Neon Installation Problems

[bjensen83]

Hey guys, I'm trying to put some black light neons in my friends car and having a hard time wiring it. it's a Grand Am so it's basically like the Alero. I'm leeching a positive line from one of the red 10 fuses for the interior lights. The problem I'm having is with this switch we bought, it's got 3 connections, 2 for the + and -, and an extra one for a green light built in the switch. Anyway, when i connect the lights to the switch, and power it up, the wire gets orange and melts instantly. Suggestions?

While i'm at it. I'm getting 4 cathodes from Oznium.com today, and I already have 4 neons hooked up, (1) 18", (1) 10", and (2) 6". They're all running off one switch, and there's no fuse hooked up to any of them. Is this safe? and how many neons can i run like that without causing trouble?

[Silentalero]

oh dear gawd


Ok first thing, Tear out all existing wiring and start over before you light your friends car on fire. Ive said it once and Ill say it again, even a 12v power line is enough to light your car on fire.

The line your tapping off, your gonna burn up his interior, if you must tap off something, tap off the lighter plug, this way at least there is still an inline fuse that if it does brun out it wont fry your friends interior lights.

Ok the melting of the light, YES its becasue you hooked the wires up very wrongly

those 3 prongs go as follows.

ACC - Accessory (meaning this wire leads to the + (or colored) wire on your neon.

PWR - This side goes to the + power your tapping off of.

GND - This is your ground, this goes directly TO A GROUND source. The only reason its there is to light up the switch and nothing else.


Now Wire each neon and ground each of them isolated and withing 12" of the neon is preferred. But longer wires wont hurt.



So your wiring will go like this

+ and - from neons

+ goes to ACC on switch (colored wire / red wire)

- goes to metal ground (black or solid wire)

From switch

PWR - goes to the + side of the power source your tapping from

GND - closest ground

Now if your running it straight to the battery without tapping any alternate power then you better get a fuse on there becasue if you dont and those wires cross anywhere for any split second say by by to your car because in about 10 seconds itll start a fire.

[Skiboarder311]

Hey Bill Nye the science guy

thanx for enlightening all of us with that lil lesson is basic wiring :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


LOL j/k



and a word of advice for bjensen

ask questions B4 u start doing something u don't know how to do

U could have had a HUGE disaster

[bjensen83]

lol. wow. good thing i asked. bad thing is that it never caught on fire. never liked his car . lol. Just got my cold cathodes from UPS.... they have computer power connectors.... did that guy from oznium.com ship the wrong product or are they supposed to be like that?

[Vtolds]

Cold Cathodes are not for a car and run off house power they shouldnt work with 12v power.

[Vtolds]

Are you trying to hook the Cold Cathode lights to your friends car? If you are that may cause a big fire.

[Silentalero]

/\ somebody lied to you

Those cathodes he sent you are for a car, but just cut off the computer connections and use the tranformer which turn em into a stable 12v line

there will be 2 cables red and black

[bjensen83]

yellow and black are the wires Phil from oznium.com said to use. I did that last night, also installed a 15a fuse in the line coming into my switch which currently is controlling the other neon lights i have in my car, and after 15 seconds of the cathodes being on, the fuse blew. should i go buy a 20a fuse or am i putting too much lights for one switch? gosh i feel so clueless when i talk about this. lol

[Pimpalero03]

i got cold cathodes. just installed two weeks ago. just cut off the computer part so u have the black and red wire. did u order the switch that owrks with music of just a rocker switch? heres a pic of my cathodes

[Pimpalero03]

and outside car. i even wired my 15 month old undercarriage kit into the music thingy so now those even pulsate and flash. lol

[Pimpalero03]

and i have two music swithes cuz one holds two kits and i have 3 cathode kits and one undercarrage kit. switches are under cd player. they fit perfect.

[Silentalero]

/\ pics??


that fuse is blowing becase your posisitve wire is grounding itself out somewhere....a 15 amp fuse should be fine

[Pimpalero03]

its a real easy install, just time consuming. im doing it in a sebring wensday for a friend. bunch of people want em in their cars so im making some cash off of this. lol red and black wire. what i did was run some red wire from positive on fuse box through fire wall and behind the center councle. i put a fuse on that wire then the two power wires from each switch goes onto that power wire. i grounded my black wires from switches to a bolt inside the driver fuse box. then snipped the red and black wires and extended them with extra wire and mounted two tubs under dash, two under seats, and two under lip of back seats.

[bjensen83]

Grounding itself? ugh. I got the rocker switch. Should i have these running off a different switch than the neons, cuz it's getting a little crowded down there.

Back to the wiring... How does a positive wire ground itself like that? there's a whole mess of leftover wire length where the gear shifter is, but it's never been a problem when i was running just my neons without a fuse.... Where'd you get your power from the fuse box? I can't get the bolts off mine to get it off the positive lead, and i got enough running off the battery.

[AftermathAlero]

grounding itself usually means.. you have something with a postive 12 source touching directly to a ground... I.E... stripped insulation somewhere or a positive and negative wire is touching each other.