Light Modifications - For FAQ (1 Viewer)

[Romer]

Post them up. Any lighting modification that you feel is worth sharing:

Underside lights for night wheeling.
other auxileray lights
back-up lights
turn signal modifications
George's LED Lights

someone who has switched out their headlights for the brighter beams, please post that with what the advantages are.

As usual, keep the commentary to a minimum

Thanks,

Romer and reffug

 

[Mickldo]

A cheap headlight upgrade for Aussie spec cruisers (and other quad headlight models) is to replace the standard sealed beams with H4 and H1 inserts. With mine I went to the local wrecking yard and got some Nissan Urvan (yeah I know, I know) headlights for $15 ea. These bolted straight in to the standard headlight buckets. I used Narva Plus 50 bulbs in the H4 12V55/60W and H1 12V55W sizes. The standard wiring was used with the exeption of the wiring plug adaptor doo-hickey for the outer high/low bulb wiring. All that is needed is to remove the doo-hickey adaptor and plug the wiring loom directly onto the bulb. Sorry I don't have pics of this as it was done many years before I found MUD.

 

[Mickldo]

As 80s don't have a rear cargo light I fitted a fluro to provide light for getting bourbons out of the Engel. I used a Narva 87340 fluro.

http://www.narva.com.au/Truck-Trailer_31.html

The install was pretty staightforward. In fact I fitted my light, bought my lunch and ate my lunch in my 40min lunchbreak at work. The wiring is tucked up under the headlining at the rear. I soldered and heatshrunk the connections then used stainless steel self drilling screws to attach the light to the roof. I screwed through the headlining about 35mm to right of the centre line of the vehicle.

Some links to cargo light install threads.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=82720
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=28622


Photo of my light.

 

[Mickldo]

Some pics of my rocklights. These were just some cheapo 12V55W spots from Super Cheap Auto. The front one was attached to the topside of the bottom edge of the ARB bullbar and the rear just above the rear crossmember. Both f & r were fitted centrally.







This setup works OK but would be better with some light in the centre of the vehicle. I'm thinking another pair of lights mounted to the g/box crossmember, maybe with one facing forward and the other facing back.
I wired these up to my aux battery but not through a relay. The switch is just a cheap Narva rocker switch fitted next to the cig lighter.

 

[TX_TLC]

From the inspiration of T Y L E R (yikes ) I installed side blinkers on my mirrors. I used small L.E.D. amber marker lights from Wal Mart. It was the only place I could find small enough amber lights that would work. Installation was simple thanks to TYLERs thread. Simply tap into the wires from the front turn signal and route the wires back up through the mirror. I have been VERY happy with the added visibility of my turn signals. Before I did this mod, I turned my turn signal on and stepped to the side of my truck. It is AMAZING the area on the side of the truck in which you cannot see the signal flashing.

The nice thing with these L.E.D.s is the housing is completly sealed. So there is no way water can get to the connections. There are two small screws which hold them on to the mirror and I was able to retain full range of motion of the mirror.

The other picture shows the "short cut" wire routing. It cannot be seen at all when the door is closed.

 

[TiredIronGRB]

This is a tractor fender light (Tractor Supply) that I use when winching at night so as to not run down the battery with the headlights.

 

[Romer]

Another one from Tch2fly, originall posted in this thread

I have been wanting to improve the cargo area lighting in my 80. I have read all the threads and didn't find exactly what I was looking for. A few weeks ago while looking through my basement I found a set of low voltage lights designed to fit under cabinets. These are 12 volt/10 watt lights that use a transformer when run off household current. At a glance they appeared to be about the same size as opening for the cargo area speakers.

I pulled the cover off and discovered that except for a tiny lip the lights would slip into the cover nice and snug.

First step: pull the cover and remove the grill by bending the tabs on the backside. (I'm sure you could leave the grill and cut it out to fit the lights if desired)

Next using a dremel style tool or lots of elbow grease remove the lip inside the cover.

Push the light into the cover and fasten with screws.

I ran the wiring down the rear pillar and used power that I had already run to power my subwoofer. I chose to put the switch inside the old ashtray holder to prevent accidental activation. They are very bright and do a great job!
Pics of the install

 

[airlaird]

Damn Romer..very nice mod. Man I tried to pull that speaker cover off a few years ago...It never came out. Nice job.
airlaird

 

[Romer]

Damn Romer..very nice mod. Man I tried to pull that speaker cover off a few years ago...It never came out. Nice job.
airlaird

Neither of those were my mods. If you look, you will see It is a qoute from another thread with the originators name. Just trying to keep things together.

