bajabronco

I bought a 100W HID kit awhile back with plans of swapping them into some existing off road lights on my Early Bronco, but never got around to it. I finally decided that the Cherokee needed some off road lights so I moved forward with a install. I first had to find some housings, I had read online about the Hella 500 or 600 swap, so I looked for some of those. I ended up finding some Hella knock offs on Ebay, and decided to give them a try.

bajabronco

I found out that the knock off lights are not exactly like the Hella's - the metal insert that holds the light bulb is too far forward for the HID bulb to fit in, it hit the glass, - so I ended up un-prying the bulb holder and flattening it down with a hammer so it was shorter, and the bulb would fit. There are threads on how people drill big holes in the back of the housing so the wiring and gasket will fit through, I simply wallowed out where the original wires came through and then cut down the hid gasket to fit and then used a little RTV to seal it up

bajabronco

I originally tried to use HID bulb extenders, so I had some choice in how far I could place the ballasts from the actual lights. - What I found out quickly is that HID BULB EXTENDERS DO NOT WORK! Don't waste your money on them, you're bulbs will only come on intermittently or not at all. So I had to find a close place to the front bumper where I could mount them. I ended up mounting them on the front cross member behind the bumper. All the wiring uses weatherpack connectors, but I used dielectric grease and silicone to make sure everything was well sealed from the elements.

bajabronco

I ended up using a stock fog light switch, and simply cutting out the blank slot on my switch bezel, and used some double sided tape and a zip tie to make the switch stay in. I know I could have easily purchased a new bezel that had the slot already cut out and the clip for the switch, but I decided to make work what I had. I wired the switch so when it is on, it lights up, and off, no light at all. - I decided not to tap into my stock harness for simplicity's sake and just to keep things clean.

bajabronco

The 100W HID's are crazy bright! I am happy with my cheap light housings ($25.00) - but if I was going to do it over again I probably would have sprung for the real Hella 500 lights. One other thing, the HID kit came with a complete crap relay, after turning on and off the lights a couple of times, it stopped working and the lights just stayed on, I ended up swapping it out for a good Hella relay I had laying around. Now I'll just have to see how everything holds up over time! - I'll try to get some night pics and post them as well - but to compare, I have 150W halogen off road lights on my Early Bronco and these ones are substantially brighter! I would say by a factor of 3. another note, I went with the 4300K bulbs, for maximum light output.

bajabronco

Just took some quick pics -1st is regular street with street lights, second is 80w/100W H4 headlights, third is just 100W off road lights - haven't aimed them yet.

woodtket

Where'd you get the HID kit? How much did it run you?

bajabronco

I got the 100W kit off of Ebay over a year ago from the vendor hidsupplier,it cost me $98.00