headlight harness upgrade

The horrible condition of my wiring is starting to bother me, so I want to replece my headlight harness with something that works better and I can use with high power h4's when I get the money to upgrade. I am getting 9.4v to my headlights right now. What guage wire and what kind of relays should I use?

Any oppinions on these? They are priced really well and I could do thes right away.
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=GRM-09-122&N=120 308272

I would look more to the cause of your problems!Most likely bad/loose/corroded connections on both the B+(s) and the ground(s)! Even with the use of di-electric grease and water-proofing sprays, corrosion and loose connections due to vibration/movement will cause 90% of the conditions you described!The highest "legal" wattage you could use wont come near to the ampacity rating of the wire itself!

I upgraded with IPF H4 housings, standard watt bulbs, and their relay harness. I was too lazy to put together my own relay harness. It was all straight forward to install. and I thought they were Great, until I upgraded to HID's on our Audi! The IPF's are worlds better than what was on my XJ. And I don't think they make a reasonable kit for a HID conversion for XJ's!
HTH

hey cw slide on over :arrowr: to the jeeps unlimited cherokee forum and do a search there is some really good stuff over there on head light conversions http://www.jeepsunlimited.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=48 :thumbup:

I can't believe I just got refered to JU. :twak:
Ive tried searching there several times today but it never works.

Just a couple of quick possible solutions. First go to a good electronics shop and pickup a small burnishing tool, it's a piece of spring steel that is rough and acts like a file. They make a model that will fit in the headlight plugs, about the thickness and width of a match book striker. With one of these you can clean the grunge out of the sockets and get them nice and shiny/conductive again. Clean the bayonets on the bulbs too with real fine emory or crocus cloth then apply some dielectric grease on the end of the sockets so the pins on the lights push it in when you replug them in.
Second is to check the grounds on the whole jeep, remove them and give them the same treatment to get them all clean and shiny, dielectric and put them back together. You will notice a difference.
As for relays I really like the Hella relays, they have a bayonet fuse built into the case so you don't have those pigtail fuses hanging all over the place. They are the same fused relays that come with their driving and fog lights. Keep in mind that the aux harness is easy to build and you are only using ONE of the old headlight sockets to operate the relays. Fairly easy to make and susquehanna motor sports has a complete diagram of what it needs to look like.

CW said:

I can't believe I just got refered to JU. :twak:
Ive tried searching there several times today but it never works.

Click to expand...

:wstupid: sorry i dont really care for their forum ether but i've found some good stuff on there i'll try to find the direct link to the subject on hand and post it for you it was very helpful in the lighting area.

I've made my own harness before for my MJ and most recently bought the IPF version for my XJ (I like the "plug & play" aspect of the IPF) MJR from So Cal made some harnesses for himself & others... he's more of a craftsman than I am, by a large margin.

IMNSHO Upgraded forward lighting is the best driveability mod one can make if they do a significant bit of night driving. My DDXJ has upgraded cables, 4 top-post Exide Orbital battery, 150w alternator, IPF harness, IPF E-codes, and IPF 170/100 halogen bulbs.

Search for posts by Woody (and MJR) on lighting... both in this forum, on OEM Tech, and Street/Performance... it's been covered many times.

cw sorry couldnt find the link but do a search in the other forums i found the link on :: the first time around . oh, there is a lot of good stuff here to that link that im talking about was a debaight on which brand was the best [ it also included manylinks to spicific manufactures

CW said:

The horrible condition of my wiring is starting to bother me, so I want to replece my headlight harness with something that works better and I can use with high power h4's when I get the money to upgrade. I am getting 9.4v to my headlights right now. What guage wire and what kind of relays should I use?

Click to expand...

Don't bother trouble shooting this low voltage, it is normal, especially on the older XJ's. The low voltage is due to the voltage drop from the resistance in the small wiring and going through the switch and fuse block. The good news is this low voltage will be plenty good enough to turn on a relay, so just upgrade to the wiring harness or build your own.........

james
www.geocities.com/jammerjamesharmon

I'd be interested in upgrading my harness as well but not with those over priced ones on the interweb.

I have read that a few people have made their own harness, anyone out there have a schematic of how it all goes together? I'm not that electrically inclined so I would need a better understanding of how they are put together.

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/Relays.htm
here is some good info.

9.4 volts at the headlight!?! WOW! That's terrible. My 2001 delivers 13.5 volts to the headlight with the stock wiring.

If your Jeep is one of the newer ones, '99 or later, then there is probably something wrong somewhere causing the low voltage, and whatever is wrong needs to be fixed. If your Jeep is older then a wiring harness with relay would be a good investment.