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Dipped beam on sealed headlight not working


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Hello,

The dipped beam on my passenger side headlight has given up the ghost. Its a 1986 ex-military 90, sealed unit headlights. I was wondering what headlight units you guys might suggest changing over too? I may as well change them both whilst Im at it, something with a bit more brightness would be good, but id prefer not to spend too much on them! Also how tricky are they to change. Any links to changing the units over and new units would be a great help.

Thanks a lot,

Ash

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I recently changed my old lights (which were halogens, but with 2" of water in each side and the resulting rusty chrome) for a set of Wipac Crystals and I'm quite happy with them.

Got them from eBay and they came with a set of half-bowls (which makes changing a bulb a 30-second job rather than taking the front trim out etc.):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220764578224

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I guess they are. But £27 a side including new mounting rings/bowls and all the hardware and bulbs isn't too bad I think. They're also polycarbonate lenses so they are less prone to cracking if you like to wade enthusiastically. And they use the reflector to create the beam pattern instead of the lens, like all modern cars.

I am in the process of putting together a loom to supply the headlamps directly from the battery via relays etc. as this will also improve light output. The wiring in Land Rovers, older ones especially, isn't particularly good at getting full system voltage to the headlamps. So it's a pretty common mod to re-wire them as such.

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I recomend Hella lights. Very good dip beam

BUT

The wiring fitted by Land Rover isn't strong enough for ordinary tunstone lights never mind halogens. It's no good fitting decent lights only to have a volt drop through the wiring.

1986 military. I would suspect no relays fitted to the headlight wiring either. You won't half go through dip switch contacts without the relays.

Here's how I've wired headlights up for many years. A well tied and trusted method.......

Each headlight has a connector for the bulb.
Fit a bulb into the connector and hold the bulb in your hand looking at the back of the connector with the middle terminal at the top.
Left hand terminal==Earth.Black wire
Top terminal========Dip beam.Blue red tracer.
Right hand terminal=Mainbeam.Blue white tracer.


Headlight wiring circuit.Provides dip at all times.Fuses to protect the wiring in case of accident damaging headlights.
You will need.
Two 70amp relays R70 from Vehicle Wiring Products.
Suitable correct colour coded cable of at least 29/0.030 wire of the required length for each of the headlight circuits.
Cable at least 44/0.30 Brown for the feed to the relay.
cable at least 44/0.30 black to earth the headlight bulb.
cable 14/0.30 to earth the relays.
Fuse box for spade type fuses,one fuse for each bulb element.
Lucar connectors to suit both the fuse box and the relay.
Connectors for the feed to the relay.
DISCONNECT THE BATTERY.
Fit both the fuse box andthe relays in a suitable position.
Make up a small loom,one dip one main beam[assuming two headlights]one earth.
Take the earth to the body/chassis.
take the dip wire to the fuse box and connect.
Take the main beam wire to the fuse box and connect.
Repeat for the other side.
You should now have the headlights wired into the fuse box.
As we are using the 70 amp relay.take a large lucar connector and join TWO wires into that connector for the dip circuit,make that wire a suitable length to go from the relay to the fuse box.
Repeat for the other light.
You should now be wired from the relay to the headlight.
Take TWO lengths of Brown wire fron either,the starter solenoid or the battery master switch.What ever is convienent,one wire to each of the relays useing the othe large terminal.
Earth both relays.
NOW!!!
Cut the ORIGINAL headlight connector off the Original headlight wiring and fit a Lucar connector to both the dip and main beam wires.
Fit fuses.
It should now work.
Good!!!

NOTE
I haven't given the relay connector numbers.That information MUST be supplied with the relay.

To have the dip switched on permantly.

Remove the shroud from the steering column.
Comming up the column is a cluster of wires.
The Blue wire is the headlight feed to the switch.
Te Blue with a red tracer is the dip feed from the dipswitch.
Cut both these wires and join together.I use a bullet connector but you can now get a proper Lucar block connector.
Please try this with test wirs before cutting the wires.

You can also do the same thing useing a relay.PM me if you would like me to sort this method out.

Get out bit.....
I've given you this information to the best of my ability.This is the method I've used on four of my rally cars and most of my road cars.Please use a fused link to check everything works before reconnecting the battery.

headlight+wiring.jpg

This is how mine is fitted to the inside of the left front wing.

The two brown wires are the live feed from the starter motor terminal

The spiral wrapped wires are the feeds from the old headlight connector to trigger the relays.

The wire comming out of the front of the fuse box [on the right of the picture] are the wires to each headlight.


The relay to the front of the picture is for the fan

HTH

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Brain fart! Looks good mmgemini, I would love to do that to my landy at some point when time allows (just like the rest of the plans that I have for it!), but Im hoping for a quick fix right now, I have spotters on it connected and relayed to the full beam at the moment, so brightness is there when I need it. I appreciate your imput very much and your information will for sure be going into my "todo" list!!!!!!! Cheers!

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Brain fart! Looks good mmgemini, I would love to do that to my landy at some point when time allows (just like the rest of the plans that I have for it!), but Im hoping for a quick fix right now, I have spotters on it connected and relayed to the full beam at the moment, so brightness is there when I need it. I appreciate your imput very much and your information will for sure be going into my "todo" list!!!!!!! Cheers!

Thank you. Print it off, put into a safe place and you have it when you get it done.

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mmgemini, are you saying that upgraded decent headlights that are left on the stock/old landy wiring could have a detrimental effect on the old wiring/contacts (I dont want that, Iv had too meny electrical problems!), or is it just that the new lights wouldn't be as good as they could be (I could live with that). If its the case that upgraded lights will affect the wiring/contacts in a negitive way then I would rather just buy a set of stock/not upgraded lights and not have to worry, and change/upgrade at a later date when I have time to get all eletrical! I hope Im making sense?!

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