 

[Bear80]

Damn Romer..very nice mod. Man I tried to pull that speaker cover off a few years ago...It never came out. Nice job.
airlaird

On 95-97 the headliner must come down to remove the covers.

 

[JerseyCruiser]

Front Map Light Modification

When I bought my Cruiser a year ago I was annoyed that when you open any of the doors especially the drivers door that the front map does not come on (FSM calls it "front personal light") I call it a map light. This became more annoying after installing George's LED's in all of the lights and having all that high powered light behind you and a darkened dash and front seats.

I did a mod to my 97 Tahoe when I bought it (can I say Tahoe in this forum?) same deal with dark front seats and figured it was time to fix my Cruiser as well. This is a very easy modification. All of the interior lights have constant positive voltage and illuminate when a ground path is provided by one of the door courtesy switches or by the switch on the lights themselves and same for the map light. What needs to be done is get a wire from the map light to one of the door switches or to one of the other dome lights. If you don't have a moon roof this is easily done by removing both lights in question and with a straightened out coat hanger snake the wire across the headliner. Be careful when poking around above the headliner with the hanger make sure you have made an eye at the end and taped it so it won't snag anything. Cdan has quoted prices of both suspended and molded headliners in excess of $1200.00 once again BE CAREFUL! I have the suspended headliner in my cruiser and this is what I did:

1- Remove weatherstrip from the both front and rear door on the DS (be careful at the top the headliner over the rear door may be stuck in the weatherstrip) and open up the map light.

2- Peel back a small area of the headliner at the top of the DS A-pillar and pass you snake behind the map light attach your wire and pull it though.

3-peel back the headliner across the top of the rear DS door and snake your wire above the rear door.

4- Above the rear door you will find a white plug that is next to the moon roof pan. Disconnect it for better acess and connect your wire to the black wire with the white tracer. I cheated and used a blue 3M T-tap crimp connector. The best way would be to solder and tape the connection but I did not want to risk tearing the headliner or burning a hole in it. Reconnect white plug and tie-wrap everything to so its not lying on the headliner. If this is being done at the dome light you would connect it to the same colored wire.

5-At the map light drill a hole in the heat shield and attach your wire as I did, and put everything back together you are done.

If you have a molded headliner I assume you could bring the wire down the B-pillar then to the door switch. Now when the doors open a ground path is provide by your jumper and lights the map light. An added bonus I discovered when testing it out was that when you turn on the map light manually it sends a ground path back to the other dome lights and lights them too. If you don't want this to occur you could block the ground path back feeding the other lights with diode. I think its great you have one switch control over all the lights like a domestic car!

Enjoy
George

 

[JerseyCruiser]

Front Map Light Modification

I posted this modification again because I didn't want the link to the original post to become inactive as it sometimes does and wanted to edit the post and add another picture.

George

 

[wearsabrowncoat]

I just replaced the door lights with some LEDs from superbrightleds.com. I heard the 6-LED wedge base model would work (WLED 6-LED bulb) but I decided to give their other wedge base bulb a try (WLED 5-LED Wide Angle LED bulb). It only has 5 LEDs, 4 are radially mounted to give a wide angle of light and the center LED is a high flux LED that puts out a little more light. I figured this would give me the best of both worlds: wide angle and more light. The bulb worked and it apears slightly brighter than the stock bulb. It is hard to tell from the pictures but when I open the rear door I can see light coming from the door lights and that was never noticed before. The 4 lights cost $20.76 with shipping. They are the white bulbs so they cost an extra $0.95 each. View attachment 110955

 

[wearsabrowncoat]

new light over old light.

 

[wearsabrowncoat]

Old light
View attachment 110967

 

[wearsabrowncoat]

bulb

 

[LandCrusher'70]

That doesn't seem very bright to me. (The LED bulb, that is.)

 

[wearsabrowncoat]

It is slightly brighter than the original bulb. It is hard to tell with all the glare coming off the snow in the background. Looking at it in the picture the radial bulbs aren't reflected out very well. The 6 LED model might put out more light than the 1 high flux LED in this one but I am not sure. As it is I am happy, I'm getting slightly more light and the drain won't kill the battery if my boys don't close the door all the way (once I have George's overhead lights in that is).

 

[sandcruiser]

seems like you could get a lot more reflection by taking the bulb out of the housing and hitting it with some white paint. Or you could get more complicated and cut out an aluminum reflector of some sort (beer can= good source of thin aluminum)

 

[latinoguy]

Don't forget heckler's DOME LED lights mod...here is the link...https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=131597&highlight=LED

The lights are 31" 36 led light array that can fit into the domes very easily.....I did this mod and very happy with the light quality for a cost of about $30.....