[NLXTACY]

I finally had a free night to do this install after staring at the box for over a week. The kit comes with the new harness, "instructions", and a small pouch with a bracket, nut and bolt, and (3) zip ties.

Now I haven't had the opportunity to order much from Slee but what I have ordered has been top notch. But each time, what has been lacking is the instruction set that comes with their products. It leaves way too much up to interpretation. When idiots like me are involved, interpretation isn't good.

Total time needed for install for first time user: 90 mins. It would have been less time if I wasn't scratching my head at certain points.

Tools required:
• Ratchet
• 12MM socket
• 10MM socket
• 8MM socket
• extension
• larger zip ties
• wire cutters
• frosty beverage

Step one: disconnect the battery, remove the lights from the housings and remove the lights from the old wiring harness. Set lights aside.

Step two: Completely remove the crossmember bracket that is in front of the radiator. While reading the instructions I had no idea what this part was and what bolts I needed to take off. Once I figured it out, then it became a little more obvious. This requires a 12 and 10MM socket to remove the necessary bolts. If you live in a rust prone area I would recommend spraying your favorite rust penetrator onto the bolt heads before hand or else you run the risk of breaking some bolts as another member just learned. There are a few little brackets attached to the crossmember that need to be disconnected as well. These are moveable (they swivel) once the bolt is removed so take note of these. While I was taking the two bolts from the latch mechanism I learned that you do NOT need to disconnect the cable and I learned that you do NOT need to try and remove the plastic that covers it because there is a third bolt hidden underneath. Once the latch is off then you will see the hidden bolt for another support. Once this is removed then the entire crossmember bracket will be able to be lifted.

Step Three: now the crossmember does NOT need to be completely removed but instead just lifted up. You will need to lightly force forward the plastic grill attachment so that you can get the lip of the crossmember out from under it. You COULD try and route without doing this but its just so much easier once its up and out of the way. Doing this will expose the existing wiring harness, it exposes the path by which you will run the new wiring harness and, for me, it exposed the pathway by which I am going to run the new battery cables needed for my dual battery install.

[NLXTACY]

Step Four: Starting from the DS of the truck (93-97), start pulling the PS side of the new wiring harness through the same route as the existing wiring harness. Make sure it follows the same path and that the harness isn't in front of the hood latch cable or horns. Just follow the same path. Once you pull it all the way to the passenger side, you will see the opening to go into the PS of the fender. Pull it through so that its just long enough to reach the lights and then some for slack. Once you are sure of where the harness should be, go ahead and grab the hi and lo beam lights, tab some dielectric grease in the pigtail socket and install the headlight into the socket. Once those two lights are attached to the harness and then to the housing, you will see where the old wiring harness ground is. Its on the left side inner fender well. Its two wires connected by a bolt. You will be attaching the ground to this same spot. Take the old light connectors and use electrical tape to cover the sockets and then stuff them into the light housing.

Step Five: Now you can go ahead and start using some real zip ties, not the ones included in the kit, and start zip tying the new harness to the old wiring harness. I used two zip ties under the crossmember, one on the PS and one on the DS.

Step Six: Repeat the same process for attaching the DS lights as you did for the PS lights.

Step Seven: In the little baggy you get with the kit is three useless zip ties, a bolt, a nut and an "L" bracket. Now this was a real head scratcher. Mainly because the instructions failed to mention this and I had no idea what to do with it. After staring at it for a good 15 minutes I figured it must somehow all fit together. So I looked that the wiring harness for the relay connectors and they are really close together. Ok so the relays must be close together too. What if I..... BINGO! You can see in the picture how I "assume" they go together. Makes sense to me anyway. Now to add it the to the inner fender...but where? Well there are two spare holes in the inner near where the DS ground is connected. I chose the top one. BUT, there is no bolt to go in there. THIS should be part of the kit. I can't image all the FJ80s not all being the same bolt. Luckily I has a spare one from a project I worked on earlier. Now that you have decided where its going, ATTACH THE RELAYS INTO THE WIRING HARNESS BEFORE YOU ATTACH THE RELAYS TO THE FENDER!!!!

