New headlights installed -with pics

[evan]

I installed the new headlights from LMC on my truck the other night. It was pretty easy once I realized that they would fit through the hole in the rad support if I pulled the rubber part off of the back of the bulbs, installed them, and then put the rubber part back on. The only part that would be difficult without the right tool was cutting the extra plastic off of the plugs so that they would fit over the new bulbs, but that was easy with a dremmel.

For the amount of money spent on this I’m really happy how it turned out. They work so much better than the old ones that I would have been happy even if they looked the same, but they look a lot cooler so that’s a plus.

It’s always hard to tell in pictures how much more light different headlights actually produce so I thought I would leave one of the old headlights in and install one new one to show the difference.








This pic was taken at night under a streetlamp.

[Prerunner1982]

definate improvement.....

[74Chevy74]

Looks good man, did you have to upgrade your harness? I know some places sell that harness. I was gonna order these lights but I didn't know if I needed that harness.

[evan]

Originally Posted by 74Chevy74

Looks good man, did you have to upgrade your harness? I know some places sell that harness. I was gonna order these lights but I didn't know if I needed that harness.

I actually bought a new harness at the same time as the lights, but didn't install it because it was too cold.



If I get access to a heated garage I will be intalling the new harness, otherwise I'll wait until spring because I'm still happy with them the way they are.

[75silverstep]

Originally Posted by 74Chevy74

Looks good man, did you have to upgrade your harness? I know some places sell that harness. I was gonna order these lights but I didn't know if I needed that harness.

I BOUGHT THE HARNESS WITH THE LIGHTS ALSO ,I PUT THE HARNESS ON THEN COULDNT FIGURE OUT WHERE THE HARNESS PLUGGED INTO THEN I WAS TOLD BY A FELLOW POSTER ,THAT I NEEDED TO PLUG INTO THE OLD LH HEADLIGHT.HA GUESS WHAT IT WORKS ...

[SlickSierra77]

Does the harness make that big of difference? I bought the headlights a couple of months ago an they work great, but if the harness will make them brighter I think I will be ordering me one right away.

[Nolowrider]

I really like that set up. It looks great. I think Santa might bring me a set. Thanks for the post Evan.

[Russell]

I wish I could find a set of those headlamps, cept square, and ones that look the same as the old glass headlights. Esspecially if I could find a European style setup. They have better light distribution in my opinion

[Zoomad75]

I've done both the lights and the relay harness on my K5. Did the relay harness first. BIG difference over stock. I did build my own harness though. Took about $15 in supplies and a couple of hours. I then added the H4 conversion bulbs and they got even brighter. So much so, I don't have to use the high beams all that much. High beams throw an insane amount of light down the road, even with legal 55w/60w bulbs.

Word to the wise when using the LMC relay harness kit. There is no circuit protection on the power feed wires (the red wires with the eyelets) to the relay. NONE. What little instructions there are in english (much is in chinese on the one I saw) mention nothing about circuit protection. I noticed this when a friend of mine got the kit in. If you don't want the harness to go up in smoke (and the truck too) if you get a short on either power feed circuit, do yourself a favor and add a inline 30 amp fuse as close to the connection to the battery you make (one for each relay). The relays are rated for 30 amps and you need at least that much circuit protection. Overall the kit is pretty well put together, but the lack of any circuit protection is a serious flaw that should not be overlooked.

[Zoomad75]

Just so you can see the differnce between halogen and H4 look at this pic of my K5 on low beam. (this is after the relay mod, so the halogen is still brighter than normal, just not as much as the H4)


Great mod altogether. Plus my bulb housings have an addtional socket for an h3 fog light that I loaded with a 100w h3 bulb, again on a relay setup. I use the fogs for off road and long distance critter detection on dark lonely highways.....

[evan]

Originally Posted by Zoomad75

Word to the wise when using the LMC relay harness kit. There is no circuit protection on the power feed wires (the red wires with the eyelets) to the relay. NONE. What little instructions there are in english (much is in chinese on the one I saw) mention nothing about circuit protection. I noticed this when a friend of mine got the kit in. If you don't want the harness to go up in smoke (and the truck too) if you get a short on either power feed circuit, do yourself a favor and add a inline 30 amp fuse as close to the connection to the battery you make (one for each relay). The relays are rated for 30 amps and you need at least that much circuit protection. Overall the kit is pretty well put together, but the lack of any circuit protection is a serious flaw that should not be overlooked.

Thanks for the heads up. Do you have a wiring diagram of how it should go together? and yes, the instructions that came with it are freakin' horrible.

[1980chevy4x4]

Does the lights just plug into the original connectors and bolt in the same?

[evan]

Originally Posted by 1980chevy4x4

Does the lights just plug into the original connectors and bolt in the same?

Yes the retaining rings fit the new bulbs the same way as the old ones. The plugs (if they are the same as mine were) need to have some plastic cut off of them to fit onto the new bulbs. If you aren't upgrading the harness, you won't have to do any wiring.

