im trying to supply power to my air ride switches through a fuse block. but am not sure how to bring one hot wire directly in from the batt and supply the four teminals of this block. i am using 20 amp fuses and three 20 amp switches to supply power to my valves. any helps is much appreciated. thanks i was thinking of putting an eye on the end of the hot batt line and eyes at the end of the "inlet" lines to the fuse block and connect all these wire with a screw or somthing. then quick connect them to the fuse block and have at it from there. im sure this sint the proper way. ANY TIP???!! ray:
Bring a thick wire into the car through the firewall and connect it to a heavy duty jumper strip. Fuse that wire within 8 inches of the battery. Solder the wire to the jumper strip and find a way to screw the jumper into the block. I don't have a direct answer, but I would do something similar to that. Ideally it would be nice to find something that has one heavy duty "input" and four 20amp outputs. You might ask around and see if you can find a relay for that. Jumpers and can be purchased at Radio Shack. What is the total power draw on the solenoids, (the valves use solenoids don't they?) If you are going to be raising and lowering all four corners of your car at the same time you will use much more power, and a light duty jumper and barrier will get very hot. Just make sure you use heavy duty equipment, since potentially, you will be activating four 20amp switches at once...
your using 20A fuses for solenoid switches? or 4 pumps? 20A seems really high for a solenoid switch. if it's for solenoids you wouldn't need to use 4 separate fuses. I'd fuse the whole mess with one fuse. what brand of air ride control are you using? also are you running an air tank or does the pump need to go on every time?
Hi TH; This is what I did with my car. I ran a heavy wire from the ignition to a fuse, then stripped off a lot of insulation and wired it to the top screws and had a hot at the top. If I wanted something to run with the ignition on, I just used a connector to the bottom screw, ran it to whatever, then to the ground. Works pretty good. I just attached it to my defrost duct under the dash. PONCH
Listen to this guy- You'll need one 5 A fuse (at most) for all of your solenoids. There is a hot 12v extra spade connection or 2 under your dash at the fuseblock. Wire your pumps or compressors directly off the battery. Keep the power fused within 18" of your battery, and then use a distribution block (car stereo stuff) at the pumps. I also recommend running a ground back to the battery in the same manner. If you are using airride- then your low pressure switch needs to get power when your key is on, only. Otherwise, your pumps will run with the car off. If you have any leaks, this will drain you battery overnight
If you value your car please when you go through the fire wall USE A GROMMET!!!!!! AND an inline fuse near the Batt. or not if you like fir espewing from your car. I had a friend who stated "how could it rub away? It's 8ga." ou: Guess what? 2 weeks later we had a nice lil fire at the lakefront. And guess who took out the fire extinguisher as wel......:spank: Air -ride is cool w/ me. I just don't see a reason to place a perfectly nice car 4 feet in the air....Have you seen the $ of quality balljoints lately:laugh: Good luck...:TU:
ponch65 has a picture of the barrier strip. Although if you want to save some time you could use a jumper strip instead of wiring each of the terminals individually. If you only need 5 amps, then the basic Radio Shack gear will be fine.
thanks for all the info guys. today i bought a fuse block from an audio place, brings in one hot and outputs four. so what would be the proper way of wiring this, im hearing a few things. there are for spots for fuses, i need power to three switches. one switch for one bag/valve setup, the second for another bag/valve setup and one for a belt driven compressor that would activate the clutch when i want it to. i am only bagging the rear right now so im operating each side independandtly. im using 20 amp fuses cause thats the amperage the switches are rated at. so where would be the ideal place to put the fuse box near the switches or in the trunk? also what gauge should i be using from batt to block, block to switch and switch to valve? thanks. should i be using another inline fuse from batt to block???? alot of questions. any help is really appreciated. thanks :grin:
by using 20amp fuses for solenoid valves, could that potentially fry the noids'?? o No: i dont need that happening. im using asco valves for any of you that wanted to know. o No:
You want to fuse your circuit as a 1:1 ratio fuse:load. Meaning, you want your fuse to be as close to your load as possible. If you need 20amps, then use a 20amp fuse. If you only need 5 amps, use a 5 amp fuse. If you are using a 20amp fuse, and your load only uses 5amps, a voltage spike could potentially destroy your solenoid and switches without even tripping the fuse, that is why you do a 1:1 ratio when picking a fuse. Match the load to the fuse or as close as possible, otherwise you defeat the purpose of protecting the circuit. You will need to post the current specs on your air ride system to get accurate answers. You don't want to do this incorrectly. You said you were using 20amp fuses, but some of the other people seem to think that those are too big, which would make sense. Did the air ride instructions call for 20 amp fuses? That will determine what you need to do with wire gauges and such. Using a 20amp fuse on a 5amp circuit is not a problem, since the switch doesn't act as the safety device in this situation. I assume you are using center off, momentary switches for the dump valves and a simple SPST switch for the compressor clutch? If each solenoid needs a 20amp fuse, then you will want to use a 10 gauge wire or so from the block to the switches and from the switches to the solenoid. Use a thick ground wire as well and find a bare spot on the chassis to complete the circuit. It doesn't matter where the fuses are located, as you will either have to A. run long wires for each switch from the trunk, or B. run long wires for each solenoid if you mount up near the switches. I would mount near the switches. Run the electrical wires away from any stereo wires as they can cause noise/static through the speakers. If each solenoid needs a 20amp fuse, you will want an even thicker gauge wire running from your battery to the block, since at some point you might be running boht devices. It sounds as if you have a few different components in your system. How much current does the compressor draw when it is not filling the airbags? You should post the electrical specs on these things so you can make sure it is safe. Most importantly, if you aren't really comfortable with electrical stuff, you might want to find a friend who is to help you. -Mike
that is some great advice. i will be back today with some more specs. thanks again mike and everyone else for you advice. :bglasses:
my valve units are 12dc and have a 6 watt rating. no notes on the amperage. on another forum however, some one said the valves are less than an amp each. so now what? what kind of gauge wire from the battery to the fuses, from fuses to switch and from switch to valve noids? thanks. also my compressor is belt driven, can i just use the same gauge wire that is coming from the unit and take it down to the switch. im not sure the current draw on it. any advice please!!
