Ugh, I cant take it any longer. I am about to cut a set of lights out of an F250 and duct tape them in. Buckets are good, got new lights as well. I cant see deer at night with them so I drive about 40mph and it is so painful!

 

Any aftermarket suggestions?

55 watt driving lights mounted to the bumper. Wal-mart has good cheap ones for about 15 bucks.

They will be better than stock? Can I wire them directly to the headlight switch?

They will be better than stock? Can I wire them directly to the headlight switch?

 

Use them in addition to the stock lights.

 

I wired mine with a double throw switch with center *off* so they can either be *off*, *on*, or come on and off with the high beam switch.

Use them in addition to the stock lights.

 

I wired mine with a double throw switch with center *off* so they can either be *off*, *on*, or come on and off with the high beam switch.

 

did you check to see if your lenses are dirty or scratched. I have sylvan silverstars in my car and there great. I cant say much for the gl style because i have a dl but those are much brighter. Aftermarket lights on the bottom side of the bumper will light things up considerably though.

 

Ben

Did the Sylvanias, helped a little but not much. Have had the lights all apart as well. Cant put anything under the bumper in this country. Too much snow, rocks and gravel, etc.

your lights are probably off aim and pointing up and not on the road.

Nope, corrected that as well.

Check the voltage at your high beams. It's easy, flick on your brights and stick a volt-meter on the back of the bulb. My old 88' GL was pushin low 10ish volts to the brighs with it running and high 13 volts at the battery, WTF I say. Buy those cheep off road light relays at NAPA and mount it between the battery and the light. Use the old Bright "high beam" signal will energize the relay, and the relay will energize the bulb using battery voltage.

 

Run the bright wire from the bulb to #85 on the relay and ground #86

Run fat wire with a fuse from the battery into #87 and run more fat wire from #30 on the relay to the Bright post on the bulb. Bam, high 13volts at the bulb = brightness.

 

I usually don't care about brighter low beams so I fix the brights and call it good. I believe those numbers are correct, it's been years sence I've thought about'm. Double check, I may be wrong. Going from a dozen+ feet of stiff 80's wire and it's many links and splices and old switch and possible corrosion will make any light burn dim. This'll turn that to a few feet of healthy wire straight from battery/charging voltage. I highly recommend it if you have more than 1 volt differance between battery and bright.

I just looked at where you were located at. If youve gone through all the above things mentioned, better lights, aimed correctly, clean. Have you checked to makesure your battery is up to par as well, how about your alternator. All the connections are tight. But even if this is so in your neck of the woods, a set of aftermarket driveing lights wouldnt be a bad idea, Aimed up high to hit those dear in the eyes and let them know your commin. Ive been wanting to add some aftermarket lights to mine just havent had the time. If your so inclined the gls sometimes came with foglights and theres a factory switch that mounts up on the dash. If you could find one that would be slick.

 

Ben

Put in relays on the negative side of the lights.. Set it all upright and they are very bright. The lights normally only get about 10.5v with standard wiring.

Did the Sylvanias, helped a little but not much. Have had the lights all apart as well. Cant put anything under the bumper in this country. Too much snow, rocks and gravel, etc.

 

Who said on the bottom of the bumper. Mine are on the top. Rally style.

Try this I have heard of one or two board members that did this and loved it.

 

All info is here > http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

 

 

 

Keep us posted.

 

Mike

Try this I have heard of one or two board members that did this and loved it.

 

All info is here > http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

 

 

 

Keep us posted.

 

Mike

 

 

Our headlights are already powered by relays. I don't see anything to gain from that article.

 

 

Ok, I read further and the part at the bottom about the *extra high* beam set-up utilizing the HI and LO filaments at the same time sounds cool. I think Daeron asked about doing this once. Might be a high load on the positive side if not run with seperate relays.

