Headlight relay mod

[Craig Nedrow]

Always disliked the older headlights, especially now that I am older, looks like an upgrade for the 73 K20

 

[DoubleDingo]

Always disliked the older headlights, especially now that I am older, looks like an upgrade for the 73 K20

Most likely bad grounds and wiring, the headlights are sufficient with proper voltage. Can't compare to the stupidly bright modern lighting, which should be illegal on numerous levels, but with proper voltage the sealed beams put out decent light.

 

[teach]

I literally just finished my headlight relay upgrade yesterday! All of the advice above seems solid to me. My project used two generic 40amp 5-pin relays, and I spliced the wiring in myself. One relay for brights, one for lows.

The Haynes manual has a solid wiring diagram that helped me determine which wires to use, but you can always follow back from the back of headlights and figure it out. Mine used light green high beams and tan for low. The rhyme helped me remember which was which, too.

Also upgraded from sealed beams. May do LED in the future.

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[YakkoWarner]

I literally just finished my headlight relay upgrade yesterday! All of the advice above seems solid to me. My project used two generic 40amp 5-pin relays, and I spliced the wiring in myself. One relay for brights, one for lows.

The Haynes manual has a solid wiring diagram that helped me determine which wires to use, but you can always follow back from the back of headlights and figure it out. Mine used light green high beams and tan for low. The rhyme helped me remember which was which, too.

Also upgraded from sealed beams. May do LED in the future.

You must be registered for see images attach

The relays may not matter if you go to LEDs since the current draw on the LEDs is so much lower than the sealed beams or halogens to begin with. I had bought a relay kit for my British project not because of dissatisfaction with the brightness but more as a mechanism to reduce current draw in the wiring harness. Before I got around to installing it I found one of the British parts places had a direct install LED kit which has the correct reflectors, real glass lenses that do not look "modern" and plug-and-play connectivity using the original sealed-beam connectors so no harness mods.

The same kit would probably work on the older squares (or really any car) with dual 7 inch sealed beams. Decided to put off installing the relays at this point because I've already reduced the 6 amps per side to 2 amps per side, which should make the contacts in the switches cooler and happier.