[NLXTACY]

The relays attached to the inner fender well. Yes I know I need a washer in there. I didn't have one handy. :P

[NLXTACY]

Step Eight: Once you have attached the relays and the head light connectors you are left with three sets of connectors. The two small white plastic connectors are to be used for either your existing aux. lights or for your future setup. I don't have aux. lights yet so I taped up the connectors with electrical tape and stuffed them into the light housing out of the way. That leaves two sets of wires left. Now for me this was another head scratch moment because Slee's instructions say to attach the two plastic connectors to the OEM harness. Well, I spent 15 minutes like an idiot trying to find the harness connectors from the existing harness. Then it dawned on me...the connectors that were used for the lights. The ones I taped up and put away. Those plug right into the new wiring harness. They only go one way so there is no screwing these up.

Step Nine: Now you are left with the red wires to white connectors to black wires to round metal loops. Well in the instructions it says red wires. Makes no mention of the black. Well after some digging I learn that these are actually fusible links and that they just get attached directly to the pos+ of the battery. Now I would have liked this particular cable to be longer so that I could route this cable behind the battery tray and have it go into the same harness as what is there already. So right now it looks goofy. I will change this later when I create all new cables for the dual battery set up.

Step Ten: connect battery and test. I'm mad at myself for not taking before and after pictures of the light brightness but it was a noticeable difference. Reconnect the crossmember. ****NOTE: One ADDITIONAL word of caution to anyone doing this install, when re-installing the hood latch make sure you hand tighten all of the three bolts first. Then pull up as hard as you can on the latch. Yes, pull up to get it as high on the slots as you can. Then tighten the bottom bolt first then the two up top. The reason for doing this is to make sure that your hood closes completely. If not you will be driving yourself nuts trying to figure out why your hood isn't closing correctly. *****

I used this time to adjust the level of my headlights using the bubble and line levels in the light housing. If I had planned better I would be installing my new John Deere HIR lights that I am getting on Monday but I didn't feel like waiting.

[jditom]

Nice write up!

This should go to the FAQ for future reference.

[FirstToy]

this is really nice. It takes the mystery out of this often talked about item. so was it worth it? it actually made your stock headlights brighter?
i'm tempted just to clean up the growing maze of wires...

[p8nt]

Originally Posted by FirstToy

it actually made your stock headlights brighter?

X2...

[NLXTACY]

Like I had in my write up, I am kicking myself for not taking before and after pictures of the light intensity. But yes, they are noticeably brighter. Also last night I noticed my lights no longer dim down when the A/C kicks on like it use to do.

[Lka1988]

Nice. That's the same way I did my relays, but with washers. I bolted mine inside the battery tray, though.

[robmir]

NLXTACY: I enjoyed a lot your very well explained post, and don't worry about Slee's lack of detailed installation explanation, you have to see the aussie's instructions for the ARB or TJM bullbars, or the LRA auxiliary gas tanks because it seems like all of them received when toddlers a tool box as they first toy.

Any how the first thing I am concerned is the location of the relays, they are too close to the battery and it doesn't matter if the relays are sealed but the plugs are not, so the female spade pins can corrode. I would protect them with the same OEM grease used by the vehicle manufacturers.

[NLXTACY]

hey ROBMIR, its funny, I was concerned about the same thing actually but I wanted to keep the relays within the battery box. In the meantime I used dielectric grease on all connectors including the relay. I also thought about adding in a small flexible rubber flap that would cover the relays but wasn't sure if I really wanted to go THAT nuts with it. Hmm, maybe I AM that nuts.

[Blue Phoenix]

Awesome write up...This will be very useful when I install mine in a couple weeks.

[debushau]

I had wondered what that L-bracket was for . . .

