Headlight Loom Upgrade

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CovKid
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by CovKid »

Same boat John. Got some excellent stuff but its all brown - really annoying.
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by ghost123uk »

Titus A Duxass wrote:OCD is good to have if you're playing with kabelsalat.


Ah, "kabelsalat" =

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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by volks_womble »

Glad someone has taken the plunge, and has had success with the kit.

I would expect that the relays and fuses are on the light end of the loom so that it can be supplied built up, meaning you only have to get the cable through various grommets.

However, the fuse is a safety device, and should always be as close to the battery as possible to protect the maximum amount of cable. If I were fitting this kit, I would be inclined to put a fuse holder at the battery too.

As I said in the original post, I thought this might be a simple upgrade for those who don't want to make their own looms up and/or have a phobia or wiring diagrams (:P). I have to admit that I hadn't considered twin headlamp installs...to be fair I am more than happy building my own looms and reading wiring diagrams, but for a moderate cost and an install time of an hour or so, a loom like this makes a lot of sense even to me.

Despite having robbed this from a Land Rover website, I wonder whether the supplier (not paddocks, they are just a reseller - Red Bison?) might be interested in producing a version for twin headlamps? would also work for Land Rovers after all...

Alternately, you could just install two looms in parallel for twin headlights. That would get round the cable size and lack of connectors. You would still use the existing wiring to switch the relays... seems a fairly simple solution to me.

hth
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by volks_womble »

I just re-read my post - it sounds a little sales-ey - it wasn't meant to! I have no connection with either paddocks or the wiring suppliers to them....
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by WLC »

mark_van wrote:Just a thought, but I saw this ready made loom kit to give you relays on your Headlights:

http://www.paddockspares.com/boomslang- ... -loom.html

I know it is designed for Land Rovers, but I would have thought it could work for T25s too - the only issues being the cable lengths.

Anyway, I thought that looked like a potentially easy solution for anyone looking to upgrade their loom to use relays, with minimal electrical knowledge....
.
Good as they are :-) relay switched headlights on new, and decent thickness cables aren't the Holy Grail :-(

Part of the headlight problem is that many cars get nearly 14.4v at the starter battery post.
Ghost123uk on another thread was only getting 13.8v at his starter battery post.
BigHerb was doing a bit better with 14.12

If you've only got 13.8v at your starter battery post the chances are your headlights are half a volt behind what they would be if you had a 14.5v alternator.

Does that give you any ideas about improving your headlights please :-)
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by kevtherev »

WLC wrote:
mark_van wrote:Just a thought, but I saw this ready made loom kit to give you relays on your Headlights:

http://www.paddockspares.com/boomslang- ... -loom.html

I know it is designed for Land Rovers, but I would have thought it could work for T25s too - the only issues being the cable lengths.

Anyway, I thought that looked like a potentially easy solution for anyone looking to upgrade their loom to use relays, with minimal electrical knowledge....
.
Good as they are :-) relay switched headlights on new, and decent thickness cables aren't the Holy Grail :-(

Part of the headlight problem is that many cars get nearly 14.4v at the starter battery post.
Ghost123uk on another thread was only getting 13.8v at his starter battery post.
BigHerb was doing a bit better with 14.12

If you've only got 13.8v at your starter battery post the chances are your headlights are half a volt behind what they would be if you had a 14.5v alternator.

Does that give you any ideas about improving your headlights please :-)
.
I don't think you quite understand electricity chap.

definition...
One volt is defined as the difference in electric potential between two points of a conducting wire when an electric current of one ampere dissipates one watt of power between those points.

Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance.

There is an hydraulic analogy should you wish it.

Image

P = load (measured in watts)
i = current (measured in amps)
V = potential difference (measured in volts)

The bulbs won't be dimmer if the potential is larger than the rated load, this explains why.
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by slowcoach »

I'm on the fence here about getting the harness from the post subject. I'd love better headlights, and don't know what the potential is for improvement from what I've got.

I do get a good 14.3v at my starter battery post, which by all accounts is above average. Its a 90a alternator. I did measure the volts at the h4 headlight plug but that was some years ago and have forgotten what that was now. assuming its a good 13+ v though, I guess my question is whether this loom will make a difference given I've already got a good feed.

Could the increased current actually be the difference?
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by CovKid »

By the way - thats Ghost's fusebox. You really need to get in there and prune those back a bit...

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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by slowcoach »

slowcoach wrote:I'm on the fence here about getting the harness from the post subject. I'd love better headlights, and don't know what the potential is for improvement from what I've got.

I do get a good 14.3v at my starter battery post, which by all accounts is above average. Its a 90a alternator. I did measure the volts at the h4 headlight plug but that was some years ago and have forgotten what that was now. assuming its a good 13+ v though, I guess my question is whether this loom will make a difference given I've already got a good feed.

Could the increased current actually be the difference?
Just an update and a bump for the question above.

I get 14.5 at the alt , which loses .2v on its way to the starter. No big problem there I guess.. But what of the headlight loom install ? Any worthwhile improvement to this scenario?

My, what a lot of starter and voltage posts this time of year! :-) here's a corker..

