unimount already on the truck. I went to Advance and bought 5 5 prong relays and put them in and nothing works, so I cleaned up the old western relays and installed 3 and now the plow lights don't stay on all the time now, and when I put on the parking lights everything is good there and when I turn on the headlights the plow lights and the headlights are still on together but when I put the brights on my headlights go out and the plow lights go to high beams. Do I need western relays? I am into this project almost 3 weeks now and still I am clueless.

Kev


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## b&b landscapes

i just bought my 99 2500 and installed a meyer plow and had the same problem.

The lighting system on these trucks are constant power and lights are activated by ground, unlike the plow lights and whoever had the truck didnt want to mess with it.

I had to buy a three way toggle switch and wire the plow lights seperate from the headlights, note this is only the headlights, you can wire the parking and turn signals to work with the western harness.

The plow prob didnt come on the truck and they never bought the proper harness, as thats what i did, i took the plow i have off a 94 chevy, bought the right truck side mount and never gave the wiring harness a thought until i tries wirirng it up. had same prob.

WARNING - this will or may melt some wires so disconnect the headlight wiring of the plow immediately and buy a 3 way toggle and wire it up seperately.

Very easy to do, three way toggle is for high - off - low


Iff you need more help you can feel free to call me 513-418-8381 name is Derrick and i can walk you thru wiring it up


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## DAFFMOBILEWASH

The lighting systems from the plow manufactures are way too complicated with needless relays junctions and junk. They made them look great for the day of delivery but in time watch out. 

I am with B&B on this one ... Pull the Western stuff and install your own. Make sure you use high quality switches and resetable fuse. (the ones the power window motors use)


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## PasionitGrandpa

Thanks for the reply's guys. Quick update: I cleaned the 3 western plow relays with baking soda and water and was able to finally see the numbers on the relay. What I did was change out the vehicle low beam relay and the plow low beam relay and got rid of those cheapies I bought and now when you put the headlights on (low beams) the plow lights come on and the headlights are off.

I guess I need to buy 2 more relays for the high beams. Or I can do what b&b suggested and I think I will, I already bought a on-off-on 40 amp toggle switch, can you give me a hint on how to wire this up b&b?










If you would be so kind to tell me how to ground it and what to do with those wires.

Happy New Year!!
Kev


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## shep28

Did you ever figure out your lighting issue. I have the same problem.
With the truck shut off and the lights off, my plow lights are on constantly, when I turn the lights to parking lights everything is fine, when I turn my headlights on my plow lights come on and my headlights stay on


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## Philbilly2

b&b landscapes;1176826 said:


> i just bought my 99 2500 and installed a meyer plow and had the same problem.
> 
> The lighting system on these trucks are constant power and lights are activated by ground, unlike the plow lights and whoever had the truck didnt want to mess with it.
> 
> I had to buy a three way toggle switch and wire the plow lights seperate from the headlights, note this is only the headlights, you can wire the parking and turn signals to work with the western harness.
> 
> The plow prob didnt come on the truck and they never bought the proper harness, as thats what i did, i took the plow i have off a 94 chevy, bought the right truck side mount and never gave the wiring harness a thought until i tries wirirng it up. had same prob.
> 
> WARNING - this will or may melt some wires so disconnect the headlight wiring of the plow immediately and buy a 3 way toggle and wire it up seperately.
> 
> Very easy to do, three way toggle is for high - off - low
> 
> Iff you need more help you can feel free to call me 513-418-8381 name is Derrick and i can walk you thru wiring it up


Seriously????? The guy has the correct harness and you tell him to cut it apart and hillbilly in a switch? 

It is possible to change western harnesses from Positive Common to Negitive Common depeneding on the year and make of the truck.

shep28. You most likley have a relay that is seeing 12v when it should not be. Is this a problem that you have always had, or is this a new problem?


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## shep28

Philbilly2;1376805 said:


> Seriously????? The guy has the correct harness and you tell him to cut it apart and hillbilly in a switch?
> 
> It is possible to change western harnesses from Positive Common to Negitive Common depeneding on the year and make of the truck.
> 
> shep28. You most likley have a relay that is seeing 12v when it should not be. Is this a problem that you have always had, or is this a new problem?


