Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Despite the lack of diagrams, this was wildly easy.
Instructions:
Wire up a harness as seen in the image below:
View attachment 2207713
The black connector plugs into the spot where your high beams once plugged in.
The new high beam connector is marked H and the new low beam connector is marked L. Note that you are no longer using the old connector for the low beams (this is where you plug in a relay if you want to get your high beam dash indicator working again).
The green wire with nothing connected is your ground. I put a 1/4 inch ring connector on it, and grounded it to the bolt holding the horn in place on each side as seen below:
View attachment 2207717
Worked beautifully! I can finally see at night!
y 24V Euro spec HJ61, everything worked without building a harness. I just had to reverse the polarity of the high beam switch - i.e. plug it in backwards and everything worked perfectly. @Paco had the same experience.
From the looks of it, the stock wiring for the high beams is 16 or even possibly 18 gauge. I suspect 16. Not sufficient to safely handle the 6.6A (~80W) total draw of both a high beam and a low beam being on at the same time for an extended period (and I do a ton of driving on lonely highways late at night where I have my highs on). When I convert my harness, I'll wire in two relays, one for high and one for low, with the relays being triggered identically to the way the OP wired up his headlights. I'll still use the exact same trigger OP devised for the high beam indicator though, since that can easily be tucked out of the way. I still want to get rid of my Tangen harness I built so A) I can more comfortably fit a G34 battery without the relays taking up space, and B) have the low beams stay on when I turn the high beams on.
If you want the top-of-the-heap option, it's these American-made LED headlamps, which are phenomenally good and will not require relays because they draw less current than even the weak sealed beams
If each assembly was being run from its own corresponding connector, power draw wouldn't be an issue. The problem comes from one high beam connector powering both a high beam and a low beam headlight for a long period on a 62. Since these are heated, they still each draw just shy of 40W when the heating element is powered (which is thermostatically controlled by the controller integrated in the assembly itself). No problem at all when one connector is dedicated to one assembly. Problem is, if you do wire the lights to be powered from their appropriate factory connectors, while it would work, you would lose the high beam indicator.Hi Spook,
Thanks for the info. Can you expand a little for me? I went with this plan based off Daniel Stern's comment:
I thought I was going top-of-the heap! But do I see that when I plug this into a wire-guage calculator, it says I should probably be running bigger wire as you mention. Maybe Stern's comment was assuming each of these bulbs was running through its own wiring as opposed to just the high beams?
What is the concern running these bulbs with the existing single high beam wire? Heating the wiring and fire risk (I'd hope I'm protected by the existing high beam fuse)? Loss of voltage impacting reliability of the LEDs?
Now that I've done this electrical work, I'm up for another project rewiring for the correct size. For simplicity sake, could this be done with a single relay per side? If I used a 80A relay with dual 14ga wires running out of the relay, at least this calculator (DC Cable Sizing Tool - Use The Correct Sized Cables - Free Calculator) says that should be fine given the fact the 14ga wires are only running about 3-4 inches.
If each assembly was being run from its own corresponding connector, power draw wouldn't be an issue.
My concern is that with the original layout, too much current will be pulled through the too small positive lead from the factory high beam connector. If you drive with your highs on for extended periods, this could cause the wire to heat up and worst case scenario break and cause a short and risk for a vehicle fire. In OP's original layout, it's set up so one low beam and one high beam are both powered by one factory high beam connector, and the low beam stays on when the high beam is on (which is an arrangement I really like). Problem is, each JW Speaker light pulls 3.3A. So figure when you have the high beams on, you'll be trying to pull about 80W (combined current of one 40W low beam and one 40W high beam) each through the factory high beam connectors, which were only designed to handle 55W halogens.Spook, what is your concern with the power draw? Headlamps could go out if the heater is activated and they don't get enough current?
I have H4 pigtails and new relays on the way. Here is my plan....
High Beams - These are essentially plug and play with a reversal of pins for correct polarity.
Low Beams - I plan to insert a normally open 5-pin relay into the low beam circuit between the low beam connector and a new 2 prong H4 terminal for the LED.
Common + wire to relay terminals 86 AND H4 positive.
High beam wire to relay terminal 86.
Low beam wire to relay terminal 87 with a 10 ohm 25W resistor in line.
H4 negative to relay terminal 30
Relay terminal 87a grounded to horn bolt.
When switch is set to low beam:
Relay is open as terminal 86 will not be grounded
LED on using +12V from common positive and grounded through 87a to body (horn bolt)
When switch is set to high beam:
Relay closes as terminal 86 is grounded
LED on using +12v from common positive and grounded through 87 to low beam pin. This activates the high beam indicator as it is now in series with the LED and resistor.
How does that sound?
Most likely. I won't have a chance to yutz with it until weekend after this coming one (got my kids this weekend), but it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out once I'm in there with a multimeter and play around with the connectors and my resistors.Got partly of it figured out.
It was a bad ground AND reversed polarity.
With this setup low beams work, but flicker on high. I'm wondering if it doesn't like the 10ohm resistor.
That's dead-on exactly what I was planning to do to see if it would work. Glad to hear it seems to be a good way to go. I was however thinking the resistor needed to go to the high beam terminal on the factory connector for the high beamindicator to work in "flash" mode though. Was that not the case?I have a redesigned working version still based off a single relay.
High beam connector is still just reversed.
Connect the common positive of the low beam connector to 85 and 30 of the relay as well as positive on the H4 pigtail going to the low beams.
Connect relay 86 to the high beam pin (middle) of the low beam connector.
Connect relay 87 to the low beam pin (opposite common positive) of the low beam connector with a 10ohm resistor in series
Connect the negative side of the H4 pigtail to ground.
This works, but splits the 12v from common positive into 3 parallel circuits: 1) relay coil, 2) low beam headlamp and 3) 10ohm resistor and high beam indicator
Any issue with this spook?
I was however thinking the resistor needed to go to the high beam terminal on the factory connector for the high beamindicator to work in "flash" mode though. Was that not the case?
Ah that makes sense. I haven't even looked into my wiring diagram yet so was going off assumption when thinking through it in my head. It'll be nice to have a much more simple, but still robust, installation method for the LED headlights on a 62. Looks like the inboards will only have to have the pinout changed on the headlights' adapter harnesses to match the hot and ground leads on the factory connectors, and the outboards will need one with the relay/resistor circuit and the other with just the hot lead matched to the factory connector and ground on the headlight's connector sent to chassis ground.Great! I'll make a more robust version over the next few days.
The high beam indicator works by splitting off the low beam pin in and running to the light before ground.
When the low beams are activated, the low beam pin is grounded at the switch so no current runs through the higher resistance path with the indicator lamp.
When high beams are on the high beam terminal is grounded. The low beam pin is not grounded at the switch, so current now flows through the indicator to find ground.
It's weird wiring.