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... 80424c08c6

Quite heated!
===================
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by CovKid »

Run a fatter fine-strand cable to the dash to start with. Thats what I did anyway. I fitted a small bus bar under the dash with a cover similar to this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Way-Stud-Ti ... 3a9e18f240" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From there you can run to fusebox etc. Put heavy stuff (like lights) on its own smaller fusebox with proper ring connectors and leave the stock one (with spades) for lesser things where corroding terminals make less impression. It does border on Frankenstein's lab though. :rofl

Modern vehicles seem to have equivalents.
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by ghost123uk »

slowcoach wrote:
My, what a lot of starter and voltage posts this time of year! :-) here's a corker..

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... 80424c08c6

Quite heated!

I couldn't be bothered getting to the "heated" bit, but I will say that if that alternator upgrade harness was easily available here in the UK, at a sensible price, I too would likely buy one, same for ready made starter to battery cable. Saves sourcing all the bits and fannying around with cutting HD cable neatly, solder, blow torches and heatshrink etc, all in my cold shed ;)

Hey Ralph, you could make and sell them ;)

When the weather improves I am seriously considering fitting an extra cable, direct from alternator to battery to reduce voltage drop. Not a very elegant solution I know, but very much in the tradition of most owner added wiring on a T25 :wink: :lol: 8)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

E D I T = as the above is a bit off topic, drifting a bit away from Headlight Loom upgrades, I thought I would mention that it fits in very neatly with the Low Volts thread :wink:
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by CovKid »

Not so straightforward John. There is so much variation including differences in alternator connections, battery position etc plus (personally) I'd only recommend heavy stuff and everyone would be saying "How much????". Its not only costly, it can be very really awkward to route - its like fighting with a damned python. Plus one or two of the ring connectors are best made in situ and they have to be done really well.

You also have to make it long enough to avoid cable being too tight and its not easy trying to lose the inch or two you need for slack when you're dealing with that guage - it fights back. Then there are all the grommets :D I would suggest its more custom work.

With a vehicle in front of me - yes, easy peasy.

Theres a lot of interesting discussion on disappearing volts but I still think the stock cables fitted were a little on the conservative side (on what is essentially a late 70s design) - particularly with all the things we fit these days and not at all good if you want bright headlights. Assuming good earths everywhere, the best way to go is fit really fat cables that eventually terminate under dash. That way you have a good backbone from which you can run everything.

Because its such a mammoth task to route well and getting the soldering right takes time, I fear some would lose interest in fitting and resort to twisting wires under nuts and washers and other horrors. Sad but true.

You still need relays on items that pull current but with a skeleton mainframe of that calibre, you don't lose anywhere near as much along the way and simple does tend to work out best.

Even with good bulbs, good relays and good connections, you do have to ask if the light units themselves are up to the job. These days light units are designed by computer software and as I've discovered myself, good as Hella lights of the period were, modern ones are just far, far better, even if their lifespan is not as long.

On Fridays when I'm stuck in traffic, I spend a lot of time looking at the design of, and light emitted by modern cars. Theres no reason why we can't match it, but its not cheap to do from the ground up. Its open-ended too. There is always room for improvement.

Ooooh! Just got excited about these. Just what I'm after :twisted: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Automotive-Ma ... 338470217b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by ghost123uk »

Most of this should be on the "othr thread" ;) , but hey, this is 80-90 :lol: 8)

CovKid wrote:Not so straightforward John.... I'd only recommend heavy stuff and everyone would be saying "How much????".

Ah, but mine would be a (one piece) "auxiliary" additional to my existing cable(s) and fairly thick at that, at least as thick as the std VW alternator main feed, so I would be roughly doubling up, in effect halving the resistance (=Voltage drop). I know it's not "right" but it may give me back 1/2 a volt or so at the battery end. Mind you, I don't have a problem actually, mine seems not bad, but not as good as some have reported (on the "other thread" I think ;)), plus my alternator cables look pretty clean and bright.

CovKid wrote:Its not only costly, it can be very really awkward to route - its like fighting with a damned python. Plus one or two of the ring connectors are best made in situ and they have to be done really well.

Aye, which is why, especially as I would be just messin really, I mentioned about = fannying around with cutting HD cable neatly, solder, blow torches and heatshrink etc, all in my cold shed and of course fitting it. Plus it's also why you ought to make these up and flog them to us, like Jay does in the US :wink:

Still think this should be on the "other thread" ;) but I suppose interested parties will be following both :)

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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by JesusJason »

I've also been looking into improving the headlamps on my Aircooled as it seems dangerous to have cars behind you lighting up the road in front better than you can...

I've found this kit from GoWesty: http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details. ... parent_id=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This allows for higher wattage, but I'm looking at using HIDs instead of Halogen (the reason for the wattage upgrade for the HIDs is that although they use far less energy when running they use more to initially fire into life).

For the HIDs I've looked here: http://www.hids4u.co.uk/hidkits.php?car=33999" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; at the "H4 35w Slim ProPlus Bi-Xenon HID Conversion Kit" running the 5000k lights.

What do you chaps think?

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Re: Headlight Loom Upgrade

Post by Smosh »

ghost123uk wrote:
Still think this should be on the "other thread" ;) but I suppose interested parties will be following both :)
Trying to! :lol: :lol:
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