Headlight Upgrade - Speedway Motors Relay Kit AND New Doorman Aiming Mounts

[tower210]

This will be a little bit of a combined thread for bringing your CJ headlights into the modern age.

When I did my original tear down and rebuild, I ordered new Hella H4 headlights as an upgrade to the old CJ sealed beam enclosures. At the time I ordered I had the best intentions, and even had the Painless wiring relay kit in the Cart; before the total came $$$ and the headlight relays didn't make the cut. I installed the H4's, but wasn't ever impressed by the quantity of light that they put out. The housing itself was of top quality OEM type quality, the lighting output just didn't do it for me. One other issue that came up was using my stock harness to the H4's swapped the High and Low beams on the switch, normally I wouldn't care, but it did bug me that low beams were on in the when the speedo indicator was showing high beams. Lastly, when I went to aim the headlights and make sure I had them all dialed in, I discovered the plastic threads in 3 of the 4 headlight housing adjusters were completely stripped! If you went up to the light and bumped it hard it would move.

The objectives of this project were simple:
1. Add relays to the headlights freeing the stock wiring and switch of a high amp draw while simultaneously allowing a much safer, lower resistance path for the power to follow
2. Fix the dimmer switch orientation
3. Fix the headlight aiming issue

I'd been watching for a simple and inexpensive headlight relay kit for some time now. I'd considered building my own harness as many here have done, but usually as I would start shopping for parts and wire and connectors, I'd come to the conclusion that I'd have too many hours of my time in the harness to do a nice, quality job. A month or two back, I happened upon this kit from Speedway Motors for $39.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Headl...e&utm_source=AskAndAnswer&utm_content=Default

It was made specifically for cars with H4 headlights and the price was right.



So here goes....

 

[tower210]

continued

So I dis-assembled the headlights. See Doorman HELP kit (for a mid 70's pinto - source by calling my local green shirt store, about $10 for (2) kits). I admit to stealing this idea from someone on Jeepforum, if I knew whom, I would give them credit. It has a nice metal attachment point with the rubberized plastic threaded insert. Perfect for what I wanted to do. If you notice, I actually have two different models of the same Doorman part. One of them is 2171. The green shirt guy couldn't find two of them, and then cross referenced the part and found there was another identical part with another number.




See my crusty, rusty old HL bucket and toasted adjuster..........




The other HELP section adjuster is just as bad.........




A close up of the parts......




I drilled out the factory rivet and remove the original adjuster. It lays out perfect to drill two new holes.....




With the money I saved on the Relay harness, it was easy to justify a Rivet Gun. I should have had one of these a long time ago.




Aimer attached securely with (2) 3/16" aluminum rivets.




Second location is not nearly as perfect, but I believe it's plenty secure for the purpose.




Final picture of assembly with adjusters installed.

 

[tower210]

Continued

The relay harness from Speedway lays out perfect. There is plenty of wire without extending any of them. Nearly all of the wires are already covered with a protective sleeve (may heat shrink, I didn't run the heat gun on it yet). The kit has built in fuseable links; not quite as nice as a fuse or circuit breaker, but you're not paying for that either.

As you can see, the drivers side new connector has plenty of slack, and comes with a perfect ring terminal for the ground to land with the OEM ground at the factory location.




Passenger side connections, female for the HL, male to plug into the OEM HL output. This will take the signal from the switch.




Connected, as simple as can be......




Relays mounted into the fender.




Ring terminals and connector landed on Battery.




Parking garage headlight alignment. Did this using Q-tec's quick alignment procedure, which sounds easy and simple. Little harder to do in practice with the H4s. It was very difficult to see a concentrated center point of the beam with the H4's, light has a somewhat balanced wide beam. Did the best I could. I'll post some night time pictures soon.

 

[flashover604]

Subscribed. I'm planning to do the same to mine. I've looked at the speedway kit and will probably go that route. As for lights, I'm looking at the Delta H4s, but I'm not sold yet. Any idea what your hella's set you back?

 

[tower210]

Ok, so been out of town most of the pas couple weeks, hadn't gotten to really test them out. Fantastic full moon night tonight, great night for a drive.



Low beams



High beams

Can't believe how much better they are, literally day and night.

 

[flashover604]

Sold. One in the Speedway cart...

Now for the headlights... I've seen the KC lights with a supposed new reflector, Hellas, cibies, and Delta. Delta even has an H4 with a built in turn signal for $10 bucks more for the set. Any experience with any of the non-hella ones?

