I posted all of this same information in another post here, but I wanted to ensure that the "how to" portion that I am providing is not lost in conversation.

The harness was very well put together and I would recommend it 100%. The connectors had a plastic surround with ceramic centers where the pins meet the connector. Each connection was crimped properly and secured well. There was plenty of wire to run from either the drivers side or passenger side, whichever battery you hooked to.

The bulbs required a slight bit of modification to fit into the housing. Although, the housings were replacements I bought from Amazon for around $120 for the pair. So, it could have been a combination of the bulbs and replacement housings. I had no problems installing new 9007 bulbs though when I bought the truck, so who knows. I just had to clip about 1/4 from the key hole that the bulb mounted into the housing with. Once I did this they went in just fine and secured as I expected.

In addition to installing the Ebay special harness and lights, I removed and cleaned every single ground I could locate. Including the multiple small gauge ones in the engine bay and the 2 large gauge negative battery cables that ground to the engine.

For reference of my sources.

Harness:

9007 Heavy Duty Headlight Harness USA Wire Seller | eBay

Bulbs:
Abl 9007 100 80W X2 High Low Xenon Super White Replacement Light Bulbs B9 | eBay

Some of the other FTE members prefer not to use Ebay for parts whenever possible, I don't mind though as long as the parts are quality and built well. If you are one of those people, then dfuser has a harness for about $79 here The $99 kit is no longer available (says Hi/Low beams) and the instructions for installing the $79 kit indicate a controller of sorts which is not included in the $79 kit. These 2 discrepancies on the dfuser site steered me toward the USA seller on Ebay. In my opinion, I made the right choice.

Drivers side harness with the ground cable attached to a ground just above and to the right of the socket. I wrapped the OEM harness with butyl tape and electrical tape then secured it under the battery tray with a zip tie.



The cross-over cable that goes from the passenger side to the drivers side is running just in front of the A/C condenser and is not secured quite yet in this picture. I zip tied it to the condenser brackets and the hood latch box.



This is where I mounted the relays for the harness. They are well out of the way of debris and weather in this spot.



Ground cable for the passenger side of the harness tucked under the battery tray. You can also see that I tucked the OEM harness which now triggers the relays under the battery tray as well. There is a rather large space there on top of the washer fluid container that will keep the connectors safe.



Picture from another angle showing how everything buttoned up fairly nice on the passenger side. You can see the new wire loom running to the passenger side of the battery OEM terminal. Below the large gauge positive wire is 2 fuses and 2 positive wires that run down to the relays. I zip tied them to the main cable for security.



A picture of the new harness installed on the battery and how it cleaned up very nicely.



New head lights on low in action. They are much brighter and much more white than the older ones. I am very happy with them so far.


A quick shot of the new lights shinning on the door which is about 5 feet from the light housing.



Let me know if you have questions or concerns. I will try to get the truck out soon to adjust the lights and see how they are different than the yellow and faded out ones I had in there before.

 

Great write up and pics, thanks! Interested to hear your impression on the road with the 100/80W bulbs on a good harness. With all new gear, a round of aim adjustment is likely.

I ended up locating the fuses for my HID install same as you. Great minds think alike, eh?

Does the wire look like legit 16 and 14 AWG? I ask since the last Chinese harness I got for the wife's Forester was all insulation and a size smaller wire. Light output hardly better than stock. Well stock new; the OEM was fried and done.

 

The harness looked good and from what I could see of the wire through the eyelets, it was 4 times thicker than the OEM lighting harness. I can tell right away that the lights are brighter, some of that though is contributed to the 800/100w bulbs.

 

Great write up! Are those bulbs really 6 bucks?

 

They really were $6. I caught a little flak for buying "cheap" lights from Ebay in the other thread, although I figured that they are $6 and I spend that doing nothing sitting at my house. I will carry the bulbs I just took out with me as spares in case the $6 ones decide to die quickly. If they last a year or two, that is a great return in my opinion.

