headlights upgrade

horseballz said:

jlangholzj,
Yeah, I mis-spoke, the #10 was on my 69 F250. On the Mustang, I ran 2 separate #12 from battery/solenoid (both on the same ring terminal) with a separate fuse for each wire, just below the solenoid and ran them over to put the relays just above the voltage regulator on the driver side. I then used the driver side headlamp wires to trigger the relays and ran new #14 to each headlight, clipped the plug off the passenger side, folded & taped each cut-off wire & shrink tubed it to insulate. I couldn't see the wisdom of untaping the 40+ year old, brittle, but functioning portion of the harness that goes across, under the radiator just to pull the now unused wires out. At the driver side, I put a new ground terminal from the headlight socket and from the ground wire of the main harness to a clean ground point on the radiator support. On the passenger side, I put on a negative/ground battery cable that has an extra wire on it to a clean ground point on the radiator support along with the ground wire from the passenger side headlight socket. You can never have "TOO GOOD" of a ground!
HTH,
Gene

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that 250 must have some serious headlights!! I've only used 10awg for the starter on our R6 engine before, 8awg for my amp in the car. Thats gettin up there in size man!

palerider94 said:

Yes I used existing wire also. I don't remeber having to cut wire though I think the harnes plugged into existing sockets. I'll have to clean grounds and suckets as suggested. This will be a spring project or I can keep driving around with my brights on - no one seems to notice.

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this is basically the conversation that gene and I have been having. If anyone is to do this, don't re-use your stock wiring except for triggering a relay or something else. The stock wires are much smaller, somewhere along 16-18awg and this can be a problem....lol

here's an explination to everyone on how wires work from a EE for those who are a little fuzzy:

think of it like water in a pipe: you have this big source like a lake and you want to draw water into your house. If the pipe is the right size, you get enough water for your daily use. However if the pipe is too small, a couple things can happen:
1) you'll starve the house of water because there just simply isn't enough pipe to supply it and you'll be pissed cause you'll run out halfway through a shower. Now your half wet and still stinky...no good.

OR

2) you can get the amount of water you need BUT the water needs to be pumped faster. Think of the water flow like current, so now you're running more current through a wire than its designed for. Next thing you know the wires melt, arc across the frame (because your forgot to put a fuse in ya big dummy!) and that leaky fuel filter you've been meaning to replace catches fire and your beloved baby is in flames now...RIP

sorry for the bad humor but i'm sure you get the point, morale is, please use proper wire sizing when doing this, if you don't you'll end up with sub par performance or something is on fire...........

wait a minute.... ....kinda sounds like that one strip joint i know of................

jlangholzj,
The lights in the F250 are nothing special, but I used #10 for the supply because I supplied both relays from one wire, jumpered/split to both. It's never /rarely a problem using bigger wire than needed, the problem is using smaller than needed. And fastlane351C, while those lights you linked to WILL plug into your existing wiring, they are higher wattage than what the stock wiring (that, even new, was marginal at best) was designed for. This means they will draw more amperage and likely stress/overheat/destroy the wires and/or headlight/dimmer switch. Do what you like, but I would not trust using them without an upgrade to relays/wiring. They may seem to work ok for a while, but believe me, when you're on a back country road and your headlights start to flash off for several seconds (while the thermal breaker in the cools off) and hopefully back on, it can be a real "white knuckle" moment. DAMHIKT!
HTMS,
Gene

horseballz said:

jlangholzj,
The lights in the F250 are nothing special, but I used #10 for the supply because I supplied both relays from one wire, jumpered/split to both. It's never /rarely a problem using bigger wire than needed, the problem is using smaller than needed. And fastlane351C, while those lights you linked to WILL plug into your existing wiring, they are higher wattage than what the stock wiring (that, even new, was marginal at best) was designed for. This means they will draw more amperage and likely stress/overheat/destroy the wires and/or headlight/dimmer switch. Do what you like, but I would not trust using them without an upgrade to relays/wiring. They may seem to work ok for a while, but believe me, when you're on a back country road and your headlights start to flash off for several seconds (while the thermal breaker in the cools off) and hopefully back on, it can be a real "white knuckle" moment. DAMHIKT!
HTMS,
Gene

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i thought you were running both headlights with 10awg! thats why i was kinda like WOAH MAN!

I installed 40amp relays and use original type bulbs with great results. Just wire it yourself with 12 ga wire and save lots of money. Very easy to do.

jerthemost said:

I installed 40amp relays and use original type bulbs with great results. Just wire it yourself with 12 ga wire and save lots of money. Very easy to do.

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considering that the halogen bulbs are only $30 a pop, its a great upgrade that you might as well do if you're goign to go through all the hassle.