Plug n play headlight harness upgrade

cbarge

World Famous Barge in a Budget
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I figured it's time to do a proper thread after so many people asked about the common lighting issues that our Mopars are known to suffer from.
Headlights dimming or flickering, burned out foot dimmers and or headlight switches, or melted pigtails at the bulbs.
There is a couple reasons why our original headlights suck.
First reason is the lighting technology at the time had a lot of parasitic draw.
By the time juice flows through the car and finally gets to the headlight bulbs, they are not getting 12 full volts of power- especially with all accessories on, in gear at idle at traffic lights they dim. When accelerating, the voltage regulator increases alternator output thus lights brighten up.
Second reason was the lighting regulations imposed on car manufacturers.
The European car makers had far better advanced lighting. They had H4 and H1 bulbs and excellent housings made by Carello, Marchal, and others I cannot remember.
"City" lighting has been going on over there since the late 50/early 60's even the the VW Beetle.
But back in the day if you wanted better lighting you bought what was for "off road use only". The feds apparently considered European lighting too bright??
Cars imported into North America had to meet lighting standards starting in 1968.
E type Jaguars, Beetles or any other cars with headlamp covers had to be removed.
Incandescent headlights replaced the H1 or H4 housings.
Basically dumbing them down.

Back up to 1957/1958 when certain States had laws against 4 headlamp systems. The result is some GM, Chrysler and Ford offerings had cars built with either both 2 and 4 headlamps.

Everybody has their personal preferences for modern day lighting- HID, LED, Halo, and halogen bulbs or sealed beams.
All are an improvement from the factory incandescent headlamps which had no less than 20 watts of blinding light. GE did offer the 25 Plus upgrade in the late 60/ early 70's adding 5 more watts and a few more feet of dark viewing distance.
But I digress...
In order to make modern day lighting work in an old car, you need to do this upgrade to make the lights work properly as long as your wiring is up to snuff.

Why is modern lighting so bright?
Unlike our dim lit dinosaurs, modern cars use relays to power up almost everything.
Modern lighting does draw more juice, requiring more power to work properly.
Installing Halo's,LED,HID or H4 lighting on 50 plus year old wiring is asking for trouble down the road.
So...what to do??
Read on next post..
 
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I had installed dozens of the Putco headlamp harness with relays in older cars.
Putco H4 100W Heavy Duty Harness & Relay 230004HW NO BULBS! | eBay
It is a plug and play harness that has 2 relays.
Thus you get modern day lighting performance without taxing your headlamp wiring system.

Screenshot_2022-07-25-01-43-22.png


Screenshot_2022-07-25-01-44-12.png
 
This harness takes away the load demand from modern lighting away from the headlamp switch and foot switch.
The relays take the brunt of the load.
Your switches basically powers up the relays, and the relays power up your headlamps.
 
Using Frankie ( 69 Fury III) as our guniea pig, I will show pics of the harness in the car.
First remove the headlamp bezels and old headlamps.
This gives you space to work.
 
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On the driver's side, plug the harness male plug into the factory low beam pigtail.
Plug the harness female pigtail into your low beam.

20220621_212340.jpg
 
Thread the two red wires and relays' pigtails through the rad core support.
Red wires go to a live battery feed.
Plug in relays and mount them in an easy to reach location.

20220621_212410.jpg
 
On the passenger side plug the harness into the right low beam.
The factory pigtail will no longer be used, so I just tape it up and tuck it out of the way.
I upgraded my high beams to H1's and note how they plug into the factory high beam pigtail..

20220621_212351.jpg
 
Both sides have a black wire that must be grounded.
Most cars I use either a factory hood support bolt or self tappers in a handy location..very important.

20220621_212401.jpg
 
I upgraded from the factree GE housings to Hella housings.
Plus instead of the included Hella bulbs, I upgraded to the 100 watt equivalent Piaa Extreme White Plus light bulbs.

20200526_210225.jpg
 
And the Hella's with harness.
Kinda hard to make a decent comparison but they are brighter!

20200526_220411.jpg
 
Here is a video of my 68 Newport that has the same headlamp harness and bulbs..
 
Regardless of what "style" of modern bulbs you choose, this harness will help.
The relays are generic and if you need to replace them, you can buy them at any parts jobber. Ditto if you go with the H4 and/or H1 bulbs.

This harness totally gets rid of any headlight dimming when you hit the brake pedal, or when using the turn signal, no more flickering.
The headlights stay bright at idle!
The amperage load is handled by the relays---so no more worries about the headlight switch and foot switch..
So I hope this thread "enlightens" you and ask away if any questions!
Hope this helps!
PS
If you have hideaway headlights, further wiring is required since the harness will mess up the hideaway system.
 
Any thoughts on what that further wiring for hideaway headlights would look like?
 
I figured it's time to do a proper thread after so many people asked about the common lighting issues that our Mopars are known to suffer from.
Headlights dimming or flickering, burned out foot dimmers and or headlight switches, or melted pigtails at the bulbs.
There is a couple reasons why our original headlights suck.
First reason is the lighting technology at the time had a lot of parasitic draw.
By the time juice flows through the car and finally gets to the headlight bulbs, they are not getting 12 full volts of power- especially with all accessories on, in gear at idle at traffic lights they dim. When accelerating, the voltage regulator increases alternator output thus lights brighten up.
Second reason was the lighting regulations imposed on car manufacturers.
The European car makers had far better advanced lighting. They had H4 and H1 bulbs and excellent housings made by Carello, Marchal, and others I cannot remember.
"City" lighting has been going on over there since the late 50/early 60's even the the VW Beetle.
But back in the day if you wanted better lighting you bought what was for "off road use only". The feds apparently considered European lighting too bright??
Cars imported into North America had to meet lighting standards starting in 1968.
E type Jaguars, Beetles or any other cars with headlamp covers had to be removed.
Incandescent headlights replaced the H1 or H4 housings.
Basically dumbing them down.

Back up to 1957/1958 when certain States had laws against 4 headlamp systems. The result is some GM, Chrysler and Ford offerings had cars built with either both 2 and 4 headlamps.

Everybody has their personal preferences for modern day lighting- HID, LED, Halo, and halogen bulbs or sealed beams.
All are an improvement from the factory incandescent headlamps which had no less than 20 watts of blinding light. GE did offer the 25 Plus upgrade in the late 60/ early 70's adding 5 more watts and a few more feet of dark viewing distance.
But I digress...
In order to make modern day lighting work in an old car, you need to do this upgrade to make the lights work properly as long as your wiring is up to snuff.

Why is modern lighting so bright?
Unlike our dim lit dinosaurs, modern cars use relays to power up almost everything.
Modern lighting does draw more juice, requiring more power to work properly.
Installing Halo's,LED,HID or H4 lighting on 50 plus year old wiring is asking for trouble down the road.
So...what to do??
Read on next post..
Good write up!

Where did you get the spade terminal mount that’s on the positive battery post?
 
Good write up!

Where did you get the spade terminal mount that’s on the positive battery post?
I had them lying around in my stash.
You can search for them or check your local parts jobber like O'Rielys
On my Newport, the red wires I extended them to mount onto the battery stud of the starter relay.
 
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