Newbie mistake: Posted this originally in General Discussion...no one has replied :(
Reposted here:
I have 2001 XLT with manual door locks, manual windows, 3.0 L, cruise, auto transmission, manual lights, etc. No lighting modifications have been made.

I got the A1Electric package for keyless entry which has an Avital 2101 remote system and MES actuators. A1 Electric included installation sheets to do the wiring for the keyless entry, and that will be sufficient to get that working.

The unit also supports horn/panic and flashing the parking lights (and probably other things I'm not interested in). I don't have good circuit diagrams for my Ranger so I'm unsure where to hook the control wires for the horn and PLights.

The horn honk control is a 200 mA sink (active negative) line, I presume to actuate a relay(?). Where is the best place to connect this?

The PL control is a high current source (+,default) or low(-) line. Where is the best place to connect this?

The unit also provides Dome light supervision and control. Not really important to me, but might be cool if you know where to hook this up.

I'm a physics teacher, and not scared of wiring, but I thought y'all might be able to save me a good deal of time. Thanks.

 

These questions are hard to get answers to simply because not many people have done this. None the less, hopefully members like "Rwenzing" will show up and respond. He's extremely knowledgeable when it comes to Rangers -especially wiring.

 

I have done remote start and regular alarms. They should have vehicle specific wiring diagrams. They are usually good about supplying them. They are infinitely adjustable for different makes and models. Each controllable item like door locks and horn should have hookups for pos or neg inputs which one you need depends on the vehicle wiring so you need a ranger diagram as well as the alarm diagram to match it all up. Its not real easy to answer on here without access to both schematics. I overly prepare for all electrical wiring so i spent about two hors with the diagrams for both installs to make sure everything was matched up perfectly. Its one of those things you kinda just have to sit down and think it all through first.

 

Okay, I found enough info for the 2001 Ranger wiring to get the horn and parking light connections done.

"The horn honk control is a 200 mA sink (active negative) line, I presume to actuate a relay(?). Where is the best place to connect this? " Yes, it does drive a relay. The horn wire is the Yellow/Light green wire in the wiring harness for the steering column. Mine had a yellow sheath around the wire bundle. Slit the sheath to get better access to the wire. Then tape the sheath back in place.

"The PL control is a high current source (+,default) or low(-) line. Where is the best place to connect this?" Positive wire for the parking lights is solid Brown (not tan) wire available at the light switch or the GEM to the left of the radio. I decided to tap in at the light switch. I already had the lower dash panels (plastic cover and metal pan) off for running the power and ground wires. Then I loosened the radio panel, took five 7mm hex screws out of the upper dash panel to get access to the switch connector.

Decided not to do the dome light supervision.

Summary:

Constant power: 30A fuse connected to main power connection at the engine compartment distribution box, wire through fender, into dash at the door rubber boot.

Ground: Behind the driver kick panel.

Switched power: radio harness, Yellow/black wire.

Horn: Yellow/light green wire in steering wheel wiring harness (active -)

Parking light flash: Brown wire at light switch or GEM in radio compartment.

NOTE: Horn does not beep for open/close, but does for Panic. PL flashes for open and close and inside beeper sounds (similar to lights-on warning).

Now to the mechanical mounting of the actuators. That's going to be a real trick...

 

Yeah dont do dome light supervision mine is wired that way and mine has a delay on the dome light which makes the stupid thing think the door is open. As for the open close beep i think that is a different wire at least on mine it was its specific to the multi tone siren the kit comes with. And i also used the brown wire for PL at the headlight switch can't remember if it was pos or neg.

 

So did you use a relay for the horn function or just tap into the yellow wire with green stripe with the avital?

Thanks,
-Nigel

 

No need for another relay. The yellow/green wire drives the horn relay, and the avital connection provides a ground when activated that makes the horn honk. Just make a parallel connection to that wire. I gently slitted the insulation, pulled the wire out, soldered the avital wire and rewrapped the insulation and GOOD quality electrical tape (3M or better stuff). Never go cheap on electrical tape. You're not saving much money, and you will save headaches. The cheap stuff unwraps on its own after time.

 

Great! That's exactly what I did. I thought I did something wrong because with my Avital 2101l, when I lock/unlock it doesn't honk unless I press the aux button first. If I hold the panic button down it goes off as well. But I would have liked that this system had a constant way of hearing the honk when lock unlock happens. My lights do flash everytime so I do get visual affect but oh well... I guess the system wasn't designed like that.

Very good, thanks for the reply!

Everything is all setup and working. I wish I would have installed this years ago. LOVE having power locks/keyless entry.hahah

-Nige;

 

It would be nice to have it honk on unlock. It will honk if you press lock twice (at least that's what mine does). The lights on mine do flash on unlock, but no horn.

 

According to the installation manual for the Avital 2101L the system should sound the horn when arming (one chirp) or disarming (two chirps). If it not, you may have to reprogram the system. You might try switching from passive arming to active arming or vice-versa.

 

Yea I read the manual multiple times and it looks like you have to activate the audible feature by pressing the aux button before lock/unlock. Or according to the one manual (some reason there are two) if you press lock within 5 seconds of the first lock it will honk. I am using progressive locks meaning when I press unlock it will do my drivers side and if I press unlock one more time within 15 seconds it will unlock the passenger side. So pressing unlock twice won't honk for me. Otherwise there is no default honk when you lock and unlock it which kinda sucks but oh well.

Darn! I shouldn't be complaining though. This Avital 2101l was 30 bucks... super cheap. I didn't have to buy the actuators because for some reason I already had two. So this whole thing only cost me $30 to add power locks..lol

-Nigel

 

Wanted to update. Mine is still going strong. I actually just wired in the dome light supervision and wish I had done it sooner.

Super easy to wire. H3 wire on the avital goes to a 12v fused constant source. I used the aux wire since I rewired my aux adaptor to be switched. Then the H4 wire goes to the rear dome light which is the blue/black wire.

I unlock the truck and the dome light stays on 30 seconds before shutting off. Another cool thing is my rear cargo lights up the same amount of time. It wasn't an expected thing but is cool... nice to have some illumination on the rear of the truck. When you open the driver side door it shuts off.

-Nigel