[NLXTACY]

Just got the JD HIR's in the mail today. I will be posting standard vs HIR light output USING Slee's new harness. Is there any particular way that you folks want to get quantitative results other than just shining the lights on a white wall?

[96landcruiser]

sweet write up will help everyone installing this tremendously!!!

[badmuthatrucka]

Excellent write-up, and I can't wait to see the difference between stock and JD HIR bulbs.

[NLXTACY]

Hey folks, first off thanks for the kudos. Makes it worth spending the time on this stuff. Well here comes the findings so far. The replacement HI beam bulbs I got are the John Deere AH211917, made in ugh...China. They are actually Toshiba 12V55W bulbs. Here is the packaging for it and the bulb itself. Its been shown in a million places on this forum already but I figured I would include it here as well.

[NLXTACY]

So as you can see, the bulbs are basically identical except for two things, the physical size of the bulb itself (which is what gives it the output) and the size of the rear tab. The JD bulb has a wider tab than the stock light. This is an easy fix with a pair of wire cutters. I trimmed down the overall size of the tab to get it close to the housing, then I nipped off a small piece to get it similar to the shape of the stock light. It does not have to be exact, the light housing on the truck is very forgiving.

[NLXTACY]

You can see from the photos that the light output from the new bulbs is pretty significant. The hot spot is much higher and brighter. The horizontal cut-off remains about the same and there is a wider output out the sides as compared with stock. If I had a light meter I could get you actual luminescence numbers...but I don't so

Going to be ordering up the [edit: mis-typed LO first time around] HI beam HIRs soon and that will give the final update to this wiring upgrade. So far I have to say that I am pretty darn happy with the set up and the actual light output has drastically increased.

[sseaman]

i would think the best test would be a light meter.

[NLXTACY]

well yeah :P

Maybe I'll go borrow one

[FirstToy]

thanks for the info nlxtacy, i had actually never seen the deere bulb or what needed to be done. looks like a nice mod.

[Tapage]

Subscribing to read it tomorrow..

[azrider]

NLXTACY- dude, you either mis-typed your last post or are using the wrong bulbs for your highs. click on the link below, 3rd paragraph. I had to go to the garage to double check my John Deere box and it is the same as yours. I read the 50 page write-up on this and did the mod a few weeks ago. These are my low beams, and the thread recommends purchasing high beam bulbs from Daniel Stern to replace the stockers. Just double check if I were you.

http://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-te...hir-bulbs.html

[NLXTACY]

AZRIDER, you are absolutely right!. I've edited the post to reflect the correct information. Thats what happens when you stay up til 2AM doing an FAQ instead of staring at the back of my eyelids. :P

[azrider]

its better to make a typing error than too have actually put them in as high beams. I did the swap but havent had a chance to see the difference because my headlight brackets are broken or missing so I cant adjust properly. A member of mud is sending me two used ones this week so i'll know by next weekend. It was a cheap mod anyway, my wifes uncle is a mechanic for John Deere so he got them for me at cost.

[NLXTACY]

Hehe, well its pretty much impossible...well ok, not impossible but because the plugs are keyed specifically I would have to go out of my way to modify either the plug or the light in order to put the wrong one in. So instead yeah, its just me being dumb :P

[robmir]

I checked your bulb pictures and I am not sure but seems like the John Deere bulb is not exactly centered in the base or maybe my eyes are tired !!!!!

[thugmusk]

Originally Posted by NLXTACY

BUT, there is no bolt to go in there. THIS should be part of the kit. I can't image all the FJ80s not all being the same bolt. Luckily I has a spare one from a project I worked on earlier.

Any idea what size bolt that is? If I missed that info my apologies.

Rich

[NLXTACY]

Nope, I've now done it to both lights and they both are at the same level now. Because of the coating of the bulb it seems to be shooting slightly higher. There is only one way to put the bulbs in so its not that. I don't have a lift so there was no need to change the housing direction. But as the lights themselves are level.