I am going to try and get it out of the garage and to a spot I can adjust the lights tonight. I will also be able to provide my opinion on the quality of the bulbs and my thoughts on the brightness.

 

I took the truck out last night and when I first started it up to let it warm up I could tell the difference in the color of the light right away. It was more of a pure white like xenon colored rather than the typical yellow halogen look.

On the down side, I was not impressed with the rater 85/100w or the harness so far, but I thought to myself "I should hold my opinions until they have been adjusted properly". On the plus side there was no more slight dimming of the headlights during idling like there was a couple of weeks ago. That was more than likely contributed to the heavy duty harness and direct battery connection. Although, the grounds were not very dirty, cleaning and re-securing them may have had a small part in the lights staying constant.

My wife and I went into town and found a good spot to adjust them against an abandoned building. Right after pulling away from the building after adjusting them I started smiling. They were a good 35-40% brighter and as mentioned earlier, much whiter. I aimed them just a bit low because my truck sits up pretty high with the 4x4 suspension, and the first time I saw a car cross in front of me I knew I was good to go because the beam focused about 1' below the edge of his door where the window started.

I did not get flashed one time despite running the 85w low beam and we took it on a ride into the country in order to reduce the ambient light and reflections of windows and signs. There is a not a lot of difference between the low and high beam, but again there is only a 15w difference in the low and high beam. The high beam does shine about 15-20 ft higher along the trees, signs and slightly brighter on the ground in front. My field of vision increased by about 100ft or so with both low and high beam.

Final conclusion is that I am very happy with the results and for a price just under $100 I you cannot beat that with a stick for a 16 year old truck. The housings look crisp and bright when looking at them, not like it has a candle in it from the 1600's.

Would I recommend the harness by itself, yes. The bulb upgrade in regards to wattage and color is a personal decision, but I would recommend them as a package because you are going to be in there anyway.

I hope this helps others make their decision easier.

 

In lieu of the Battery Terminal Power, using the B+ Post of the Alternator would net greater results as well referring to dimming at idle as well as increased illumination.

 

Perhaps, but I feel the method posted above is more than adequate to light the road ahead. In addition, I preferred to mount the relays and harness as much out of sight as possible, and wiring the ring terminals directly to the alternator may have prevented this goal.

 

Ok, this may be a dumb question, but is there a benefit to this modification versus, say, switching to L.E.D. headlight bulbs? (if there is a quality replacement available) In most cases it seems you can get much more light output out of very little draw.

 

I wanted to upgrade the headlight harness anyway, so I figured for an extra $6.50 I could get the higher wattage bulbs as well. LED is a good choice if you are comfortable with the prices and can find a bulb configuration that works well for your particular housing.

I used to run HID's on my Hayabusa and they were very bright. Although, the beam pattern was very erratic. I did not want a similar experience with LED bulbs on the truck. If/when these new bulbs die off though, I may pick up a set of LED's, or might just go back to 55/65.

Not a dumb question at all. I was seeing some slight dimming from the headlights when sitting at a stop light. It was so slight that I could not even tell they were doing it until I was behind a car and the lights were shinning on the back of it. When performing the harness upgrade, I also removed and cleaned all of the major grounds I could find in the engine bay and on the engine.

I believe the combination of the harness and the grounds being refreshed alone would have cured the dimming lights, but the new 80/100 bulbs certainly made things a lot brighter and steady.

So far I am very happy with the outcome of the harness and bulbs.

 

Remember that LED's do not get hot, so if you live in snow/icy conditions the LED's won't melt anything off of the lenses and will cause poor light output.

 

Hey Sous, where did you get that grill? I am looking to update mine.
Thanks
Ed

 

Ed, Santa Claus brought it to me, but he always uses my list of pre-approved gifts.

Here is the link to the item on Ebay. I specifically wanted the one with the emblem cut out because of my IH badge.

Fits 99 04 Ford F250 F350 Super Duty Excursion Billet Grille | eBay

 

Sous, you da man, I just ordered one.
Thank you sir.
Ed

 

Sous, I fired off a rep round to ya!