Bright headlights in older cars are a game of voltage. Relay or not. If your system is pushin 12+ volts to the Brights than you won't gain much. But with 13+ volts at the battery and 10ish at the bulb, lots of room for improvement. There are other ways of fixing it. But adding a relay between battery and bulb don't take much time and will throw a few more volts to your brights. Volt meters can be less than 20 bucks and they can tell if your 80's wires and contacts and switches are slowing you down or not by measuring voltage drop. I've also seen poor voltage at the heator blower motor, ?. I've added a relay between the battery and the high terminal on the motor to give it more volts and it spun faster and blew more air, not much, but noticable You may also see pi$$ poor volts at the wiper motor, I have. It's kinda fun to turn stuff on high and see what it runs at. Also, stab stuff with it turned on high with a fat jumper wire from the battery + and see if it's performance increases or not. It most likely will, heater's spins faster, lights burn brighter, wipers spin faster, and so on.

I thought I once saw a "rally' type light that would accept these lightbulbs. If that were the case I would get a set of them and pull the bulbs out of the headlights and put them in the new.

 

I probably wont rewire the whole car to fix the headlights, if I can add something and just do away with the old. I want bright lights and I want them tomorrow.

Just get the cheap wal fart already mentioned, and mount them on the TOP of the bumper. Get er done.

No need to rewire the car immediately.. I would tap the headlight circuit with new relays and quick fix(spade terminal) the headlights and see if that solves the problem.. You could also as a check and see hot wire the lights to the battery to do it even quicker.. If the lights are brighter then your wires are old and gaining resistance with age and should be replaced with something heavier duty.ie if they are running 14 awg replace with 10-12 awg. It is a simple process its the darn relays that kick my butt.

Bad part about all of this is that if it involves more than 2 or 3 wires, its over my head. :/ Thats the main reason I am opting for replacements.

Ok, looking at Cibie Oscar Plus. This should work on my lighting issue.

Our headlights are already powered by relays. I don't see anything to gain from that article.

The positive is relayed.. The negative still goes through the stalk on the steering column

 

I wired the positive through some fuses to the battery direct. Then stuck relays on the negatives so there was as little wiring needed as possible. I have a diagram somewhere on my site. Then I got non-sealed beam lights, stuck Narva 50+ Xenon gas enhanced halogens (50/60watt) in the outer lights and 100watt H1's in the inner high beam only.

Got the lenses from a Nissan van.

I've never been in a car with brighter lights including a mates 88wagon with two 170 lightforce's.

The positive is relayed.. The negative still goes through the stalk on the steering column

 

I wired the positive through some fuses to the battery direct. Then stuck relays on the negatives so there was as little wiring needed as possible. I have a diagram somewhere on my site. Then I got non-sealed beam lights, stuck Narva 50+ Xenon gas enhanced halogens (50/60watt) in the outer lights and 100watt H1's in the inner high beam only.

Got the lenses from a Nissan van.

I've never been in a car with brighter lights including a mates 88wagon with two 170 lightforce's.

 

 

Okay, Okay. You're right.

 

I guess I wasn't firing on all cylinders the first time I responded to this.

The lights on my 87' wagon are ridiculously bright. The high beams illuminate stuff that's like 1/2 a mile down the road.

Would you guys rather have the 4 head light style that's on the DL's, I'm just curious? If you could pick from the either style for better night driving, which would it be? You'd think that having 2 more brights up there would be great and you'd have the opportunity to aim 4 lights to 4 different spots of the road instead of the Single headlight style where you only have a left and right to point. Not to mention the availability and aftermarket options of 4x6's..... vs replacing/upgrading the bulb and wiping off the old lense.....

Would you guys rather have the 4 head light style that's on the DL's, I'm just curious? If you could pick from the either style for better night driving, which would it be? You'd think that having 2 more brights up there would be great and you'd have the opportunity to aim 4 lights to 4 different spots of the road instead of the Single headlight style where you only have a left and right to point. Not to mention the availability and aftermarket options of 4x6's..... vs replacing/upgrading the bulb and wiping off the old lense.....

 

GL for aerodynamics on highway.

 

DL for Offroad....By far. Replace the whole light when you smash it.