Firewall drilling

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2000 Sahara, putting on Hella Blacks.
Is there a desirable (or undesirable) location to drill through the firewall? Planning on putting the switch on the center console near the stick, or on the dash in the vacinity of my fog/rear wiper & defrost switches.
Any other pointers are most welcome.
Thanks in advance Jeepers 8)

JBO

[thejeepingoat]

usually, there is spots in the firewall that have wires through them alreadywith something to seal them around it, there is usually room for more......that way, you wont be putting any more holes in your ride
-goat

[Blupupher]

Look around the firewall above the brake and gas pedals, there should be a few rubber grommets there that you can run a wire through.

[o||||||o]

Sweet, no drilling. Thanks fellas. I'm putting them on this weekend. I'll let you know how it worked out.


JBO

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All in all the install went good. I ran into issues with the limited amount of space to mount the relay and fuse. I ended up mounting it above the A/C plumbing where it penetrates the firewall. With the relay mounted there, the switch wiring (routed through a rubber grommet near the petals) would only reach to about where my stock headlight switch is (could'a done some splice work but wasn't in the mood to go back to the store for some wiring).As well, with the relay mounted there, the wiring to the lights was long enough to get to the lights themselves as a atraight shot around the battery and fender. It was too short to route through the 2 little stock holes in the very bottom of the TJ grill (looks as if they are for auxillary lighting), nor could I attrempt to hide some of it.
Because I wan't in the mood to splice, I ended up mounting the switch directly below my headlight pull-switch. With this lazy decision came the trouble of the the steel plate behind the "steering column opening cover". I wont go into my tool limitations but the switch is ghetto for right now, until I can go to my buddies house and cut out a section of that steel plate.
Also, I mounted the lights between the tow hooks, I had to run around town for 2hrs looking for a T55 torx bit to remove the bumper from the frame cross-member (finally found it at PepBoys). The bolts included in the Hella install kit had with it were just right. Any longer and they wouldn't clear that frame cross-member. `
Oh, and THEY'RE FREAKIN BRIGHT!!!! They're awsome!
This was my first install (besides that stupid header channel for the bikini)to do myself (and my room mate). It went well cept for the ghetto switch, and the wiring lenght. If anyone else is going to do this, my suggestions are to mount the relay closer to the headlights to give yourself something to work with there, but be prepared to splice some wiring onto the switch side of the loom to give yourself the liberty to mount the switch anywhere you'd like, and don't be lazy, do it right and the way you want.
Thanks goat and Blu, y'all were right.

[Blupupher]

My relay is right above the pass side headlight, there is a bolt there already, so no drilling. I didn't need a drill for the whole install.