[C&C Chevy]

Just a side note. If you do H4 lights and your existing headlight wiring is subpar, it will overheat. The smell of burning wires is not good.

One reason I went back to halogens.

[DirtyLarry]

LMC must be making a killing on these new headlights. I am another sucker that had to have them too. Zoomad and I are old college friends, we work for the same company and live in the same town. He also steering me into adding a couple 30 AMP mini fuses to protect the LMC harness as he is a heck of a lot more of an electrical wizard than I am. After taking his advise, I wrapped my harness in black split loom (I didn’t car much for LMC’s super el’cheapo Chinese yellow loom) and routed it under the upper radiator support. The directions are pretty bad….LMC should be embarrassed. I also added LED 904 bulbs in the side marker lights. Boy was that a chore…..since I didn’t want to disturb the 3M tape on the fender flares I changed the bulbs from the back side. Not a problem on the driver’s side but the passengers side created about 45 more minutes of work as I had to remove the battery, pull the grill to gain access to one of the battery tray bolts then had unhook the p/s cooler so I could get the coolant recovery bottle out of the way and finally……got the battery tray out of the way. Man, whose idea was it to put these flairs on anyway??? Also added a pair of LED tail light bulbs as well as an electronic turn signal flasher. The stupid thing is I haven’t even taken the truck out in the dark yet to see how well it all works. Actually, the truck hasn’t left the yard since my last fishing trip in September hence, the layer of dust on the hood.

[nwmod39]

Originally Posted by Russell

I wish I could find a set of those headlamps, cept square, and ones that look the same as the old glass headlights. Esspecially if I could find a European style setup. They have better light distribution in my opinion

merry christmas russell. lmc sells the square headlight for your truck in the fancy euro crystal setup. here is a link. check it out.

http://www.lmctruck.com/Features/CC/CCEL1.htm

[boxrodz]

Good improvement.
Good job, Evan.

If the H4s are drawing more current than the stock headlamps, I'd probably also would install heavier gauge wiring with relays.

Originally Posted by Zoomad75

I've done both the lights and the relay harness on my K5. Did the relay harness first. BIG difference over stock. I did build my own harness though. Took about $15 in supplies and a couple of hours. I then added the H4 conversion bulbs and they got even brighter. So much so, I don't have to use the high beams all that much. High beams throw an insane amount of light down the road, even with legal 55w/60w bulbs.

Word to the wise when using the LMC relay harness kit. There is no circuit protection on the power feed wires (the red wires with the eyelets) to the relay. NONE. What little instructions there are in english (much is in chinese on the one I saw) mention nothing about circuit protection. I noticed this when a friend of mine got the kit in. If you don't want the harness to go up in smoke (and the truck too) if you get a short on either power feed circuit, do yourself a favor and add a inline 30 amp fuse as close to the connection to the battery you make (one for each relay). The relays are rated for 30 amps and you need at least that much circuit protection. Overall the kit is pretty well put together, but the lack of any circuit protection is a serious flaw that should not be overlooked.

Zoomad75 -

Do you remember what gauge wiring you decide to use? I'm guessing to handle a 30 amp pull, at least 14 AWG guage wire would probably be needed?. How 'bout the relays? Bosch maybe?

One last question, do you know how much current the H4s pull? Good idea on the inline fuses. I would think maybe a 15 - 20 amp max would work.

BTW, Pueblo

[Russell]

Originally Posted by nwmod39

merry christmas russell. lmc sells the square headlight for your truck in the fancy euro crystal setup. here is a link. check it out.

http://www.lmctruck.com/Features/CC/CCEL1.htm

Actually, the ones I want are Hella Part #72206

62 bucks a peice... If I can find a set with bulbs for 100 bucks, they'll be purchased

[evan]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Also added a pair of LED tail light bulbs as well as an electronic turn signal flasher.

I've been thinking about doing that too. Did you just get 1157 style led replacements? The ones I was thinking of getting can be seen here:ebay lights I was also looking at some cheaper APC led bulbs, but they don't come in white and when I emailed APC they said that the red ones wouldn't be bright enough behind a red lense. I was going to see what other peoples experiences have been with led bulbs and then probably order two pair of white ones for the rear brake and side marker, and one pair of amber ones for the front turn signals.

What is an electronic turn signal flasher? When I installed led turn signals on my bike I just had to add some resistors to get them to flash at the proper rate.

[TexasJeff]

Looks Awesome, I tossed around a couple of different headlight options. I finally just purchased Silver Star's kinda expensive about $25 a piece but i have to admit well worth every penny. The difference it made from the factory style was overwhelming, and I would not drive with anything else. I also replaced the ones in 2000 Grand Prix everyday driver.

[DirtyLarry]

Evan,

Yes, I bought the clear 1157 LED replacements from Vhatozone. I think they were $12 for the pair. The side marker 904 bulbs are also clear and I would like to find a pair of amber 1157’s for the front signal lights as the side marker lights and front turn signals go out of sync due to the different flash rates of LED’s vs. incandescent. The LED flash ON and OFF….no filament fade like you will see on incandescent.