Truck sat for the entire summer. When I started it up I noticed the plow low beams stayed on when the truck was off, but not the plow parking lights. I also heard a buzzing sound coming from a relay. I replaced the relays and there is now no buzzing, but the lights still stay on and the truck lights do not switch off when the plow harness is connected.


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## kenny96dodge

i have a 96 dodge 1500, it has a uni mount western plow on it. when i got the truck w/plow on it a few months ago my truck lights and plow lights worked, except i only had high beams on the plow, i had low beam on both plow and truck, i went threw and figured out what wiring type my set up was and printed off the schematic and rewired the whole system replacing most of the wiring and all 4 relays and connectors. now that i have done that i have high beam and low beam on the truck and nothing for lights on the plow but turn signals. i checked all my lights and they work on the plow but its not gettting power trnsfered from the 2 truck relays to the 2 plow relays, what should i do, im lost for the most part when it comes to trying to figure out why the power isnt being relays to the relays and turning the plow lights on, does any one have some stuff i could check or do to fix this problem?


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## snowpro44

sounds like you have a wire crossed somewhere..when plow is hooked up..the plow lights r on..disconected truck light on..problems is in one of the relays..you are back feeding through one of the four relays..not in the 9 pincheck.. all relays one or both is stuck on..


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## basher

b&b landscapes;1176826 said:


> i just bought my 99 2500 and installed a meyer plow and had the same problem.
> 
> The lighting system on these trucks are constant power and lights are activated by ground, unlike the plow lights and whoever had the truck didnt want to mess with it.
> 
> I had to buy a three way toggle switch and wire the plow lights seperate from the headlights, note this is only the headlights, you can wire the parking and turn signals to work with the western harness.
> 
> The plow prob didnt come on the truck and they never bought the proper harness, as thats what i did, i took the plow i have off a 94 chevy, bought the right truck side mount and never gave the wiring harness a thought until i tries wirirng it up. had same prob.
> 
> WARNING - this will or may melt some wires so disconnect the headlight wiring of the plow immediately and buy a 3 way toggle and wire it up seperately.
> 
> Very easy to do, three way toggle is for high - off - low


No the easy way to do it would have been flip the plug configuration.


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## basher

kenny96dodge;1665818 said:


> i have a 96 dodge 1500, it has a uni mount western plow on it. when i got the truck w/plow on it a few months ago my truck lights and plow lights worked, except i only had high beams on the plow, i had low beam on both plow and truck, i went threw and figured out what wiring type my set up was and printed off the schematic and rewired the whole system replacing most of the wiring and all 4 relays and connectors. now that i have done that i have high beam and low beam on the truck and nothing for lights on the plow but turn signals. i checked all my lights and they work on the plow but its not gettting power trnsfered from the 2 truck relays to the 2 plow relays, what should i do, im lost for the most part when it comes to trying to figure out why the power isnt being relays to the relays and turning the plow lights on, does any one have some stuff i could check or do to fix this problem?


Have you checked the grill plugs? They are infamous for rotting internally.


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## snowpro44

could be in the headlight switch in the truck..


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## kenny96dodge

basher;1665970 said:


> Have you checked the grill plugs? They are infamous for rotting internally.


Yes I checked them and cleaned them, I messed around with it some more last and If I take the red power wire and touch It to the connection on the relay that goes to the high or low beams on the plow side it lights the lights up but it seems like relays are not activating to transfer power threw them to turn the plow lights on, I was looking at the diagram on a posting above and it shows the tan wires hooked to 85 on the relay and on the schematic I have from western says they go on 86 so I don't know if I should switch the wires around to the diagram above or not


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## kenny96dodge

snowpro44;1665979 said:


> could be in the headlight switch in the
> I just replaced my headlight switch in my truck, the old one got a little warm and melted so I put in a new wiring plug and switch


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## snowpro44

ok..that explain alot!!you may have melted wires somewhere else??..check harness threw the firewall...make sure all your grounds r clean!!...


