Better Headlights

[ISX]

Today I went ahead and did this mod ( http://www.midwestdieselconnection.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1812 ) since I traced it all out and didn't see any risk to it. Well since the lights are hooked up in parallel, they see the same voltage. I was curious as to how much they pulled the voltage down, if any and was quite surprised.

The headlights have 3 wires going to them and they contain 2 elements in each one. One for dim and one for brights. The 3 wires are for ground, dim, and brights.

So I took the connector off of one headlight and started the truck and measured between the ground and dim terminals, then from the ground to bright terminals. I then measured the bright and dim terminals but used the engine block for a ground (good ground). Both elements were on on the one headlight that I didn't unhook (because I modded it to make both elements turn on when the brights are on) and I got my measurements off the other side that I disconnected the light from.

As you can see, the wiring is way too small. The ground is also not the greatest. Thing is, that was just one headlight. I know it was both elements so it might as well be considered 2 headlights. The wires are still way too small, that is almost a 1 volt drop with the brights on. When I turned the brights off so it was just the dim element of one headlight, I was still 0.7 V under battery voltage. I am going to think up something creative to fix it.

[LiveOak]

Would a heavy duty headlight wire harness like this help? http://www.lmctruck.com/ICATALOG/DE/full.aspx?Page=46

[ISX]

I was searching yesterday and I came to that exact page. Basically the same thing everyone else does only in a kit. That's about the only way to make it work, throw in relays. I just wonder how much brighter they would be. I'll have to get some before and after of my headlights on whenever I decide to do it.

[LiveOak]

I have the APC version of this headlight harness. I bought it before they stopped making them. This harness made a very noticable improvement just with the harness alone with the OEM headlight bulbs. With higher wattage bulbs, I think it would be much more improvement.

[ISX]

So now we got proof that better wiring works! Someone on here posted a really good guide on polishing up the headlight lens. I think the lens thing, the wiring, and doing that mod with the dims and brights would yield some big results. I was feeling the headlight though and it gets pretty hot with both elements on, not sure if it is getting too hot.

[98whitelightnin]

I think if I just polished the lenses they would work 10x better. I was watching trucks and the guys polished one with tooth paste and it looked alot better.

[ISX]

I was using aluminum/mag cleaner today and got to wondering if I could use it for something like that. It turns black when used on aluminum so I think it has a little abrasiveness to it. Was also wondering if it would polish up injectors. I didn't take a pic of his bumper but the end result was the same as the wheels and the bumper had rust spots all over it that I couldn't get off, but the mag cleaner took it off after a while.