Zoomad would probably best describe how an electric flasher works but I will take a stab. The original style flashers require resistance from the bulbs to heat up the filament in the flasher canister to move the switch device back and forth (on/off). The more LED’s you add the less resistance the flasher will see and eventually not work. In other words, your turn signals will stay on and not flash. The electronic flashers can be found at any part store for around $10 and are a direct replacement for the original canister type flasher. No wiring, etc. They are very popular with the folks that tow trailers, etc.

I took a short video of my rear turn signals but have not idea how to post mpg files.

****I think I figured out the video posting business. Try this....http://www.msnusers.com/LarrysGMTruc...o/HPIM0405.MPG

***********Then again...maybe not.

[apstguy]

I have InPro Carwear's H4 6 /12" housings and a relay harness. I put silverstar headlight bulbs in the low beams and cheap blue "tuner" bulbs for high beams. I also installed daytime running lamps at the same time. I like the InPro car wears but I wish they looked more like the ones Evan has - I might change them eventually but they work very well. My low beams are bright. Iwant more diamond cut reflectors. I have even seen projector headlights and am interested to see how they work. I have LED taillights but I don't suggest them unless you have Euro lights like mine that are round, otherwise you won't get alot of light output from them. BTW ALWAYS use red LED bulbs for the rear, white LEDs have blue in them (there is no such thing as a true while LED, it is a combination of colors like yellow and green) and the red lens will filter out some of the light. I used Jam Strait bulbs but then found a better place to get bulbs. Standard LED bulbs just direct the light in one direction - out. The LED bulbs I have also shoot out sideways so the reflector gets some light too. I got them from www.superbrightleds.com Here is where the 1157 bulbs are: http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

[bodydropped]

so basically u have to have the harness to run these lights basically what most of the yall said, because my dad wants these for his show truck but he has square lights but does it matter what bulbs u run or do u have run the ones lmc sell?

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by boxrodz

Zoomad75 -
Do you remember what gauge wiring you decide to use? I'm guessing to handle a 30 amp pull, at least 14 AWG guage wire would probably be needed?. How 'bout the relays? Bosch maybe?

One last question, do you know how much current the H4s pull? Good idea on the inline fuses. I would think maybe a 15 - 20 amp max would work.

BTW, Pueblo

I used heavy gauge wiring for the power side of the relays. At least 14, might have been 12 but I'd have to go open the hood again and look. As for the actual current draw, I have not put an ammeter on it. I based mine on a 30 amp load on some research I did on the net as well as the original setup. I knew since I was going to have an increase in voltage to the lights, I had better make sure the rest of the system was capable of the job. The relays I used were rated for 30 amps as they were the replacement relays available for the aftermarket foglight kits at most chain parts stores. The same relay was used for 50-60 watt fogs to the 100 watt off road lights. 30 amps might be a little overkill but I figured anything less would have me replacing the fuses when ever I switched the lights on. As far as protection goes, 30 amp fuese snap just as quick with a dead short. More like *POP*...

I havent noticed a larger draw on the system with the H4's over the halogens though. I don't see any dip on my voltmeter when I switch the lights on. Even when I hit the 100w fogs.

I could look at mine tonight and try to take a current measurement, but I can't remember what the limit is on my DVOM for ammeter. I think it might have a 10 amp limit, but I'll look. I could use a nice Fluke meter with the inductive ammeter pickup though for xmas!!!

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by bodydropped

so basically u have to have the harness to run these lights basically what most of the yall said, because my dad wants these for his show truck but he has square lights but does it matter what bulbs u run or do u have run the ones lmc sell?

I've seen the conversion h4 bulbs in the large square variety, both on ebay and local part stores. Not sure on the smaller square ones though. Do a search for h4 conversion on ebay to get an idea of what is out there.

You don't need the relay harness to run H4 lights. I'd recommend using a relay harness if you want to maximize your light output and take the load of the original wiring. H4's just won't be as bright without the relays.

Keep this in mind, the stock headlight circuitry sucks. It is one giant voltage drop. Voltage has to go from the battery to the fuse block to the headlight switch, then the dimmer and then pass over small gauge wire to the lamps. Take a voltmeter and measure the available voltage at the bulbs with the engine running. Mine had around 12.4 when the alternator was putting out around 14.1. Thats a volt and a half drop! When it comes to lights that kind of drop is big. After I installed my relay harness my voltage drop to the lights was cut down to .2 of a volt. Even with the halogen lights I had at the time, it made a HUGE difference in the light output. They were bright enough then I almost thought twice about installing the H4's. This is where the relay kit makes the difference. It eliminates the current load on the stock wiring and switches, using them only as the *on* signal for the relays. The new power wires (larger in size than stock) can carry the voltage from a more direct source (battery or junction block on the firewall) so that the overall resistance is cut down and there is a more direct path from the battery to the lights. This is why the lights get brighter, less resistance=more voltage available to the lights.