Daniel Stern wiring harness-opinion?

ghamilton · 12:49 PM

I've read the posts about upgrading to better lights and relays. My question is has anyone used Daniel Stern's custom Harness? It isn't cheap, but includes relays and new sockets that plug into your old headlight sockets that eliminates cutting the wiring. It ends up being about $80 more than purchasing just the relay alone, but basically a plug and play. Sounds like a nice way to go; just wanted some input.

I know our sponser sells a harness and we need to Support them
but wanted to look at the options.
Thanks.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

I just order his LED 3rd Brake Lite and he made a bunch of recommendations i.e. HONDA OEM Brake light bulbs 1157 and rear turn signal bulbs 1156. But he never mentioned to me about a harness. He did mention relays but I told him I had it already and he seemed pleased about it.

If your headlight bulbs are high wattage 80-100 watt it is recommended to upgrade to those ceramic sockets and thicker gauged wires. If you are using the OEM spec 55 watts, there is no need to upgrade the sockets, just get the relays here from our host.

Note you only need the relays on the Lo-Beams, one of us here used relays on both Hi-Lo's and had a horrible melt down experience.

Once I receive his bulbs I am going to post a side by side comparison of the standard retail bulbs vs Daniel's recommendations and his products.

ghamilton · 03-03-2011, 01:08 PM

I did the hella brake light & it's great. Looks stock. I recommend bot of window as it won't block view out mirror. Toughest thing was getting power from brake. I drilled small hole in cor shelf on pass side and tapped harness near brake light. Grounded to AC bracket.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

I have Pilot brand LED Brake Light Bar mounted at the bottom of the window. I agree it is much better visibility then high mounted. Plus I have a radar sensor up there so I can't place it there if I wanted to. I actually fished the wire through the defrost wiring via pre-existing hole, tapped the yellow black wire and grounded to lid hinge arm.

I also wanted the OEM look so I pulled the trigger. Funny PAG only did the lower mount one year, '86 I believe. DOT probably made them re-position it '87 on.

kanadary · 03-03-2011, 01:37 PM

DRACO A5OG, when you went with ceramic plugs were you able to get 12 gauge wire in there. the ceramic plugs i have been able to find i only get up to 14 gauge in there.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanadary

DRACO A5OG, when you went with ceramic plugs were you able to get 12 gauge wire in there. the ceramic plugs i have been able to find i only get up to 14 gauge in there.

I never uped to ceramics because I stuck with 55W bulbs.

RoninLB · 03-03-2011, 02:01 PM

i got these from Dan Stern

originally i wired it so i'd have both high & lows on when switched to "high beam"

that didn't last as the H-4 bulb ground melted after 1/2 hour, but i left the 10 ga wire installed

anyway i used 10 ga yellow wire for a ground.. the other two wires are 12 ga

the wire was fitted into the socket, the wire bent back into a harness, the wire screwed down and became somewhat flat [screws on connectors is good], the wire removed and snipped clean, the wire end tinned with silver solder.

the crap on the socket is di-electric

and Pelican sells a headlight relay kit

kanadary · 03-03-2011, 04:02 PM

those look like the ones from our host. i though ceramic ones look like this.

2 EA H4 / 9003 CERAMIC HEADLIGHT CONNECTOR PLUGS - eBay (item 140503494748 end time Mar-21-11 20:21:18 PDT)

HarryD · 03-03-2011, 05:00 PM

I just looked at Daniel Sterns Web site and did not see anything about a custom harness for headlamps, only for driving or auxillary lights. What am I missing?

FWIW, when I bought my kit from him, it was a kit of parts (relays, sockets, connectors). I needed to add the necessary wires and assemble it.

For your '82, you can buy a prewired kit from our host and use your exisitng wiring to make it work. Not the case for my '73.

kanadary · 03-03-2011, 05:28 PM

i already installed the relays from our host, i just want to run 80/100 in the H4's i bought to replace the H5s so i thought i should rewire to 12 gauge.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanadary

i already installed the relays from our host, i just want to run 80/100 in the H4's i bought to replace the H5s so i thought i should rewire to 12 gauge.

If you can fit it in there. Sockets too, that is where all the heat will be.

RSTarga · 03-03-2011, 05:50 PM

Daniel is a real expert, so whatever he recommends will be spot on.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by RSTarga

Daniel is a real expert, so whatever he recommends will be spot on.

I took a $128 leap of faith

2Utes · 03-04-2011, 07:24 AM

if you are taking the trouble to rewire the headlights with relays, consider Daniel's daytime running light module to make the front marker lights in DRL's. i think the yellow markers are a good way to help our cars be seen. the module can be installed without any wire cutting by making the necessary connections at the fuse panel.

the DRL module is the black cylindrical piece zip tied for anchorage.
sorry no photo handy for the DRL's on.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

Guys with Fog Lamps, swaping for LEDs will also do the trick and swapping some wires as well on the fuse panel

ghamilton · 03-04-2011, 08:25 AM

Stern is like the MIT guy of lights, really knows his stuff. He actually sent me the MA state regs on allowable lighting! (read super geek!)

Anyhow 2Utes, I got the DRL kit, but haven't installed. Can you tell me which terminals you ran the wires to?

Does the marker lens get hot?

Drago, how did the harness go?

2Utes · 03-04-2011, 03:55 PM

the marker lenses got hot with the brighter bulbs Daniel offered to increase visibility, so i use the stock bulbs and they have not caused any problems. i did keep the brighter brake lamp bulbs as they are never on for very long.

i scanned the diagram below that i created for the headlight relay upgrade done at the same time as the DRL installation to a pdf file. unfortunately, the system only wants to allow uploading of jpg or gif files.

email me at brighton911@gmail.com and i will send you the pdf.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghamilton

Stern is like the MIT guy of lights, really knows his stuff. He actually sent me the MA state regs on allowable lighting! (read super geek!)

Anyhow 2Utes, I got the DRL kit, but haven't installed. Can you tell me which terminals you ran the wires to?

Does the marker lens get hot?

Drago, how did the harness go?

Sorry we Hi-Jacked your thread, Unfortunately I did not get the harness because I had the relays on my rig and Daniel seemed to be happy with my set up since I am sticking with the Narva 55Watt headlight set up.

If you are going to 80-100 watt I recommend his relay, OEM socket may not hold up.