Hella 550 Driving lights

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RRoller123
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Your car is a: 1980 FI SPIDER 2000
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Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby RRoller123 » Sun Sep 11, 2016 3:17 pm

Added a set of Hella 550 Driving Lights.

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The plastic bumper mount covers hide the mounting bolts and the wiring, only a very small portion of the wiring is exposed, the wires run under the bumper shock and are held in place by a couple of hidden Ty-Wraps. I initially wired the light grounds to the bumper mount bolts, as it ohmed out ok with the meter, but it didn't work in practice, :!: the lights worked for a few seconds and then would not light, and I had to run the grounds back into the engine compartment and add them to the ground pods on either side of the compartment.

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The supplied mounting bracket has a bolt that is too short to make it all the way through the bottom bumper tube, so I replaced it with a 5-16" x 2.5" bolt.

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Halogen H3, 55W 12VDC. The relay has in integral 15A fuse, which is very convenient.

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Took this opportunity to tie the rheostat wires together, and the dash lights are now noticeably somewhat brighter!

I had intended to mount the Hella Lights switch in the place of the dimmer rheostat, but the threads on the switch are not long enough to allow for this, so for now the switch is just dangling up under the dash until I figure out a good solution.

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Pete
'80 FI Spider 2000
'74 and '79 X1/9 (past)
'75 BMW R75/6
2011 Chevy Malibu (daily driver)
2010 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Ext Cab 4WD/STD BED
2002 Edgewater 175CC 80HP 4-Stroke Yamaha
2003 Jaguar XK8
2003 Jaguar XKR
2021 Jayco 22RB
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aj81spider
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Re: Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby aj81spider » Mon Sep 12, 2016 9:08 am

Nice! Looks great.
A.J.

1974 Fiat 124 Spider
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Re: Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby donm » Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:34 pm

Pete,

When I installed my fog lights I drilled out one of the blanks used where the power window switch would be and mounted it there.
1979 Spider
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RRoller123
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Re: Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby RRoller123 » Mon Sep 12, 2016 8:04 pm

Don, that is a great idea! I will take a look at that. Thanks. Still need to align the Hellas, but they are very bright.

As far as tieing the 2 leads from the rheostat together from the dimmer, I just drove back in the dark from the Lorenzo's Cruise in Middleboro, and the dash lights are now MUCH brighter than they were with the rheostat connected and on full.

Pete
'80 FI Spider 2000
'74 and '79 X1/9 (past)
'75 BMW R75/6
2011 Chevy Malibu (daily driver)
2010 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Ext Cab 4WD/STD BED
2002 Edgewater 175CC 80HP 4-Stroke Yamaha
2003 Jaguar XK8
2003 Jaguar XKR
2021 Jayco 22RB
2019 Bianchi Torino Bicycle

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Re: Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby spider2081 » Tue Sep 13, 2016 6:44 am

As far as tieing the 2 leads from the rheostat together from the dimmer, I just drove back in the dark from the Lorenzo's Cruise in Middleboro, and the dash lights are now MUCH brighter than they were with the rheostat connected and on full.


If you test the dimmer you removed you will find with it rotated to the full bright position it still has some resistance. I forget the exact amount but I think it limits the dash brightness to about 75% of full bright. Also the voltage to the dash lights should be measured to be sure full voltage is getting to the dimmer with the dimmer at full bright. The light ground for each bulb share the instruments ground so it is important that the instruments ground be checked also. This is especially noticeable with the temperature gauge. when the dash lights are on the the gauge will sometimes read a higher temp.

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RRoller123
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Re: Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby RRoller123 » Tue Sep 13, 2016 6:59 am

+1 Good points to check.
'80 FI Spider 2000
'74 and '79 X1/9 (past)
'75 BMW R75/6
2011 Chevy Malibu (daily driver)
2010 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Ext Cab 4WD/STD BED
2002 Edgewater 175CC 80HP 4-Stroke Yamaha
2003 Jaguar XK8
2003 Jaguar XKR
2021 Jayco 22RB
2019 Bianchi Torino Bicycle

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RRoller123
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Re: Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby RRoller123 » Thu Sep 22, 2016 10:40 am

donm wrote:
Pete, When I installed my fog lights I drilled out one of the blanks used where the power window switch would be and mounted it there.


Hi Don: I did just that, thanks for the idea, it seems obvious now, but didn't when looking for a good place for the switch! The plastic switch mounting knurled nut hangs up on the sides of the back of the blank switch plate, but a couple of layers of 3M adhesive backed foam pieces took up the space and the switch sits firmly in the blank.

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'80 FI Spider 2000
'74 and '79 X1/9 (past)
'75 BMW R75/6
2011 Chevy Malibu (daily driver)
2010 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Ext Cab 4WD/STD BED
2002 Edgewater 175CC 80HP 4-Stroke Yamaha
2003 Jaguar XK8
2003 Jaguar XKR
2021 Jayco 22RB
2019 Bianchi Torino Bicycle

donm
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Re: Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby donm » Fri Sep 23, 2016 11:11 am

Now you just need to find something to put in the other blank. Ejection seat, maybe?
1979 Spider
2001Saab SW
2004 Saab Aero
Life's too short to drive boring cars

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RRoller123
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Your car is a: 1980 FI SPIDER 2000
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Re: Hella 550 Driving lights

Postby RRoller123 » Fri Sep 23, 2016 3:08 pm

oil slick spray out the back.
'80 FI Spider 2000
'74 and '79 X1/9 (past)
'75 BMW R75/6
2011 Chevy Malibu (daily driver)
2010 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Ext Cab 4WD/STD BED
2002 Edgewater 175CC 80HP 4-Stroke Yamaha
2003 Jaguar XK8
2003 Jaguar XKR
2021 Jayco 22RB
2019 Bianchi Torino Bicycle


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