I'll make you a wiring diagram if you want but I'll need to learn some more details of what your trying to do and with what materials you have. how many switches, how many solenoids, do you want independent control of each wheel or front and rear control only while the front or rear airbags use a common point with a "T" in the air line to each wheel? what kind of switches do you have. hopefully momentary. if they are single pole or double pole, and double throw with middle momentary. are you airbaging all 4 wheels? are you independently controlling each wheel or by front and rear? let me know what your trying to do and I'll see if I can help.
If you have the power and voltage you can solve to find the amperage. I think the formula is I = P/V amperage = watts divided by voltage ...I seem to remember needing the resistance as well... Hold off on that until I can look it up. Just as tlivingd said, you don't need anywhere near 20amps. The center off, momentary switches that are SPDT will be fine, as long as you want an up and a down on each switch, and there is one wire for each. If there are two wires for each up and down, then you need DPDT switches, which are just two SPST switches in tandem. So the compressor is mounted on the engine and driven by a belt? You will have to find the electrical specs on it. You should be able to find the resistance of the compressor with a multimeter, since we already assume it runs on 12 volts. Or just go heavy duty all the way from the compressor to the switch if you absolutely cannot find specs. More later.
I'm asuming the clutch is very simmilar to an AC magnetic clutch. would draw no more than 10 amps. You could put an OHM meter across the coil of the clutch and know that it runs between 11 and 14 volts you could come up with an amerage. hey just found this via google. Amps = Watts/Volts
thanks alot, the diagram will def. help. here are the specs. *3 switches, two momentary with three terminals in the back. and one on/off switch for the compressor clutch. all are rated 20amp. cant remember which type they are stdp or whatnot. *i am using four valves, each with its own solenoid with three terminals. if looking at the noid, there are two next to eachother and just below that there is another, but is not used. i heard that you can ground these noids to themselves using the third terminal. *i will be operating each bag independantly, at the moment im only doing the rear so there are only two bags with thier own set of switches and valves. could you possible show me how to wire another momentary switch to power both noids at the same time. so i would have 2 switches for independant motion and another one for both bags at once. thanks alot again!!
unfortunately i cant find the specs on this specific compressor, i even checked the sanden ac website and couldnt seem to find anything. so worst case scenario, what gauge wire, fuse and switch amp should i use? thanks again.
okay found this for the 7series compressors, i have a 5series. 11.5 VDC. so im assuming mine will be a little less, maybe.
you should be ok with the 11.7 vdc if it is infact rated for that your vehicles voltage is around 13.8 when charging but since it's intermittent duty you should be ok. any chance you can give me the brand and model # of the solenoids before I draw up something so i can verify their operation? with only 3 switches it maybe difficult to make all 4 independent. imagine it this way. your 1st switch is on/off of compressor. your 2nd switch is up/down of the front your 3rd switch is up/down of the rear. your compressor should not need to run when your cruzing or lowering the car. with a 4th switch it maybe possible to to have the compressor automaticly turn on whenever any of the switches call for raising the car and not need the compressor on off but may need a different switch if you were to get double pole double throw it would make things a lot easier (6 terminals on the back of the switch instead of 3) I've seen them at ACE hardware but not sure what style your trying to use for this. from the sounds of it just to make sure you want to be able to rase every corner independently and rase and lower the front and rear as a set. -nate
the valves are asco with the solenoids already connected to them. you can see them on thier site ascovalves.com or something to that affect. about the switches, i am ONLY doing the back, no front action at this time. so each switch is going to operate one bag at a time, the left rear corner and right. i was thinkg to maybe have another switch to operate both at the same time, how would that work. what size guage wire should i use to go from switch to the valve set up? i was thinking 16gauge. thanks