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## kenny96dodge

Ok I will check the wiring but I'm thinking it's a problem with how the relay are wired up, like India I'm not much in wiring in a vehicle so I'm gonna exhaust every possibility on fixing this before I have to take I and have it looks at by a vehicle electrical guy here where I live


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## snowpro44

good luck!!wiring sucks


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## kenny96dodge

Yea I know I hate wiring on a vehicle but I need tho figured out so I can he the plow back on my truck


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## kenny96dodge

i went threw my wiring for the truck headlights and couldnt find any problems, so i changed last relay that my plow is grounded to and has the positive from the battery on it. went threw and cleaned the harness connection from the truck to the plow up real good and still no head lights on the plow, i chaned the wiring from the schematic i got from western to the one posted above and still nothing. i dont know if maybe its the harness plug on the truck side that might be back, i have turn signals on the plow which still flash fast unless you wiggle the bulbs ad then they will flash normal, i bought 4 replacement sockets for the turn/marker bulbs to replace them because the ones in there are rusted and have corrosion on them. i bypassed the harness and ran a wire from the plow low beam relay to a direct connection to the low beam wire in the headlight housing and i still have no lights on the plow, what am i missing here, im even more lost as to what could be the problem now? any one that could give me a good direction to figuring this out would be super appreciated


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## dieselss

do you have gnd at the bk/og wires when you plug in the plow, both connectors?
per the diag, that's the tk side relays


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## kenny96dodge

yes, the blk/org is the ground on the truck and plow sides, i cleaned all the grounds where they connect inside the light housing, on the plow motor, on the truck in 2 diff locations, also replaced all ground eye holes so the connectors were all new


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## dieselss

ok,,,,so if the gnds are new and clean what happens when you "hotwire" the low beam relay. do the plow lights come on?


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## dieselss

how many relays do you have? lets kinda start there


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## kenny96dodge

dont know how to "hotwire" the low beam relay and i have 4 relays total. 2 go to the truck for high/low beam and the other 2 for plow high/low beams


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## kenny96dodge

i have a 2 fused wires that come from the battery to the plow relays and i can touch that to the wire that goes to the lights and they come on but its bypassing the relay and when i shut the lights off on the truck the plow lights will stay on


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## kenny96dodge

http://www.storksauto.com/docs/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/western-guide.pdf

this is where i found the schematic for my truck, its a pdf document and it you go to page 63 of 90 you will see how its wired up if that will help you


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## dieselss

ok,,,the hotwiring was to make sure your plow lights and connector actually work 
if you have a test light, your gunna have to do some tests
turn on lights, yel should be suppling pwr to the low beam relay pin 30. out to tk headlights
then you should have pwr at pin 87 at the plow low relay which is blk going out to the plow


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## dieselss

im on the western site


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## kenny96dodge

im not sure if that is the wiring diagram that i should be using but that was the closest to how it was wired up, there are other ones on there that are wired similar should i have maybe used one of them? i have a western 7' 6" pro plow


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## dieselss

I cant answer that, im just going by what you said you had
I don't see why it shouldn't work tho


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## kenny96dodge

i used the harness type F and headlamp HB5 schematic


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## kenny96dodge

i dont see why it wouldnt work either, i have triple checked to make sure i had good connections and that it was wired right and all i get is turn signals to the plow lights, no head lights, i dont know much on vehicle wiring so im reaching out trying to find some one that knows more depths into it


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## dieselss

ok that's fine, do you have a good test light and a few extra feet of wire?
ill try my best but your gunna have to probe for pwr and gnd at certain pins on the relays


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## kenny96dodge

snowpro44;1665967 said:


> sounds like you have a wire crossed somewhere..when plow is hooked up..the plow lights r on..disconected truck light on..problems is in one of the relays..you are back feeding through one of the four relays..not in the 9 pincheck.. all relays one or both is stuck on..


when i hook up the plow light harness i dont have any head lights on the plow at all and the high/low beams on the truck work fine, i should be able to run a wire from the battery and touch it to the connections on the plow side and see what lights up to make sure they are wired the same at both ends?


