Firehawk068

I finally decided to tackle this today, since I had the day off. (One of the perks of working for the Govt. I got paid for today too!)


This is the harness I purchased.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201205671223?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The one I received is slightly different. (It only has 1 power wire, and 1 40amp fuse) But I couldn't build this for $10 for sure..........
The quality is OK, and it uses heat-resistant Ceramic headlight plugs.











I started by locating the spot near the battery where I wanted to mount the relays.
Then I re-purposed a bracket that I had laying around the garage, and modified it to accept the lock-together relay plugs.





The relay plug simply slides down into the slot.








A quick shot of some etching primer, and a coat of some semi-gloss black.








I used this body ground bolt to mount the relay bracket.





Next, I went ahead and removed the grille, the headlamp bezels, and the headlamps themselves.


I taped up the driver-side headlamp plug and tucked it out of the way behind the headlamp bucket. It no longer is used for anything.





I made sure the contacts were clean on the factory passenger-side headlamp plug, and connected it to the trigger plug for the new harness.





I taped it all up, and tucked it behind the headlamp bucket.
The new driver-side headlamp harness was just long enough to run it behind the grille to the other side. I zip-tied it up out of the way.











I used my dremel to clean the paint off the radiator support for the new headlight ground wires.


Driver side.



Passenger Side.



I ran the power feed wire for the headlights to the Batt post on the PDC.
Along with the feed wire for my Hella fog lights.
It gets covered up by the little black plastic cover.





Relays all mounted. Ready to test out the lights..............







This is where I ran into a problem!


Turned the low beams on = No problem.
Turned the high beams on = No light whatsoever.


I double check the grounds. I double check the connection for the trigger wires...............Still nothing.


Then I double check the relays.


This particular harness uses a 5-pin relay for the low-beam circuit, and a 4-pin relay for the high-beam circuit. When the low-beam relay is not active, it sends power to the high-beam relay. And when you trigger the high-beam relay, that power goes to the headlamps.


Upon closer inspection, they sent me (2) 4-pin relays.


This is clearly marked as a 5-pin relay.



But it is clearly NOT!



Not to worry! I had 5 or 6 other 5-pin relays in one of my electrical wiring supply boxes in the garage.
Swapped in (2) new relays, and everything works as it is supposed to.
(I used two 5-pin relays , even though the low-beams work with either a 4-pin or 5-pin relay)





Here's the before and after pictures.


I parked in the exact same spot, the same distance from the garage door.
(basically I put the back tires on the line where the sidewalk meets my driveway)
I used the same camera, with the same settings, taken from the exact same spot on my roof above the windshield.
I have Autopal housings, and Silverstar-Ultra 55/60watt bulbs.


Low-beam, with factory Jeep headlamp plugs.





Low-beam, with new powered headlamp harness.





Here's the high-beams with the new powered harness.
I don't have a picture of the high-beams with the factory Jeep plugs. (I forgot)





It definitely appears to have made a difference in light output, at least against the garage door.
I'll see if I notice a difference on the road when I drive to work tomorrow morning (it's currently still dark at 5:30am here)
And it wasn't really $10 since I had to supply an additional relay of my own, but still a cheap mod nonetheless!

andrewmp6

Better lights is always worth every penny to me.

XJmike0122

Nice write up and good thing you had to changed out the relays.