'82 vs '88 Headlights

[Tiggie]

Can anyone tell me why the low beams get bright and then dim when I turn on the high beams on my '88. I can see so much better when the low beams are brighter. They'll stay bright if you hold the flash-to-pass. Dose that make sense to anyone? It seems to be common on the late-80's Ford's I've driven.

It's annoying, especially when teh old '82 didn't do it. I guess something is sucking up the voltage when you let up on the flash-to-pass. Does anyone know how to stop the dimming?

[91waggin]

In your outside (low beam) bulbs, there are two filaments. One for high beams (all four are on), one for low beams. When you hold the flash-to-pass, both filaments in the outer bulb are lit. When you press forward on the stalk to engage the brights, it switches filaments in the outside bulb, turning the one for the high beams on and the one for the low beams off.

6 filaments burning > 4 filaments burning.

[85crownHPP]

what he said - the guy with the "tactical townie" re-wired his so all the filaments burn on high beam.

[Tiggie]

Interesting. Would a relay kit be advised if I were to re-wire and run all six filaments?

[85crownHPP]

Absolutely - I think the reason our headlight switches fail is becuase they can't handle the load of regular-wired halogen replacement headlights.
I installed relays in the 85 just to get the load out of the switch.

[Tiggie]

Now I need details on:
a.) a relay kit (or how to make my own)
b.) rewiring the headlights (I'm pretty sure I can figure that out unless there's a trick I don't know of)

[85crownHPP]

I just pulled an entire forward lighting harness from a donor car and stripped out the headlight wiring, and wired one relay to the high beam feed and one to the low beam feed. Tap into the original headlight harness high and low beam wires to trigger each relay, give each relay a fused power supply, ground everything and you're good to go!
Those using aftermarket headlights with even higher power demands may way to use even thicker wire and scratch biuld a harness that copies the original wiring.

[torquelover]

I have wired my car to have all 4 headlights lit on low beam and all 8 filaments lit on high beam. The end result, after all the wiring and having to purchase another pair of outboard headlights, was not worth the effort. Yes, it was bright, but the light pattern was horrendous somehow. I did like the look of it at night, though. The car looks "right" with all four headlight locations lit up above the parking/turn signal lights.

[gadget73]

I have 2 outer bulbs lit on low, and 4 high beam filaments on high, which is just how it operated from the factory. I don't have flash to pass anymore because I'm using an 84 MF switch, but even with the original 86 switch it had 4 high beam filaments lit. The light output is great. I've still got original 1986 vintage inner high beams, and the outers are whatever cheap things the last owner stuck in there. I was going to replace the lights, but the relay kit got me enough extra voltage that the light output was more than fine with the old lights. I got nearly 3v improvement at the light socket after I did the relay kit.

[Nathan in MI]

Where can one purchase the just the sockets alone? If I do this to any of my vehicles, I'd like to be able to use larger wire than the factory stuff.

[gadget73]

I cut mine out of a car destined to the scrapyard. I figure that 3" of wire at the socket isn't really hurting me much. I know there are sources for the sockets with heavier pigtails but I know not these places.

[Nathan in MI]

Wonder where mephistopheles was getting the sockets for his kits...

[85crownHPP]

Ive seen big beefey-wired headlamp sockets for our cars in the ricer section of most discount auto stores.

[Heretic]

I cut mine out of a car destined to the scrapyard. I figure that 3" of wire at the socket isn't really hurting me much. I know there are sources for the sockets with heavier pigtails but I know not these places.

The headlight connectors with the terminals are available from Ryan's website here: http://rjminjectiontech.com/?p=10

Use your choice of gauge wire during assembly.

[gabegt90]

I just riped out a whole harness from a 88 vic then installed my relays mines poorly done but it works at least I don't have to worry about burning out my switch lol