My '72 has the key buzzer alarm, which is fine and dandy, but I have a much more pressing tendency - due to light being mandatory day and night here, there's a good chance I'll end up leaving my lights on at some point, which is neither elegant, nor helpful in the long run.

My idea is that I'd draw a wire from the headlight switch to the key buzzer wires coming off the steering column, so that the buzzer'd go off when I have the lights off and the door open, and/or when the key is in the ignition. Thoughts? Ideas?

 

You cannot wire the headlight circuit to the key buzzer switch directly, or you will cause a direct short when the key is inserted and the lights are on. The key switch will smoke first.
You will need to use a small relay instead and devise your own circuit. I did this for my old Pinto using a separate buzzer - I will need to think about how I wired it.

On Lady, I used a chime box from an 80's Cutlass.

 

There is no an easy way to do this. Your going to have to set up some logic on your circuit.

 

Why don't you wire the hot for the headlights to an ign source

 

Yes, this is how I did it in my Pinto...
I took a small SPDT relay, glued a piezo beeper to it, and screwed it under the dash. The relay coil went straight to a switched IGN wire like from off the fusebox. The other end of the coil to ground.
A wire from the running lights went to the + side of the beeper, the - side to the C (common) relay switch terminal. NC (normally closed) side of the relay contacts went to ground. NO (normally nopen) contact was not used.

When key is ON, relay energizes and opens contacts to beeper circuit. When lights are turned on, 12V is placed on the beeper, but ground is interupted by the relay. When key is turned off, contacts are closed, sounding beeper until lights are turned off.

So - two small parts for under 5 bucks, a little wire and 3 electrical connections - not too bad!

 

Hmm, I'll give this some thought for once I'm back home. The real eye-opener is knowing that I miscalculated. :O

Thanks for suggestions, guys.

 

That will work, other than it won't tell him to turn the lights on when he's running.

 

Couple of alternatives. First, you can buy a DRL kit that simply turns on the headlights automatically with the ignition. It's basically a relay wired to switched 12V that powers the light circuit.

If you don't want to do that, try connecting a relay with one side of the coil to the headlight circuit and the other side to the field terminal on the regulator - the same wire that goes to the GEN light on the dash. The field terminal is wired such that it is grounded when the alternator is not charging and is +12V when it's charging. That way if the headlights are on, the relay will not energize with the engine running but will close as soon as the alternator stops charging. Connect the switched terminal of the relay to the key buzzer and +12V and you're good to go.

 

Alright, two years later, I'm revisiting the idea.

I originally installed running lights, wired to the field terminal as described by Joe here and MDChanic in another thread (works flawlessly) - but in the odd case that I've had need for tail lights (heavy rain, fog, etc), I've turned on the parking lights - and summarily forgotten all about them once I've parked.

So, a relay energized by the light switch (brown wire, so it's both parking and proper headlights that trigger it). As I understand it, the key buzzer gets 12V from the junction and thus only needs to be grounded. So, I'll disconnect the black wire from the driver door jamb switch and connect that to the horn relay, though the ON side of the relay. That's to say, when the relay is energized (by the headlights), the connection between the horn relay and the door jamb switch is connected, so when I have the lights on and open the door, the buzzer goes off. If I want to make sure the buzzer only goes off when the engine is off, I'll have to connect another relay between the ground and the field terminal on the alternator, making sure the door jamb switch only connects to the horn relay when the engine's off.

Thoughts?

 

Any reason you can't have the parking and headlights both come on via a suitable relay(s) when you run the engine?.


Roger.

 

I initially didn't wanna fiddle with the rear lights because of the triple function of the rear lights - light, brake light, and turn signal. In reality I just need to feed the brown wire off the same relay as the headlights.

 

You're only getting the rear lights and front marker lights to come on, the brake/turn signal lights aren't (or certainly shouldn't be) part of the equation.


Roger.

 

Good point.

 

They make simple to wire headlight on warning alarm kits. One wire goes to an only ign on source, such as the wipers. The other to to headlight circuit. I believe mine is even an AC-Delco product.