Dim Headlights?

[ThomasP]

Anyone have a problem with not only dim headlights, but signals that won't flash or flash incredibly slow when the headlights are on? They work fine if the headlights are off or in parkng light mode. Will the brown wire fix, fix? Or a headlight relay? Cleaning the grounds helped a little. Also wipers that won't park correctly, very erratic when and where they choose to park. They are slooooow too, but this is Southern CA and it never rains her anyway....well until recently. Thanks

Thomas

[jimincalif]

You will definitely benefit from headlight relays. Brown wire fix depends on what year your car is.

[grittracing]

Check ground wires as well as all connections to light harness as well as relays

[mdrburchette]

You may want to check alternator output too. Cleaning connections, grounds and the blades on your fuse box will help a lot.

[ThomasP]

Thanks for the input. The car is a 76. Any ideas on why the wipers do not park where they should?

[So Cal Mark]

slow flashers are a ground problem so adding relays or the brown wire fix won't cure the grounds or poor connections in the bulb socket. Fix those items first, then do the upgrades

[dantye]

IAP introduced this kit in late December 2010. For those who do not want to start cutting a lot of wires, or who want to make it simpler to return the car to complete stock in the future, it may be a solution.

Below is a link to my initial video "unpacking" review, which might be helpful to those considering whether to take this or the "brown wire fix" route - I hope I am not breaking any board rules by posting this. If not, I may post others as installation progresses, but that may not be soon, since today here in West-Central Wisconsin, we have -10 - +10 degree F. outside temps - and an unheated garage! (We start garage work at about 25 degrees and up!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6W6r7_DJyY

[donm]

I also installed this kit over the weekend and it seems to work as promised but my car is put away for the winter so I can't take it out at night to really test it. But the relays click and the lights seem nice and bright.

You're right about the plug ends--they just don't fit in the headlight bucket without cutting open some of the heat shrinking so you can bend the wires to fit.

As for the black ground wires that must be connected, I didn't wand to take any chances here so rather than just placing it on one of the bucket mounting screws, I drilled a small hole in the bucket, ground away the paint, and attached the ground using a sheet metal screw coated with Kopershield. Then before I reinstalled the buckets I cleaned up the mounting screws and holes and applied additional Kopershield there.

The most time consuming aspect for me was routing the wires to the headlight area. Their photos didn't seem to jibe with my car and I had to remove the lower grill to snake the wires to the headlights.

Don

[donm]

I forgot to mention, if you're willing to go to the trouble to make this upgrade you should also consider swaping out the stock headlights and installing European spec ("E-Code") headlights. I did this last summer and it makes a big difference. It's not that the lights are any brighter but the lenses project the light in a much more efficient pattern. I've also installed them on my two daily driver Saabs. One source for them is Danial Stern Lighting. Google it.

Don

[dantye]

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked up the Daniel Stern Euros, but since they appear to be more than 5 times the price of the Wagner halogens I already purchased locally, I think I will try them first.

I am, however, taking the opportunity to replace a passenger side plastic retainer ring, since the visible part between the chrome headlight ring and the body paint is damaged.

[Adam]

for a headlight relay upgrade, try the Greg Smith kit. It took me 30 minutes to install. It was very straight forward, you just separate the connectors going to the headlights and splice his system in at those points; no need to fuss with the headlight buckets. Connect the 12 volt to the alternator post and then connect your ground and voila, bright headlights! I also took this opportunity to replace the sealed beams for 7" halogens.

[dantye]

IAP introduced this kit in late December 2010. For those who do not want to start cutting a lot of wires, or who want to make it simpler to return the car to complete stock in the future, it may be a solution.

Below is a link to my initial video "unpacking" review, which might be helpful to those considering whether to take this or the "brown wire fix" route - I hope I am not breaking any board rules by posting this. If not, I may post others as installation progresses, but that may not be soon, since today here in West-Central Wisconsin, we have -10 - +10 degree F. outside temps - and an unheated garage! (We start garage work at about 25 degrees and up!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6W6r7_DJyY

Just wanted to note that the instructions with this kit need some work: the holes to drill in the headlight buckets need to be about 1/16" larger than IAP recommends or you will not be able to feed the disassembled connectors through the headlight bucket before re-connecting them to harness leads. Also, depending on model, the path for the long leg of this harness to the passenger headlight may require that cable to be taped firmly to the sheet metal cable bracket behind the headlight bucket to keep it from dropping so far that it might begin to be abraded by road grit - or possibly even the tire.
Now that I have almost completed the installation, the advantages I can see for this kit is for someone who is terrified to cut any wires (not me!) or that it could be removed if someone wanted to return the car to stock configuration (although I don't know why one would want to do that.) But the quality of the materials seems good.

[htchevyii]

Five weeks and you're almost done? How hard is that thing to install?

[Redline]

I forgot to mention, if you're willing to go to the trouble to make this upgrade you should also consider swaping out the stock headlights and installing European spec ("E-Code") headlights. I did this last summer and it makes a big difference. It's not that the lights are any brighter but the lenses project the light in a much more efficient pattern. I've also installed them on my two daily driver Saabs. One source for them is Danial Stern Lighting. Google it.

Don

Agreed. The light from the OEM Carello lights on my '71 Coupe is surprisingly bright, warm and consistent, and these are the original 40 year old reflectors and wiring. They are easily as good as the projector lamps in our modern (Euro) Ford. Blasting down a tree-lined lane at night with all four lit up, and the twin cam blaring, I can almost imagine I'm Walter Röhrl in a 131 Abarth. Almost.

[dantye]

Five weeks and you're almost done? How hard is that thing to install?

It's different when you need to wait for the temperature in your unheated, uninsulated garage to go above 15 degrees.

Patience is mandatory in the frozen north, so this only represents about 4-5 hours work at "shop speed". But the 4-5 "top-down" months are worth it.