Specs? You mean the ones perched on my nose?

For my '95 I followed the owners manual and did it with headlights aimed at the garage door. I didn't use no stinkin' specs. Torx screw adjusters reposition the alignment. I think I'm OK. I cannot imagine this Areostar headlight improvement viewed as too bright to be legal.

 

over where I live the cops are very sensitive about headlights being too bright or aimed too high. kids in Hondas and motorcycles with bright blue lights are ticketed constantly.

 

got everything installed and finished and it works! (no issues from the first test).

what I will do next is to add inline 30-amp fuses to the battery connections (two red wires connected directly to the battery's positive terminal).

I have to say, the new lights (Xtravision bulbs) coupled with the new headlamps and the PUTCO harness, are bright white like a diamond, amazing!

Next job is a Fog/Driving lamps kit I ordered from Amazon too. Optilux is the brand. (just like the ones in my Jag). Has two 55 watt bulbs per lamp, comes with a double switch and all wiring and hardware. Will mount them under the bumper.

Thanks for all the help and if anyone wants pictures, let me know.

 

Do not add fuses. Headlamps are not the sort of things you ever want burning out. All a fuse would really be protecting you from is a dead short, just make sure your wiring is such that you don't get any dead shorts. Other than that, you don't want any fuse protection on the headlight circuit. Ford did not fuse your stock headlights, really almost no automaker does. Trust me, having your headlights go out is a bad thing.

 

Yet Ford had no problems putting a thermal circuit breaker on the headlight switch, which is designed to cutout when the switch overheats. I agree that the headlight is not something you ever want to go out while in use, but Ford does not seem to share this idea.

I used 10 gauge wires for my lights, and a short on them can burn out a lot of things. My wires came with flack jackets, and they are encased in black plastic corrugated tubing, so the chances of their getting chaffed are low. But I still prefer to protect the circuits with fuses.

 

but if one of the two relays went bad the lights would go off, won't they?

I've read in other forums (not just Aerostar, but F-150, Honda, etc.), that it is a good idea to add 30 amp inline fuses to each of the two red wires which connect directly to the battery.

the PUTCO harness instructions say at the very end: "use fuse to improve system reliability". (but they don't include the inline fuses).

I'm not arguing for or against, it just seems to be the norm. I am not an electronics expert, I am handy with many things electrical and a solder gun, but when it comes to theory, I only understand positive and negative flow.

curiously, my 1984 Jaguar XJ-6 has a 35-amp fuse for each of the 4 headlamps in a separate fuse box in the engine compartment, next to the Headlights Relay, (a big Hella relay), so obviously some manufacturers have fused their headlights.

I don't know what a fuse link is, but I know Ford uses them and when one burns out, it's better to junk the vehicle than to try to find it.

 

by the way, the thick yellow sleeve insulation in the PUTCO harness looks to be very fire-retardant if not fire-proof.

 

Good point Jose; anything you put in the circuit is another part that can fail. You just hope that the least reliable part is reliable enough to provide service 99.99999% of the time.

I'm not sure why a fusible link is used in some places vs an actual fuse. But if one blows out, you would have to essentially rewire that circuit, and hope that when it blew, its heat did not burn too many things around it.

 

so far so good xlt4wd90, I tested the lights last night on a 20-mile turnpike run and they are an improvement, I can see about 25% better than before. (new headlamps, new Xtravision bulbs, and new PUTCO harness). I need to re-align them better.

by the way, I was trying to separate the yellowed plastic lens from one of the old headlamp units and it came off without much effort. The chromed reflector inside is not affected by the yellowing, but just as I suspected, the clear lens is yellowed/fogged inside too. I suppose the lens can be restored on both sides and re-glued with silicone sealer/adhesive. The factory glue was a very thin bead which dries out.

I'll start installing the auxiliary fog/driving lights below the bumper this week. I think I'll remove the bumper and place it on work horses. the question I have to resolve is:

where to mount the dash switch for a factory-look?

