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  • March 29, 2024, 08:11:20 AM

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Author Topic: Headlight upgrade  (Read 9756 times)

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Offline vangremlin

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Headlight upgrade
« on: November 30, 2014, 08:51:22 AM »
I did a headlight upgrade this weekend.  I went with new headlamp bodies that use a replaceable H4 bulb that I bought off eBay.  I also purchased a new wiring harness, complete with relays, from the same seller.   It was very straight forward.  It did take me several hours because I also put in new adjusters and replaced the headlamp buckets at the same time, as the old ones were slightly broken where two of the adjusters went in.

The seller advertises  the harness as "plug and play" but I had to rearrange the wires in the plug that fits into the existing headlight harness.  The ground wires didn't line up, and the high beam wire wasn't in the right place either.  It was pretty easy to pop out the connectors and put them in the proper slots.

Headlights:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230992544051?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Harness:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331214602226?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Low beams:



High beams:

1981 Kammback 258 - "Pepe"
1980 Coupe 258 - "Ginger
1972 Gremlin X 304
1978 Gremlin 4 cyl 121 - sold
1964 TBird 390 - sold

Offline eaglefreek

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2014, 10:11:40 AM »
Good job. I used the same headlights and harness on my dad's Oldsmobile Delta 88 about 3 weeks ago. I had to make some changes. I had a heck of time with the highs and lows working properly. The high beams would sometimes stay on after turning them off. Other times the low beams wouldn't come on. The harness only uses one fuse and the low beam relay gets its power from the 87a pin on the high beam relay. The solution was to supply power to the low beam relay with it's own power wire and fuse to the battery. In doing this it fixed the issue and he will at least have lows or highs if one of the fuses blow.
1986 AMC Eagle Wagon 4.2L/4.0L head, AW4,NP242, Chrysler 8.25" rear.
1981 AMC Eagle Wagon As Seen On TV  Lost In Transmission


 

"I know he'd be a poorer man, if he never saw an eagle fly,
Rocky mountain high"  John Denver
Click for Fayetteville,TN Forecast" border="0" height="100" width="150

Offline vangremlin

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2014, 11:17:12 AM »
The solution was to supply power to the low beam relay with it's own power wire and fuse to the battery. In doing this it fixed the issue and he will at least have lows or highs if one of the fuses blow.

That's a nice mod.  I'll have to add that to my to-do list.  Thanks for the suggestion.  And I think it was you who first provided the link to that seller. 
« Last Edit: November 30, 2014, 11:18:13 AM by vangremlin »
1981 Kammback 258 - "Pepe"
1980 Coupe 258 - "Ginger
1972 Gremlin X 304
1978 Gremlin 4 cyl 121 - sold
1964 TBird 390 - sold

Offline eaglefreek

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2014, 12:04:56 PM »
The solution was to supply power to the low beam relay with it's own power wire and fuse to the battery. In doing this it fixed the issue and he will at least have lows or highs if one of the fuses blow.
And I think it was you who first provided the link to that seller.

Yeah, when I did it on my Eagles, I built them myself, but decided to try the already built harness for my dad's car because of time constraints. Overall it's a good harness except for the one power lead.
1986 AMC Eagle Wagon 4.2L/4.0L head, AW4,NP242, Chrysler 8.25" rear.
1981 AMC Eagle Wagon As Seen On TV  Lost In Transmission


 

"I know he'd be a poorer man, if he never saw an eagle fly,
Rocky mountain high"  John Denver
Click for Fayetteville,TN Forecast" border="0" height="100" width="150

Offline amcfool1

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2014, 03:51:42 AM »
Hi, just got an upgrade harness from danielsternlighting. Not in the car yet, but looks very well built, everything heavy duty, puts the original wiring to shame. not cheap, but mr. stern will work with you. highly recommended. thanks gz

Offline MortenB

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2014, 05:26:46 AM »
I replaced the incandescent bulbs with halogen and added a relay system.  2 filaments come on at low beam, all 6 filaments come on at high beam;  it's awesome!  Never had a car shine so brightly in the dark without having extra lights installed.
1983 Eagle SX/4, 6cyl 5 speed
1970 Camaro (undergoing restoration)
1964 Lincoln Continental Convertible
1992 Chevrolet Blazer EV conversion; 100% ELECTRIC car, daily driver
1996 VW Golf Citistromer; 100% ELECTRIC car, daily driver

Offline rmick

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72 Javelin AMX
72 Javelin SST
72 Gremlin with 4.0
81 SX 4

Offline carnuck

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #7 on: December 24, 2014, 12:09:10 PM »
that's for just 2 lights
AMC/Jeep gauges are for amusement only. Any correlation between them and reality is purely coincidental!

