troubleshooting HID projector headlights with Morimoto 5five DSP ballasts

[txgringo]

When I bought my 80 the previous owner had purchased some customized depo lights with HID projector low beams (lense and bulb details are unknown) and halogen high beams. I pulled the grill and headlights the other day to remove the peeling plastidip from all things chrome and repainted with black bedliner.

I took pictures of the connections before disconnecting. When I put everything back together this weekend, my low beams don't light up. I've got tail lights, corner running lights, and high beams, but no low beams (high beams have no ballast, just a fancy bulb).

What I found strange was that both are not working. If one went out, I would suspect a bad ballast or bulb, but both were working fine before I pulled the headlight assemblies and neither worked after.

I didn't remove or handle the bulbs at all, and I kept the headlight assemblies and ballasts indoors and away from dust and moisture.

So far I have tried reversing the relays and also plugging an OEM bulb in the connector that the ballast gets power from. When the relays were reversed, I still get high beams but nothing from low beams. When I connect the OEM bulb, it lights up.

I did use dielectric grease on the connections (noticed that one connector had some corrosion and periodically one light would fail to light up). Other than that, so far as I can tell I have assembled everything just as it was before.

Anybody have a suggestion on what to check next? I'm hesitant to put a multimeter on the ballast out of fear of frying it....

 

[IanB]

Do you know who modified the headlights? Is this in a DEPO housing? Looking for clues as to the components used. Have you checked for popped fuses?

 

[txgringo]

Yes, depo housing. Checked all fuses and also confirmed power to the ballast.

I think the headlight mod was done by 2000uzj. I've reached out for any info he might have on it, but it's been well over a year so he might not know off hand.

 

[inkpot]

Did you put bed liner on anything that is part of the grounding circuit?

 

[txgringo]

Did you put bed liner on anything that is part of the grounding circuit?

No chance of it. I pulled the grill and surround pieces and sprayed them while off the vehicle. I only painted plastic parts....

 

[lrowe_csp]

As I recall, the connection from the morimoto ballast to the bulb is reversed from what the plug would indicate. I had to turn the plug around and push it back together so that it looked like I was connecting neg with pos. Send me a pm if that did not make sense. You can also call the Retrofit Source. They may have sold Nick the parts he used to put the lights together, and they are really good to go.

 

[danadog]

Check your wiring against the install guide. It would be helpful if you cruised the retrofit source webpage and figured out exactly what you have. I assume you likely have a DS2 bi-xenon in the low beam bucket and just a halogen H1 in the high beam?


https://www.theretrofitsource.com/media/custom/upload/Stage3-MiniD2S.pdf

 

[txgringo]

@danadog, yes I have xenon low and H1 halogen in high.

Forgot to update this thread once I found the issue. This turned out to be an issue with the wiring harness. Proved it out by hooking up my housings to a buddy's rig and vice-versa. Luckily he had a spare harness that we were able to make work with a little modification. Thanks for the pointers guys!