Re: fog lights/driving lights

[cordeiro@adi.com (Alan Cordeiro)]

Hi everyone out there with dim lights,

Since this thread re-emerged regarding rewiring lights to brighten them,
I thought I'd get the net some feedback on the results of by rewiring
experience, specifically on an '86 5000TQ.

I used a dual headlight relay mounted in the empty space just in front of
the air cleaner, conveniently close to the post in the engine compartment
that you can use for jump starting the car. I used this as a power take
off ( sounds like a tractor .. ) for getting +12 volts. The relay had two
20 amp fuses built into it, so this simplified the fusing problem.

To get a signal to control the relays, I " tapped " into the existing 
socket for the headlamp. I have " saved " the original socket wiring, and
if the new wiring ever causes problems, I can get back to the old system
by just unplugging the new added sockets, and plugging back the old ones.

>From the output terminals of the relay, I wired two new sockets, one to 
each side. After I was done, I took some measurments, finding

1. Battery voltage, idling in the driveway, = 13.83 volts

2. Voltage at low beam pin on headlamp      = 13.53 volts

3. Voltage at high beam pin,                = 13.50 volts

The improvement in brightness was noticable, but not as much as I had
hoped for. I think I'm up by 0.8 volts in  voltage on  each of the lamps.

Now that I'm re-wired for higher currents, I can switch to higher wattage
lamps, perhaps the 55/100 watt 9004s, which J.C. Whittney has conveniently
put on sale for $9.99 or $8.99 .....

Alan Cordeiro