Bright lights

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slobbo
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Bright lights

Post by slobbo »

Just finished doing the headlight mod with the 2 relays. What a difference! If your doing it at some point make sure you get the relays with twin 87 pins as it makes it easier to wire up.

I did have HIDS in but they blinded everyone in dipped beam and the ballast thingy stopped working so I went back to normal lights.
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Re: Bright lights

Post by syncrosimon »

I have got this job to do on mine, ever since Mal burnt out his headlight dash switch approaching the Alps at 11.00pm I have been worrying about using the rather archaic lighting circuit.

I want to wait though, as there are several other jobs that I would rather tackle all together.

1. the windscreen needs to come out to repair a previous Army repair
2. the dash needs to come out to repair the heating circuit which is noisy as the foam on the control flaps is missing and it whistles badly over 60mph
3. the headlamp relays need to be fitted, and the supply voltage will come from the Sterling alternator manager output at 14.8volts to give more lighting power.

So it will have to wait till the summer.

My heating is also luke warm at the front, I am hoping that it is muck and dust obstructing the heater matrix, rather than a duff heater matrix. I have checked the flow on the pipe work. You can do this by getting a passenger (on a left hand drive) to open the glove box and then feel the pipes that feed the matrix. If the valve is broken then the pipes will not be hot. My pipes are hot, but the air is cold. I have got a rear heater matrix which works much better, but the switch for it is in the back. (I had to fit it in the back as it is a digital speed control which uses less power the slower you have the fan) The rear heater always makes the dub too hot, so needs a rear passenger to turn it down.

With the snow about down here I will go and switch on the Webasto in a minute, and get ready for the shops!!
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syncropaddy
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Re: Bright lights

Post by syncropaddy »

I hate doing the 'dash out' job! I did the headlamps before Syncro 25 with 100W bulbs in the 4 mains and 100W bulbs in the two Cibies. The circuit has 3 relays and works really well. As has been said the difference is amazing and well worth the effort
syncropaddy


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Re: Bright lights

Post by syncroand101 »

I did this the other week with two relays, agree with you guys, makes a real noticeable difference.

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Re: Bright lights

Post by Syncro G »

Made a big difference to mine too, as did Philips Xtreme lamps in the H4's. Problem it still has though is the lamps dim when you use too many electrics at one, like turning the heater onto 3. I've done the earths a while back, and the earth cables at the back, I wonder if its the main battery feed, probubly from the rear lunchbox to the fusebord - Anyone ever changed one? Does it run on its own or in the same sleave as the other loom (I know it'll be grouped with other looms). Think its 6mm wire, but I might upgrade if I can find some crimps that'll take bigger. That said it could be caused from the pikey wireing mod yorks water probubly did when the van was new to feed some radio equipment, which involved cutting the main feed wire just before the fusebox and tapping a wire off it using a choclate block thats probubly coroded a bit - idiot obveously didn't realise there is plenty of spare blades off the back of the fusebox (P terminals) that would have been less effort and better! Fabricated towbar yorks water fitted had been removed when I got the van but I bet the socket for it would have involved skotch locks
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toomanytoys
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Re: Bright lights

Post by toomanytoys »

Well this was a mod I did on the velle years and years ago.. the old headlamp switch has all the power going through it...

Bricky started doing a relay kit for later vans that clips to the relay/fuse box. cracking, not really cheap but full pack of bits and instructions, he eventually stopped doing them coz peeps thought that theit safety wasnt worth the 40 odd quid...

Along with proper H4 round headlamps (marked on the glass), set up right, Osram silver stars or the philips extremes you really cant beat them..

One of the best mods/upgrades you can do to ease night driving..

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Re: Bright lights

Post by v-lux »

I bet the socket for it would have involved skotch locks

I reckon you might be right there Glen, my lunchbox is crammed full of scotchlocks, most of which are to do with the tow bar i believe.
I would really like to tidy it all up sometime as i hate how it looks in there, plus i 'know' its going to be a problem at some point or other. But until then, there's plenty of other things to do. (reckon it probably has something to do with low voltage at the trailer lights every time ive attached to one too....)

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Re: Bright lights

Post by crazydiamond »

I did this conversion with twin relays a while back, using 130w mains and I think 80w dipped. Much better than befor, but I think to get the lights working really well you need to change the actual headlamps from the lousy Hella to possible Carella if they are still available. They used to do some split reflector twin HI units a mate put in his Lotus Elan, and they were very impressive. I used to design vehicle lighting and the Hella H4 was useless in the test goniometer light tunnel!
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toomanytoys
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Re: Bright lights

Post by toomanytoys »

crazydiamond wrote:I did this conversion with twin relays a while back, using 130w mains and I think 80w dipped. Much better than befor, but I think to get the lights working really well you need to change the actual headlamps from the lousy Hella to possible Carella if they are still available. They used to do some split reflector twin HI units a mate put in his Lotus Elan, and they were very impressive. I used to design vehicle lighting and the Hella H4 was useless in the test goniometer light tunnel!

I've got the gen hella H4 ones (flat lens H4 on the glass) in both of mine and the spread is great.... both in LHD and RHD...

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