H4 Headlight Wiring Harness

[shikzachaser]

OK, here it is in final form w/ really cool connectors for the bulbs. This one is yours Kyle and I'll try to get it out this week, pay me if it works for my cost Mr Guinea Pig. If anybody is interested lets wait until he does an impartial installation and posts how it went. Unfortunately the parts are a little more than expected and if I sell a complete one it will have to be for around $100. I know it seems high but there is right @ $60 cost in the materials (if you know where to get them, and at wholesale) plus time. Anyone that wants to do one themself is welcome to copy it.





These connectors for the bulbs are pretty cool, they seal out moisture from the back where the H4 bulbs are somewhat exposed.







All connections are soldered, taped, heat shrinked, then loomed. All primary wires are 10ga, wires to the bulbs are 12ga. There are seperate fuses for high and low beams. No wiring has to be altered on the car beyond plugiing and unplugging. I have no idea if it will work an other year cars, somebody needs to help me with that.



This has nothing to do with the wiring but happy New Year to all from myself, Mrs 944, Our Daughter (I thank God every day that she turned out looking like her Mother rather than me), and her "Significant Dude" sitting @ Buca De Peppo in Chicago prior to Blue Man Group's show. Another completed road trip for the M3. Mrs 944 is showing off her best heritage w/ the Chinese eyes and German temper, ahh, my axis mama. In a lot of ways I pity "Significant Dude" as he also has to deal w/ my Irish and German heritage all packaged up in my 100lb red headed daughter, poor bastard!!! It's almost like someone peed in the gene pool.
Just kidding, she is really a cool kid and extremely talented in her field. My Granddaughter is the one I'm worried about, she has our heritage plus a full blooded Sicilian mother,,,ouch!!

Steve

[EMBPilot]

steve the harness looks great! so nice and clean. nice job!

[shikzachaser]

It works too

[Eldorado]

hey steve, you've REALLY outdone yourself there... fantastic job...

oh, and the wiring harness looks good, too... :P

[shikzachaser]

You want to hear the really weird part, and I swear to God this is true. My brother married a Jewish girl and converted and her sister is engaged to a Chinese doctor. We had all parties here for Thanksgiving and absolutely had a blast. I wish our leaders could learn to relax and be a little more tolerant of differences in culture, basicly we are all schmoes.

Steve

[Techno Duck]

Nicely done Steve. With the wiring it will be more than adequete to run 100w bulbs. The 10g wiring should be able to support up to 400w total, even 120w bulbs bring you to less than 3/4 of the load rating.

Some interesting details about the IceShark wiring, Dan used 4g wire for the feed off the alternator. You could support up to 900w roughly at 12v. That is really overkill considering the highest wattage bulb you can find (which would have to be mail ordered probably) is 120w. However Dan's kit had a provision to rewire the fog lights also, this is mostly important to the turbo's that can run the euro driving lights and fogs at the same time (its all one housing). If you wanted to rival daylight, you could hookup 100w driving lights, 100w fog lights and regular 100w headlights.

Dan told a story a few times of how he was pulled over going very fast (i seem to remember 150mph) in his 951 in the middle of night in a pretty isolated area. He was running the setup i mentioned above, 600 total watts of lighting power. This was the original wiring kit he did for himself before he started making them for everyone. Anyhow, he passed a police officer while slowing down and imediatley pulled over. The police offer was more interested in the lights he was running as he thought a jet airplane was landing on the highway. He ended up getting out of the ticket by explaining everything he had done to get that kind of lighting output!

[shikzachaser]

That's a really good idea to incorporate additional power take offs for driving / fog lights. I would really like to replace my existing fogs w/ 100W driving lights. Are you aware of any that fit the same size hole? I have the Fiberwerks nose and with the lights being higher I would love additional light.

Thanks:



Steve

[Techno Duck]

I am sure something is available and can be sourced from one of the typical companies like Cibie, Hella, PIAA..etc. I think it would be hard to find something thats a perfect match, but you could probably find something fairly close.

[Eldorado]

what would be wrong with just putting in brighter bulbs in the fog lens?

[Techno Duck]

Lens design between a fog and driving light is completely different. Fog lenses do not project the light, they disperse the light in a very wide pattern. Driving lights project the light foward in a very narrow angle beam.

[Wipeout]

Looks AWESOME. I'll have to see what Kyle says.

[Razorback1980]

Hey Steve,

Somehow, I don't think your daughter's friend is complaining much.

That is really nice work on the wiring. When I get to that part of our project, I'll want you to make one of these for me or at least try and talk you into helping me find all the parts. I don't mind doing the assembly. I thought Jon's idea of incorporating the other lights was a very good one. I think we are going to put a different front end on ours and will want that option so I don't know exactly what I want just yet. But when I get it defined, I'll be getting back to you if you don't mind helping.

[Crumpled952]

HeySteve,

I've been following the thread with interest as I'm getting older and consequently need more light. I have an 88 Turbo "S" Euro so have the ecodes, driving and fogs combo. What would I need to do to upgrade as you have?
TIA
Lanny

[Eldorado]

Here's a quick How-To, Lanny.. hope it helps.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

[Ford-o-phobic]

I am very interested in buying one, when do you think you could get it done by?

[shikzachaser]

Ford-O-Phobic

I can make you one this weekend if you like. The only hesitation I have is I would like to see an impartial 2nd party do one prior to selling them They definately work, well, especially if you have an 84 as I do. It is really straightforward to install, I just don't have detailed instructions done. I do have a phone # you could call though. If you want one let me know via PM and I'll forward my # so we can speak prior to an exchange of any money.

Thanks for the interest.

Steve

[shikzachaser]

I have done a few other things that are definately north of gray area to my car that I will share, at least conversationally.

(1) I installed higher wattage reverse lights. I disconnected them from the normal reverse switch and added a mirror selector switch in the console. I can turn them on anytime I want. It's great for when some a-hole is behind you w/ brights on. I have a bright red LED in the dash to remind me they are on.

(2) I have another mirror switch in the console that defeats all the exterior lights (INCLUDING THE BRAKES) when it's on. This is very handy if you are being pursued, not that I ever have that happen. There is a bright yellow LED in the dash for that one. Also I have it set to default to all lights on when I turn the key off via a latching relay. Obviously when all lights are off the headlights and driving lights still work.

(3) I did a really good stereo for a 944. I can go into detail if anyone is interested. I sent a "kit" to Candace and I really hope she gets as much pleasure out of it as I do mine. I would like her to have a "10 out of 10" car.













I also did the gauges in white and moved the speedo over so the tach could go where it belongs.



I know this stuff horrifies purists but it sure is fun. Hopefully it's still around for this one so she and Candace can exchange posts.



Steve

[shikzachaser]

Tecno Duck:

I actually have (2) seperate fused 10ga wires to B+. Effectively it is 8ga allowing substantial current. In addition, having the (2) seperate wires allows greater heat dissapation. I was thinking of just doing a power take off for the fogs from the low beam supply.

Steve

[pozican]

How hard were the other two light mods? Sounds like fun to do!

[pdx944]

I would just like to know what hardware you used for the stereo. I am using 6X9 midrange Blaupunkts up front and presumably OE in the back. I was thinking of making a single glass or mdf sub box in one rear cubby and the amp either as you did it or in the other cubby. How do you think this would work. Also i am playing about 90% of the music from the front speakers to help with the distortion from 4 speakers, i was wondering what would the best speaker/placement would be in this car?
-Andy