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Joined the Beige Club - '78 242DL

SLOTh_244 said:
Cam-

please write a tutorial on the headlights... pretty please :-)

-everyone everywhere
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M.H. Yount said:
This is the lighting tutorial I used as a basis for doing my upgrade. This entire site should be bookmarked for anyone that's serious about lighting. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html
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Bingo. That's the exact article I used for the basis of my redo of the circuit. The only variation I adapted for mine, for simplicity sake was to only use one relay, inserted between the switch and the step relay instead of 2 separate relays after the step relay (one for hi one for low) like in Daniel Stern's article. While my version won't be as 100% awesome as the Daniel Stern version, it's still solves a major issue with the stock system of running all the power through the headlight switch which adds a lot of resistance and is also a little dangerous in my opinion.


mblue240 said:
If you ever need a second set of hands please let me know...
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Will do. None of it is really that complicated, just takes some thought and planning. I've learned that taking the time to draw out the circuit before you start tearing into things will help make the job easier.
 
I placed my relays (2 on each side - yeah, overboard) in the front most, lower corner of the fenderwell. From there it was easy to run the 'old' 12v+ wire from each headlight to be the 'trigger' of the relay. I put an audio style fuse-box on the passenger side fenderwell with an 8 ga wire/cable running to it from the alternator; 1 20A fuse for the headlights on each side (2 fuses); and then 10 ga wire from the fuse box to power up the relays. Built a separate harness out of 10ga (+ side and ground) and used the factory bulb plugs/terminals (they come apart for rewiring). With 55W high-output halogens on the low beam, and 100W on the two stand-alone high beams, it fries eggs at 50'. Well, sort of.
 
A nice way to get high quality, high capacity relays is to pull them from a newer car at the yard. Alex and I rewired my old 242 with all solid state 850 relays. It worked very well. This way you get nice stuff that's actually engineered and built to be installed in a car.
 
Yup - all 4 of mine (Bosch) came from previous cars/projects -- sittin' in the 'spares' box. Just need to be sure they're up to the task capacity-wise.
 
Old lump removed:

DSC_2470.JPG
 
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