DEPO Lights with a Slee Harness

[thedoughboy]

OK. Take this for what it is...Without being there, testing with voltmeter blah, blah, blah I can't say for certain. Be sure to TEST everything. However, looking at the picture you posted and assuming this:

H4 Connector:

Brown = Ground
Yellow = 12 v +
​

H1 Connector:

Brown = Ground
White = 12 v +
​

1. Cut the yellow wire on the H4 connector. Run the light switch side directly to #30 on relay. Run a wire from #87a on relay back to the plug side of the H4 connector. You will basically insert the relay between the two sides of the yellow wire.
   
2. Run a wire from #87 on the relay back to the high beam filament of the H4 connector. It looks like you will need to source this part. In all honesty, you may just want to pick up some H4 connectors with all 3 wires already connected. Your choice.
3. Splice, but do not cut, a wire from the white wire on the H1 connector to #86 on relay. This will trigger the relay to toggle between the low and high filament of the H4 bulb. When this is charge (by turning on your high beams) the connection switches from 87a to 87 on the relay.

I hope this helps. Let us know how it turns out! I am road tripping tomorrow so I will most likely be out of touch.

 

[Dragos80]

Thanks for the illustration.

You got me a little more confused now. I thought the yellow wire connector is the one for high beam (H1) since it only has one wire on that plug, as the H1 bulb only has one connector (positive).

 

[thedoughboy]

Do you have the harness with you? I was assuming the top 2 brown/yellow were for the H4 bulbs. I assumed the brown wire on the right side of the picture was not visible due to the angle of the pic. Is this not the case? Can you tell me which connector (white/brown or yellow/brown) goes with H1 or H4?

 

[Dragos80]

I am probably sabotaging everything here since I don't have anything in front of me yet.
I am currently waiting for everything to arrive and in doing so I tried to gather as much knowledge about the installing options as I could. I still need to order the relays.

I'll just have to wait for everything to arrive and then I will even be able to take pictures and point at which harness is the H1 or H4, etc.

I guess there is a lot of built up anxiety on my part at this moment.

 

[thedoughboy]

No worries. I know how it is. You want to be ready to roll when everything shows up.

The picture you provided leads me to believe the H4 connections are the top two. Those two connectors look like H4s. Regardless, when everything arrives, if you need help, just ask.

Let me know if you need anything else. If I need to modify the schematic due to a change I can do that. However, I am out until the weekend.

 

[Dragos80]

Thank you.

I'll take pictures of everything when it arrives. Harness, lightbulbs, headlights to show clearly which harness fits the respective bulb, etc.

 

[Blondie]

Unpacked the Depo's. They use what seems to be a standard wire/spring retainer for both the H1 and H4 bulbs. Would be easy enough to make a ground directly to that screw holding the retainer in place. Could use an anderson plug on it so you've got an easy way to swap out bulbs later on down the road.

 

[Dragos80]

I got the lamps and the bulbs. No harness yet. Maybe tomorrow or Monday.

 

[Dragos80]

Picture update as promised (still no harness)

This is the high beam side (H1).

 

[thedoughboy]

Yep, that's what mine looks like. That's why I felt the brown/white (bottom 2 connectors) in the photo you posted are for the H1 connection.

When you get your harness take some pictures and post them up if you need assistance.

 

[Dragos80]

Got the harness today. Installed one lamp (getting dark earlier now).
Everything works fine, except the H4 high since I don't have my relays yet.

 

[Dragos80]

 

[thedoughboy]

OK, looks good. Can you confirm:

H4 - Yellow/Brown Harness
H1 - White/Brown Harness

 

[Dragos80]

Yes
H4, Yellow at "12 o'clock" and brown at "3 o'clock" as you look at from the light bulb side.

H1, Brown right, white left, again from the bulb's side and the round part down.

 

[thedoughboy]

That's what I thought. Yellow is for the low beam filament and brown is the ground. The empty slot (on the H4 connector) is for the high beam filament. You will need to source the hardware to make that work. It is probably a common part...I just do not know what it is called. You can find H4 connectors at any auto store. I would imagine you can use the hardware from one of those.

The schematic I drew should work for your application.

When the low beams are on, your low beam filament on the H4 will be charged. The power will enter the relay at #30 and exit at #87A. No power will go to the high beam filament (H4 bulb). There is NO power supplied to the "trigger" (#86) of the relay. See Fig 1A below.

When you turn your high beams on you will supply power to the H1 bulb AND trigger (by supplying power to #86) the relay. When this occurs, the relay switches power from #87A (low beam filament H4) to #87 (high beam filament H4). See Fig 1B.

 

[Dragos80]

Cool, thanks.
I can always ghetto fab something. I just did a ghetto beam adjustment on one of the headlamps I just installed today. I tried adjusting the beam using the 4 adjustment scows and the results were dismal. By mistake I touched the rubber gasket sealing the lightbulb and the whole beam changed a lot. So I played with it a little and found out that the housing may be a little off As the H4 sits perfectly square to the housing, it throws light too close to the car. I lifted (pivoted) the connector up, thus pushing the bulb down and the entire light pattern moved up as wanted in the first place.
I thought of a zip tie, but I was too lazy to go inside the house to look for a long one.
I got a piece of electrical wire I had in my tool box and looped it around the connector and to one of the hood stopper on top of the headlamp.
I'm really pleased with the results.

 

[Dragos80]

I found these connectors on ebay. I'll just use on of those wires to connect them to the relay and the harness.

(2) H4 9003 Heavy duty wire headlight harness socket Ceramic Extension Connector

 

[absalom]

HID projector retrofits aren't expensive anymore OP. I've run two of these kits on other trucks, and just ordered a third to accompany a brand new set of DEPO's for my 81. Takes about 2 hours to install, and the results are simply stunning.

Here's my last set of DDM's on a former 4runner.

 

[thedoughboy]

@absalom
Those have come down in price. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Dragos80]

Would it be OK to switch the wires for H4 high and low in order to have the 65W (high) on all the time while the low beam is on?