CORed

Is it just me or has Summit replaced the sum-890030 part number w/ AMC-509104. Problem is, the new part has no picture and an extremely limited description. The 890030 part was more comprehensive. Price is $29.00 for the new part. Old part is no longer available according to the website.

Did you guys get the older part # or the new one?

Steve

BlueRam01

Steve,
I just got 2 of the Summit part #. They are APC parts but the card from the pkg is in the recycling. I can pull one out tomorrow to check any PNs.
Did the upgrade to both trucks and ran the ground wires back to the battery(s).
The lights look brighter but haven't used either truck after dark, yet.
SteveB

BlueRam01

The part # from the APC pkg is 50.9104. There is also a web site www.4apc.net
The upc is 6 88278 50917 5
It is probably the same kit.

CORed

Great, thanks for checking!

Eskimo

I did the 9007 conversion yesterday, and installed the harness for 9007 lamps. Along with this, I installed clear hella 80/100 9007 bulbs. All of this was from Summit Racing.

Notes:
There are 3 tabs inside the socket of the housing at the 12:00, ~5:00, and ~7:00 positions. the 5 & 7 need to be removed by your preferred method. I used a dremel.

On the harness, there's 1 female connector to plug into the factory wiring. on this, 2 of the wires need to be reversed.. use a small screwdriver to depress the 'catch' on the plug, and slide the wires out the back of the plug.

The catches on the 9007 male plug are very brittle, I snapped one off during install, but they don't actually grab onto anything, so it's no big deal.

Pulling the headlight housings is apparently no big deal with a stock bumper. My ranchhand style bumper had to come almost completely off.. no small feat when working alone.

Results:
The rain let up some last night, so I went down the street to aim the lights. First impression was.. "Wow, I can see the lights on the wet roadway..that's new!"
Because it was also slightly foggy, I was able to see the beam as it lit some of the fog.. it doesn't glare upwards like some had warned.. it's not annoying to oncoming traffic (any worse than the 9004's are) at all.
I was very impressed with the lighting for the $50 I spent total on the upgrade.. my 100 watt driving beams don't assist nearly as much as they did before, and on the quick trip I did, I was much better to drive using the low beams.

YMMV, and we'll see how long the housings last with the 80/100's.. but i do NOT have the mod that allows low & high beams at the same time for heat reasons.

Tayloe08

After printing several diagrams and testing different methods I just can't get it to work right! I don't claim to be a expert electrician but I do fairly well with car audio and the such... or at least I thought I was. I did get the fog light mod and the highs and lows to all come on together but I wanted to add the relays to finish off the project. I have relays and all connectors/wire. Do you use 2 or 3 relays and does any one have an idiot's guide. I don't want to spend $100 on a bright box when it is not needed! My headlight wires at the plug are different colors than the diagrams show. Any help??? Thanks

RamThatStroker

I am getting ready to do the same thing and I also purchased the harness from summit. Was wondering what two wires you switched??

Thanks,
Joe

Eskimo

I remember it was the center and one of the outers.. I just tested the stock plugs with a multimeter to figure out what pin does what, I'm sorry, I can't remember exactly.

But on another report, it was raining HEAVILY tonight and it was very dark on my way home, and the lighting is GREAT.. I can really see where I'm going. You'll love 'em!

RamThatStroker

Eskimo,

thanks for the tip with the multimeter . I should of thought of that . Lately my mind has not been here. Will let you know how it goes once I get it done.

Joe

4x4dually

I am assuming all these "bright boxes" and "relay by-passes" are allowing the bulbs to get brighter by increasing the voltage at the bulb by simply using larger wire and shortening the lenght of wire between the bulb and the batteries. Sometimes I'm a little slow, but this seems to be the case.