 

[CBRogers]

I have had original Porsche H4's from an import 911 that I managed to get back in the early 80's. And now I run a set of the IPF's that have the DOT stamp. They both run the H4 bulb in the case/Fixture. I have been pleased with both. The Hella's were almost a cut crystal type of lens and the IPF's are a good quality glass too.

What seems to really matter is the pattern on the glass lens and the reflector inside the housing. I would go for quality. Hard to go wrong there. Seeing that the IPF's have a DOT stamp on them in the lens, you can not get failed at inspection time. And the lens gives a great Bat wing style of light that hits the road just right. There is a very sharp cut off to the top so that you do not blind oncoming traffic.

In the CJ-7 the Hella's have an upgraded 100/55 watt lamp so those high beams are really bright. But the 55/45 watt ones in the IPF's are pretty good too. Do not fall for the Blue or other colored light lamps. They are really gimmicks and good for the Import Tuner guys. Stick with a good quality lamp and you will be fine.


Carl

 

[flashover604]

Are the Hella conversion lenses the vision plus headlights? Around $50 apiece?

 

[CBRogers]

Yes those are the ones.

http://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_01.htm

I think that those even come with the H4 Bulbs too. There are racer places that will sell the higher wattage ones that can be put in place of the base DOT lamp.


http://www.4wd.com/Jeep-Lighting-Je...&ppcfon=1,1&gclid=CJzE_ZrWkbkCFaNxQgodgAMA8A#



Carl

 

[hefavitzen]

If you are looking for headlight upgrades and bulbs, give Susquehana Motor Sports a call. They will talk to you all day about headlights and electrical things. I got my Hella's from there, but I have not installed them just yet.

www.rallylights.com http://www.rallylights.com



Sent from my iPad HD

 

[Bad Karma]

If you're going for headlight upgrades, skip DOT lights. Get E Code lights. The European beam pattern is 1000x better than the DOT beam pattern. I have H4 E codes in the Scrambler with 55w/100w and a homemade relay set up. Brighter than the sun and they don't blind on coming traffic.
I eventually plan on getting JW Speaker LED headlights when the price comes down, but I will be special ordering their E Code light.

 

[Spieg]

I have the KC lights and I'm happy with them. Nice wide beam with a hot spot on high beam that has pretty good range. The only down side was that the buckets that hold the light have to be modified (had to cut/grind off about 3/4" of metal all the way around the hole) to clear the deep reflector and rubber boot that keeps everything water tight.
Would like LEDs some day, but the price needs to come down a lot before I switch over.

 

[glasshole]

I ordered the same kit from speedway motors. I installed headlights from Roundeyes.com. alls I have to say is wow. WhaT a difference in lighting. I can finally see at night. I highly recommend upgrading your lights. And it was easy to do.

 

[Gueon]

Just a quick update to let you know that I appreciate you preparing this post. Last weekend I was able to complete my installation and what a HUGE difference this has made, quite literally it's night and day. A quick comparison the other night shows that my headlights are brighter than my wife's 2013 JK, and I'm serious! People actually flash me now when I have my brights on, and sometimes even when they are on dim. Not sure I need my KC's now!

Thanks!

 

[gr8dain]

Will the relays provide a benefit with the stock lights? Just wondering if I can do that now and get the H4s later. Or just wait and do it all at the same time over the summer. I need to plan out the money spending and have more wants than free cash right now.


Dain

 

[tower210]

Will the relays provide a benefit with the stock lights? Just wondering if I can do that now and get the H4s later. Or just wait and do it all at the same time over the summer. I need to plan out the money spending and have more wants than free cash right now.


Dain

Yes, the improvement will be significant with the stock lights also.....but info recall correctly, the relay kit is adapted for h4 wiring, you migh have to "unadapt" until you get h4s.

 

[gr8dain]

Thanks.


Dain

 

[tower210]

Just a quick update to let you know that I appreciate you preparing this post. Last weekend I was able to complete my installation and what a HUGE difference this has made, quite literally it's night and day. A quick comparison the other night shows that my headlights are brighter than my wife's 2013 JK, and I'm serious! People actually flash me now when I have my brights on, and sometimes even when they are on dim. Not sure I need my KC's now!

Thanks!

Glad that I could contribute!!

KK

 

[Kim Dawson]

Just ordered the HL relay kit from Speedway. Thanks for all the info guys.

 

[joshvt]

This old thread helped me out. My headlights were so dim it didn’t even feel safe to drive at night. This weekend I installed the speedway relay kit- made a huge difference with my sealed beams. then I installed Hella vision plus lights. All I can say is WOW! What a difference! I highly recommend this upgrade.