 

Yes, the plastic lenses will degrade from both sides. While you can keep your car out of the sun by storing it in the garage all the time when you're not driving it only at night to avoid outside damage, you can not avoid the inside damage caused by the light source itself. If you a higher power bulb, the damage occurs that much quicker. Since the inside of the lens has all those flutes for focusing, it's hard to properly polish it.

I mounted my auxiliary light switch under the edge of the lower dash panel. I was able to again use an existing screw to hold the bracket that the switch came with. However, with it being that far down, it takes a little bit of reach to get to it.

 

i do use the small panel under the Headlightswitch where the Vent sits in. There to the right of the Vent is a small buckle Channel perfect to place Switches of all kinds. I have hi/lo beam Switch and a newly mountet Rear Fog-Light Switch, both the long Latch-style, one above another. This Way, the Switches are right behind the Multifunktion-switch and easy to operate from there.

http://www.last-adventure.net/images/uscar-033_opt.jpg

97' XLT 2WD 3.0L Vulcan 110000mls (today)

 

Very nice, that interior looks in mint condition. the switch I'm using is a 1" x 2", 3-position Rocker Switch with OFF in the center, down position for Fog lights, up for Driving lights. It won't fit where you mounted your Toggle switch. But it might fit in the flat area next to it, though I don't think there is enough depth for it there, might have to cut an opening for the rear of the switch to go through the inner skin.

by the way, I notice there are no Cruise Controls in your steering wheel. How many levels of XLT were there in 1997 ?? Seems like 1997 was a very confused year for the Aerostar, being the last year I suppose. Mine came with a tiny, unswitched, dome light in the rear Hatch area, and a Windstar dome light in the front cabin. I say Windstar because I went to a salvage yard looking for a replacement dome lamp Lens, and a switched Hatch area dome lamp for my '97. There were two 1997 XLT with the normal (1986-1996) style of front dome lamp, (one-piece white lens), but none like mine. I looked at a 1999 Windstar to see its dome lamp and there was my lamp. I thought a previous owner might have replaced the original dome lamp with a Windstar lamp but no, my headliner is "formed" for the Windstar-style lamp. (a very nice dome lamp I should add, with two extra Map lights with large rocker switches for each map light). Thanks for the switch-mounting tip.

 

you mean the plastic panel right in front of the knees? below the air vent on the left and below the steering wheel?

that's exactly where I was thinking but there is a heavy steel panel behind it, a "reinforcement" Ford calls it, and the plastic panel fitting flush to it, there is not enough depth for the switch. The size of the switch I'm using is like the rear wiper/washer and rear glass defrost switches, but wider and taller.

yes, not worth bothering polishing those clear plastic headlamp lenses, too much work beginning to end, you can get a new aftermarket set of headlamps for $69.95 delivered, and those include new buckets, new alignment adjusters, and new bulbs.

 

Actually, I mounted mine on the very bottom edge of the "knee" panel, which is steel, with a steel frame. It hangs below the panel. I'll try to post a picture tonight. Mine is a 1990 model, so it may be different from your 1997 model, as the dash panels changed in 1992.

 

guess what? I removed the rear glass Defrost switch and the Fog/Driving lights switch fits like a glove in its place! (I never use the rear window defrost, can't remember when I ever used it in any of my two previous Aerostar ).

also in this location, the illuminated switch does not interfere with my driving and it is very convenient to reach.

now comes the hard part: running wires from the lamps to the engine compartment and then to the switch.

So far the installation of the auxiliary lamps has been slow, had to remove the bumper, drill center holes in the brackets, buy proper mounting hardware, (the supplied hardware in the Hella kit is a joke, the design of the brackets does not allow for side to side adjustment when aiming), order stick-on wiring clips to keep wires in situ, all this while being pulled from both sides by customers at work.

I removed a four-Relays Box from a salvage Aerostar where I'm going to mount the two auxiliary lamp relays and the two Heavy Duty Headlamp Harness relays. The box is weather-proof with a removable cover, to make the job look "factory" but really to protect the relays from agua.