Now, for my input. If you are planning on making your own kit, don't skimp on wire size, size does matter. If you do all this and use 16 awg wire or smaller, you might not see a difference at all. Volatage drop is the enemy here. I read through the majority of the post above and don't remember seeing anything about it. Remember, you not only have a voltage drop of the conductor carring current to the bulb, but also the drop across the length of wire on the return (or ground) side. Also, the higher wattage bulb, the more current required, the more voltage drop across the conductors. All seems to work against each other, don't it? After some crude and very rough calcualtions, my data shows the following:

Given:
standard 45 watt low beam filament which requires about 3.75 amps
length of 10 foot for both conductors from a 12.000 volt sorce

16 awg wire will drop voltage to approx 11.70
14 awg wire will drop voltage to approx 11.80
12 awg wire will drop voltage to approx 11.90

For a 20 foot run, the data is as follows:
11.40
11.60
11.70

So....if you are using 16 awg wire and have a length of wire over 20 foot long, which, mind you, isn't hard to do when you figure all the wire harness bull butter from the bulb, to the fuse panel, through the relays, back to the battery, and blah blah blah, you may only have about 11.40 volts at your bulb at worst. That is a 5% loss. Not much, but noticable.

So.........

1) Keep wire lengths as short as possible
2) Use the largest conductor you can (using common sense of course. No 500 MCM for you smart ***es)
3) Use the correct crimpers for splices and terminals. Those flat ones that come with the terminal kit with the strippers and everything one them, ain't worth a box of crap. Please, throw them away. Get a pair of Thomas and Betts, Ideal, Klein, or others that have a preset crimp for the termials. This will ensure the crimp is tight enough to properly contact all the strands in the conductors and not over crimp and pinch off the outside strands.
4) If trimming strands on coductors to get 12 awg wire into a 16 awg terminal, trim as few strands as possible. This can be avoided if you select the proper terminals.
5) When purchasing relays, select a relay with the lowest contact resistance. I'm sure the crappy little black boxes at Autozone aren't going to give this info, but you may be able to track this info down from the manufacturer. Large wire and good crimps aren't worth the effort if you are going to use a $.75 relay from Wal-Mart that isn't sealed properly and will get full of dirt after 6 months and only conduct half the current.

I better quit and get back to work. Thanks for the great thread. I think I'll try some of these tricks when I get a chance.

Eskimo

You're exactly right.

Although I wired my trail vehicle from the ground up, the hassle just wasn't worth it when it came to doing the headlight upgrade, so I bought the kit. The wiring is Ok, the relays look pretty cheap, but it all works, and there's very little voltage drop to the lights, and was quick.

pitr

It is probibly worth pointing out that if you are setting it up like:

BATT(+) -> relay switched by light switch -> headlight

You should really put a fuse in there just in case. Even as low as 11v a 100w high beam is only about 9amp. I would put a 10 amp fuse in there. Worth the extra $.79 for the piece of mind to me. Stuff the whole thing in a small waterproof box with an opening top and silicone the holes for the wires coming out and it might even look like a pro install.

-Matt

Rockyhud

After reading all the material here and especially on the Daniel Stern site (very good info BTW) I decided to incorporate a little additional relay and fuse protection. I found a nice, compact PDC (power dist center) from a 96 Ford Crown Vic (I tried not to use a F**d item but all the other salvage yard vehicles' PDCs were too big or had wierd fuses and relays) that I'm going to use to connect the upgraded wiring to and from the OEM wiring. This will provide a nice weather protected environment for the fuses and relays and make it easily accessible if or when I need to replace any of them. Plus, it has enough capacity for additional circuits that require relays and fuses that I can easily add them later on. Not to mention that it will help keep the wiring a little more tidy looking under the hood. I plan to mount it right next to the OEM PDC that came in the truck. Unfortunately it will be a little while before I can get this done as most of my tools are in storage until we find and move into a house again. Once I do get it mounted I will post pics in case anyone is interested.

Steve

West Coast

What location are you guys taping into the stock light harness at? Do you have to remove the batteries and trays? Thanks...

Dave

jon96ctd

technically a fuse/relay is there to protect the wire from burning if there's a short but regardless of why it's there it's a great idea to have a fuse on any extra wires coming off the battery(other than the starter cable, of course)

we just did relays on my dad's 91 and it's a lot brighter and isn't melting the headlight switch anymore. I didn't know about the 80/100 bulbs for mine, i'll be doing that with some low-hi/low relay action soon!