Head Light Relay Modification

[Paul of MO]

We did the headlight relay modification on both the 73 Mustang and the 68 Torino last weekend.

It took less than 20 bucks worth of parts and about an hour to do each car and made a HUGE difference in the brightness of both the dash lights and the headlights.

You can buy a pre made kit but this is more fun. The kit is $66.00 or $99.00.

Here is a past thread on this pre made kit install.

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-head-light-relay-kit-install

or,

Here is the instructions and schematic for the DIY type people.

http://1970mgr.org/_HeadlightRelays.htm

Notes:

The red/black stripe wire and the green/black stripe wires need to be spliced into from the main harness that goes to the fire wall and not the smaller harness that comes from behind the drivers head light. I tapped into the shorter harness first and only one side worked. Once I tapped into the main harness farther back it worked peachy.

Because I have been stuck at night with no lights before:

We ran a separate power lead and fuse for each relay so if one fuse popped the other would still operate. The schematic attached shows a single power lead.

Lastly we added a simple rocker switch on each of the original headlight leads so one could easily "reconnect" them if the relays failed - restoring the original type of operation.

For ease I would also recommend that you get the relay sockets - I thought I had some at the house but did not so we just used spade connectors to make the connection at the relays.

http://www.amazon.com/Parts-Express-5-Pin-Relay-Socket/dp/B0002ZPUMG

You could also get fancy and replace the fuses with self resetting breakers.

Once done everything was wrapped in electrical tape and tucked away below the washer tank.

- Paul of MO

 

[Mister 4x4]

Awesome Write-Up! ::thumb::

I actually had already bought the kit, along with some H4 headlights/housings - meaning, I'll be switching to G.E. Silver Star bulbs (like I have in my Ram) which are absolutely awesome at night!

I do like the point about increasing the brightness in the dash lights, which makes perfect sense, since you're eliminating the draw of the headlights themselves from the circuit (so everything else would be brighter by default).

Thanks again!

 

[jbojo]

I used the RCCI kit since it required no splicing to the wiring harness. You just connect one of the connectors from the relay to the headlamp and the original headlamp connector to snother relay connector. Then you just need to rout the power wire to the battery. Less than a half hours time to install it. Kit even came with a CB if you didn't want to use a blade fuse.