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## kenny96dodge

i have a good test light and a volt meter, i checked at the truck end of the harness with the headlights on truck tuerned on and didnt get any power to the ports that go to the high/low beam on the truck? does that mean its a relay problem?


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## dieselss

when you turn on your tk headlights, you should have pwr at the yellow wire of the plow harness, that goes to pin 30 of the headlight relay that inturn comes out from pin 87a and is an orange wire


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## kenny96dodge

ok i just went out and did what you said, i dont have any power coming out to the yellow wire to the relay, i unplugged the harness from the head light harness on the truck and theres power there but its not going past the plug for the wiring to the relays, im going to do some re wiring tomorrow on that and see if i can fix that problem, im guessing im going to have to buy a new harness for the truck side


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## kenny96dodge

or could i cut the blue connector plug off and do the same to the black one and wire the wires directly to each other nd just eliminate the plugs?


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## dieselss

kenny96dodge;1669861 said:


> or could i cut the blue connector plug off and do the same to the black one and wire the wires directly to each other nd just eliminate the plugs?


you can,,,,,,,but if you ever want to remove the harness youll have to get a new truckside headlight plug. 
so you don't have pwr coming out of the plug going to the yellow wire?
can you hotwire that yellow wire and see what happens?


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## kenny96dodge

im fine with that, and i have no power to the yellow wire after the plug, but power at the plug on the truck. i stuck the tester in the truck side plug and it has power at the low beam wire, but when i plug the harness connector back into the truck side theres no power to the yellow wire going to the relay


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## kenny96dodge

i will cut the plug off tomorrow after work and extend it 8 inches or so on all 3 wires and will retest it and see if that was the problem as to why i dont have lights on the plow. i still have another thing i have to do which is figure out how to make it so i have only low beams on the truck and high/low beams on the plow side.


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## kenny96dodge

what all do you want me to check, i will run a jumper wire from the truck side wire to the harness side to bypass the plugs and see what happens. will be after work tomorrow that i will get this all done. just tell me a few steps to go threw if it works and if it doesnt work, i appreciate all the time you have given this tonight, it has helped to find one problem which is probaly why my lights dont work on the plow, will have to run one on the high beam one too, i checked that one while i was out there and theres power on the truck side plug but nothing to the wire coming out of the harness plug


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## dieselss

Well I'm thinking that the plug for the plow harness is bad. That's why I asked if you could jump the yellow wire and see what happens. Plow hooked up btw. Cause if u hotwire the yellow wire thats telling the system that the lights are on. So before you cut the harness , try the hotwire trick first


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## kenny96dodge

didnt get to hotwire the harness, but i did go threw and had to rewire part of the harness, after i did that i know have power threw the yellow wire and to the orange wire. but from the black wire from truck relay to plow low beam relay i have no power? any ideas now for how to get the power to transfer or do i have to have it hooked to plow to have the relay work?


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## dieselss

Hook it up to the plow. That would be the only way, that's the easiest


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## kenny96dodge

dieselss;1669908 said:


> Well I'm thinking that the plug for the plow harness is bad. That's why I asked if you could jump the yellow wire and see what happens. Plow hooked up btw. Cause if u hotwire the yellow wire thats telling the system that the lights are on. So before you cut the harness , try the hotwire trick first


Ok I will hook up to the plow tomorrow and give it a go, If it doesn't work then I'm going to lean into the fact that either the truck side plug is bad or plow side plug is bad


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## kenny96dodge

well i got some good news, after i did that rewire on the lights, still no lights on plow hooked up according to the schematic. so i took the orange wire off the relay and hooked the block wire from plow for low beam to the spot the orange wire was hooked to and i got low beams on the plow, so i disconnected the red wire and hooked up white high beam wire to relay and got high beams also. any ideas why im not jumping power to the other relays so it can be wired according to the schematic? next im going to put plugs on truck side wires to the high beam wire so i can unplug my high beams for now on truck side so i dont get in trouble for having high beams on plow and truck


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## dieselss

just sent u a pm kenny


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