Offline eaglefreek

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #8 on: December 24, 2014, 12:30:51 PM »
that's for just 2 lights
Looks like 4 to me.
1986 AMC Eagle Wagon 4.2L/4.0L head, AW4,NP242, Chrysler 8.25" rear.
1981 AMC Eagle Wagon As Seen On TV  Lost In Transmission


 

"I know he'd be a poorer man, if he never saw an eagle fly,
Rocky mountain high"  John Denver
Click for Fayetteville,TN Forecast" border="0" height="100" width="150

Offline carnuck

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #9 on: December 24, 2014, 12:40:01 PM »


2 of the 4 connectors are like this.

NVM: The other 2 are hiding in the first pic. I was wrong or they used a stock photo. The ad says 4 headlights
« Last Edit: December 24, 2014, 12:41:39 PM by carnuck »
AMC/Jeep gauges are for amusement only. Any correlation between them and reality is purely coincidental!

Offline eaglefreek

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #10 on: December 24, 2014, 02:54:43 PM »
I only see one of those. It plugs into the existing harness to turn on the appropriate  relay when you are using the headlights.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2014, 02:56:54 PM by eaglefreek »
1986 AMC Eagle Wagon 4.2L/4.0L head, AW4,NP242, Chrysler 8.25" rear.
1981 AMC Eagle Wagon As Seen On TV  Lost In Transmission


 

"I know he'd be a poorer man, if he never saw an eagle fly,
Rocky mountain high"  John Denver
Click for Fayetteville,TN Forecast" border="0" height="100" width="150

Offline vangremlin

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #11 on: December 24, 2014, 03:42:49 PM »
This one looks almost identical to the one I purchased. I see that it is delivered directly from  Hong Kong.   I believe Eaglefreek is correct about the connectors.
1981 Kammback 258 - "Pepe"
1980 Coupe 258 - "Ginger
1972 Gremlin X 304
1978 Gremlin 4 cyl 121 - sold
1964 TBird 390 - sold

Offline amcfool1

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #12 on: December 24, 2014, 07:48:13 PM »
Hi. if you want a heavy duty AMERICAN built harness, go with danielsternlighting. again, not cheap, about $160. Each one is custom made, and no, I don't work for him, just top of the line stuff. thanks, gz

Offline Nightpath

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2015, 07:18:58 AM »
I know this thread may be a bit long in the tooth, but if you find a junked Eagle the headlight mod is really easy to make using a few parts and some spare wiring.

On the passenger side fender under the hood near the firewall are 2 relays, unbolt those, cut the wires and BAM, you have your high/low relay holders ready to go. Pick up 2x40 AMP relays.

Remove the stock Eagle headlight harnesses and use the 4 plastic connectors. I used 12 gauge wiring to put it all together.

I used this to build my headlight relay system (as well as for offroad lights). Keep in mind that my headlights are converted from a Jeep so the low beam lines just carry to the low beam bulbs.

Something interesting I found out though, the Jeep lights are just a larger version of the Eagle Hi/Low beams, which means that technically you can get 4 of those and rewire the connectors to have 4 headlights ripping the universe a new :censored: when you do this mod.


Offline vangremlin

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Re: Headlight upgrade
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2015, 08:40:28 AM »
Thanks for posting the schematic Nightpath.  Thumbs up to you.

One thing I discovered with the harness I used is that when I turn my fog lights on, my high beams also come on.  This is the opposite of what should happen, but it does provide a lot of light!  I haven't taken the time to figure out a fix yet.  Very rarely use the fog lights so its not a high priority.
1981 Kammback 258 - "Pepe"
1980 Coupe 258 - "Ginger
1972 Gremlin X 304
1978 Gremlin 4 cyl 121 - sold
1964 TBird 390 - sold

 

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