JW Speaker LED headlight install

[bigwalton]

Got a pair of the JW Speaker 8700 J2 LED headlights to swap into the Postal to replace the Delta H4s. They instantly looked yellow as crap once I upgraded the front aux lights to LEDs.



Wiring (they no longer offer the H4 plugs in DOT approved version for the US) and mounting in the headlight buckets are the two issues.

Mounting:
You pull the stock stuff off, one screw below the headlight surround, three holding the bulb in with a trim ring and four holding the bucket in the grille.







Even though the bulbs I pulled aren’t stock, you can still see how the rear shape differs considerably with the heat sink fins. That means...



...it’s chop chop time.


I used the step that is built into to bucket to “lean” my cutoff wheel on from the back. It ended up removing more than is really needed but it opens up the most area for cooling.



I have to admit, I was thinking I was going to have to learn to like these. I always had an issue with the hard “step” in the profile of the Deltas and these look 1000 times better. The black guts blend and match the black on the bumper and other LEDs. Kept the other Delta in for a true “before and after.”





Loving it! Next one to go in and then swapping on H13 pigtails.

 

[bigwalton]

One more set of pics for comparison from the side. LOVE the difference in profile.

 

[Belizeit]

Put me down as a ?

 

[bigwalton]

Great thing about Jeeps, enough choices to do whatever you want

I am really happy to get rid of the Deltas. They were a nice updgrade over stock but the yellow light with the other bright white LEDs made it imperative to replace them.

 

[Belizeit]

Hey no problem. I'm just a old school dinosaur.

 

[bigwalton]

Hey no problem. I'm just a old school dinosaur.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that!

 

[bigwalton]

Wiring underway. I did my own harness when I did the low/hi beam relay upgrade so it’s jaut a matter of swapping in the H13 connectors. Shockingly, AutoZoo had really nicely made, thick-wire, made in the USA H13 pigtails.

Had to stick the other in briefly to see what it looks like complete before starting the wiring. I know it’s not going to be many folks’ cup of tea, but I freaking love it with the bumper and LED aux lights and grey painted surrounds.

 

[hefavitzen]

So, are you going to post a photo of what the light pattern looks like at night? We wanna see!

 

[bigwalton]

Yep. Will have it out tonight to get them aimed and I’ll try a photograph. Difficulty with night light photos is how the camera wants to compensate for the darkness (makes lights look better than they are) but I will do my best.

Got them wired and installed.

Lows


The new version of these keeps both the low and brights on when you switch on the brights.


‘Mercia! :usa:

 

[bigwalton]

Now to swap the Deltas into Mater! Upgrades all around! Should do the same relay upgrade on it as well...

 

[Belizeit]

I have to admit it does look better with both in now. When you only had the one in it looked pretty strange So I give you a fist bump now. ?

 

[bigwalton]

Hah. There’s nothing wrong with not liking the look.

In my defense, they’re not halo lights and don’t change color or anything like that. Just REALLY great headlights. Can’t wait for tonight.

 

[RanchScrambler]

Looks awesome! Probably much better usable light.

 

[bigwalton]

Looks awesome! Probably much better usable light.

No comparison.

 

[bigwalton]

Ok. Back from some aiming, some driving, some aiming, etc.

First, if you’ve driven newer vehicles you know headlight low beams don’t just throw out light every which way. It takes some getting used to but they can have a fairly hard horizontal line above which they don’t throw much light (Kate’s Renegade is like that) and these low beams are the same way except for a central hot spot that throws a TON of light straight down your lane. There’s fantastic peripheral light below that line though, right up to the front of the Jeep. I will need to rework how I have the aux lights set up now for sure.

The high beams add lots of light above that horizon and because the lows stay on, it’s like you’ve just added another entire light. I really like the way the highs work.

The trick with the photos is that the hot spot in the middle wrecked anything I tried where the lights were pointed at anything. Photos worked better where that area was open and you could see the peripheral light. I was just using my phone, this wasn’t for a review and I have things to do so I couldn’t take the good camera and tripod and all that.

Low beams (a couple iterations before I quit moving them) you can’t see the hot spot in the middle except that it’s lighting up that one tree way out in front of the Jeep nearest the road.


High beams. There’s more light above the “horizon” than it appears, it’s just that the lower part is so freaking bright.



This was the next to last alignment, (just before getting home I decided to raise them a bit more.) Low beams through the windshield this time.


Highs through the windshield. This one probably shows things best of all of these.


Here was a try to get the lights pointed at something relatively close. Just ended up looking like crap no matter what I tried. You can definitely see the hot spot I mentioned. There’s no way to photograph it, but the top of that hot spot is actually clearly angled up and to the right, away from oncoming traffic.

I like where I got the hot spot (really simplified side-to-side aiming when you know that confined spot needs to be right in front of you), the trick is going to be to fine tune the height of that horizon and getting used to the way it looks while driving.

(BTW, the Jeep is angled diagonally across the road in this photo to point at the trees.)



Really, really happy with these. White light to perfectly match the other LEDs and the more I look at the black bezels in the front end, the more I love them.

 

[cdvcj8]

Congrats! I'm sure they work great. I'm starting to come around to the black bezel with your white jeep with black trim. With my black Jeep I might be able to get used to the Chrome...

 

[bigwalton]

Congrats! I'm sure they work great. I'm starting to come around to the black bezel with your white jeep with black trim. With my black Jeep I might be able to get used to the Chrome...

They may look more odd on a darker Jeep where they ended up blending in with the grille but with all the (sorta) white, I think it totally works.

Side note, drove Mater a couple hours back from Cedar Point tonight with the Delta H4s that I took out of the Postal and it was nice to have better light. Seriously need some reaiming though. Brights were great, lows were aimed way low.

 

[bigwalton]

Noticed how well you could see the super-sharp rectangular pattern to the bright central beams and the hard horizontal “cutoff” like modem headlights have when I parked with the lights on in front of this wall this morning. Looks like I need to angle the right one up a hair.

You can also clearly see the tops of the central beams and how they’re angled up and to the right, away from oncoming traffic.

 

[Randyzzz]

Impressive!

 

[jmarston]

I envy you for having an awesome set of headlights. Nice upgrade!