Results of 9004 to 9007 conversion

[David]

Well, on Saturday I finally got around to converting my stock DOT lights o that they would accept 9007 bulbs rather than the older style 9004 bulbs. I realize this is a "questionable" modification, and that Daniel Stern Lighing is very much against it, but I had heard good things and decided to give it a try knowing that reversing the changes would be easy enough if the results were poor.

Well, the results were NOT poor, in fact they were quite good. Now I am not claiming this is a good alternative to E-codes headlights with H4 bulbs, but for a simple and cheap upgrade the resultds were quite good. The low beam pattern is quite a bit better, there is a sharper cutoff and less light scattering. Overall, thy just seem brighter. The high beam appears to be about the same. I would say this mod made my unacceptable DOT lights acceptable, until I find a set of H4 only E-codes for sale used somewhere (I actually don't want H4/H1).  This was a direct comparison, unrelayed to unrelayed. I will relay the lights in the near future.

The conversion was quite easy except for one part. First you need to break off the bulb alligning tabs at the lower part of the headlights (4 and 8 o'clock?) This is easy to do on the passenger side with a flathead screwdriver and hammer. On the driver's side, it becomes much harder without removing the headlight. I had to use a small file to file down the tabs. You can't get at the tabs with a screwdriver and hammer due to the radiator being in the way. So, it took about 45 minutes worth of filing. Once done, the lights will accept both 9004 and 9007 bulbs (the tab at 12:00 alligns the bulbs). Now you have to rewire the headlights. The position for the low beam + (yellow) and ground (brown) must be reversed. You could disassemble the connector and rearrange the contacts, but mine looked old and brittle so I cut the wires and reconnected them in the correct order. An interesting note, I turned on the headlights when only one side had been rewired, but both sides had 9007 bulbs, the highbeam indicator light in the dash came on, but at 1/2 intensity. After finishing both sides, the hights worked perfectly. They ARE brighter and the pattern is better, though still nothing compared to E-codes... Just thought you might like to know...

Dave
1987 CGT Special Build
SE Virginia