Hella upgrade w/ wiring harness

Put me down as another happy camper on this upgrade. For those of you who cringe at the idea of any electrical mod beyond battery cables, you should really take a deep breath and reconsider.

1) read the Gojeep tutorial. Print it out and convert everything to inches. Maybe some day metric will make sense to us.
2) reconsider making your own harness. The price of copper, fittings, etc., you have to buy in bulk, makes a finished harness at $75 dirt cheap. Most who offer theirs aren't as quick to jack up prices as the auto parts retailers - and you get it done right - more on that later.
3) it works. Until you see the difference, it's hard to believe, but - it works.

A new harness will put more power direct to the bulb. If you have electric door locks that don't work, your headlights are deteriorating just as badly. And upgrading to a better housing and bulb output (*ahem*) is even better.

I now can see stop signs on Hi from one intersection to another - that's one mile on the country roads I commute. On Low, the extreme cutoff of modern lamps, like the ones marketed for the European market, will not bother oncoming cars as much as regular US lamps, and I can read street signs nearly a block away.

The only little problem I had was being cheap - I used a hi temp H4 bulb connector for 14 ga wire. You can't crimp 10 ga in there, c'mon, it really won't work. I don't like it when the wiring pulls out just installing the harness. Not so good.

Other than that, I recommend using shrink tube on the crimp terminals, and labeling the relays to know which is which. And if you hook things up backwards, by golly, you can swap the female spades around easily until the hi beam indicator matches up, and so do the lights. How's that, a harness you can actually diagnose and fix!

You also will pay attention to how misaligned the lights may be - and can see it easily as the special shape of the low beam cutoff is noticeable. Tweak those beams back on the road where they belong. Oh, want to kill a light while adjusting? - just pull the terminal. No cardboard or tech assistant impatiently tapping their toe waiting for you to take her shopping.

All that, and if some HIDbeamer needs to dim, you can communicate at their level. Nothing like the power of lumens! I used to carry a G3 Surefire, and when my MP LT wanted to know why, I just replied, "It's just another non lethal force option, maam." (I have heard that it's not wise to power up too far if you have a lot of seasonal debris accumulate in roadside ditches. :flame: Just keep it sensible.)

Thanks to Gojeep, 5-90, and you, for just this kind of info on this forum.

cant wait to "see" the difference after I complete my harness....

I'm told you can lose as much as two volts getting to the back of the lights with the stock wimpy harness. It has to run to the headlight switch on the dash on my '90, and my wiring is literally cooked at the plug.

I got started on this when the switch died, again, on the way home from work, at midnite, with my wife who picked me up because her van was in the shop. She doesn't like driving country roads much with no lights.

I got light now, bwahahahaha.

So would you say getting the pre-made harness works out to be cheaper than DIY? Or at least close enough to warrant just buying one? Ive only seen the BigOffroad that goes for about $82 with shipping.

TiRod said:

I'm told you can lose as much as two volts getting to the back of the lights with the stock wimpy harness. It has to run to the headlight switch on the dash on my '90, and my wiring is literally cooked at the plug.

I got started on this when the switch died, again, on the way home from work, at midnite, with my wife who picked me up because her van was in the shop. She doesn't like driving country roads much with no lights.

I got light now, bwahahahaha.

Click to expand...

It's not so much the OEM harness itself - but the conductor length (battery-switch-bulbs) and the switch itself is the major choke point.

By doing the harness upgrade, you shorten the power patch (battery-relay-bulb) and you effectively take the switch out of the high power circuit - and you take the load off of the switch, so it will last longer. Win freakin' win, baby!

It's just a pity they don't do this much from the factory. And, it's a pity that E-codes don't carry DoT approval - they really are better, and the cutoff makes extra-power bulbs less irritating than DoT-approved bowls and standard bulbs...

I was looking at drop-in harnesses and the two obvious choices seem to be the Painless and ARB/IPF. The Painless harness looks a little better, but is also about $20 more expensive ($120 versus $100) but I don't know if there's any significance difference. Both of them seem to tap into the existing headlights for relay signal, and then draw straight from the battery for headlight power.

I'd rather buy than spend a day making one. Any preference?

Don't forget BIG Offroad. JohnJohn is a sponsor too.

www.bigoffroad.com

Hale

Anyone have any experience with this one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-9...016QQitemZ260205737008QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

it says fits any vehicle with H4 lights.....
Whats so freaking special about the other harnesses that justify their $100 plus price tag???I'm betting that a DIY harness can be done for half that.....

That looks pretty straight. I would definitely ditch the relays and throw in some OEM Bosch ones. I've used a few chinese-crap relays before and one almost burned my car to the ground...

Wire length is pretty much the only difference, you can always add length if its too short

I thought I could do it cheaper - and totalled up all the tickets from O'Reilly, 8 foot sections of 10 ga in colors, H4 bulb connectors, wire loom in soon-to-be-grimey yellow, the extra crimp terminals I ran out of, etc. Didn't include the shrink wrap I used on every connection (Harbor Frt,) fusible tape on some joints, crimping pliers I already had, etc. My costs ran over $50, and would go higher for someone buying into tools, etc.

For those who can trade money for somebody else's time, it won't be a bad deal. I had about an actual hour of labor in it, so $50 for materials, $25 for labor, and $25 for profit is almost unAmerican. The savings is in aggravation not having to solve your own cheap miswiring. The harness will pay for itself in not replacing the headlight switch again (including your dealer shop rate labor,) because it removes the headlight load from that loong circuit 5-90 describes.

It's all about being able to see on a dark country road without needing taillights in front of you.

5-90 I thought you were working on a harness?

mjdriver said:

5-90 I thought you were working on a harness?

Click to expand...

I were and I are - I have just been getting socked with incidentals of late, and I've not got enough going to close prototype and get into production (travails of being a small outfit, and everydamnthing else that's going on around me...)

I've been gathering materials for production versions gradually, and I'll need to get enough together to replace the prototypes and recall them - then ship out the new versions. Once I get that done and can get reports from the field on installing the final version, I'll be able to get things moving along.

If I get more cable orders coming in, I'll be able to get farther ahead and close the cycle here - and that will get me going. I'll probably build the harnesses to order at first, until I can get enough ahead to have a couple on the shelf, but I'm working on it!

The good thing about working from home is that you're home. The bad thing is that you're home. It's a double-edged sword...