Headlight help
Thread Starter
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 155
Likes: 7
Headlight help
I have a 1977 Ford F-250 and I have the factory headlights so I want to get a aftermarket headlights but I don’t know what will fit? I have heard some jeeps headlights will work
thank you
thank you
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,398
Likes: 6
What style headlights are you referring to?
Thread Starter
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 155
Likes: 7
I’m sorry if my sentence didn’t make sense I was in a rush typing that out but I have seen these style headlights on a lot of older trucks so I was wondering which halo headlights will fit in my 77 ford truck
Grumpy goat
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 3,058
Likes: 594
Yeah, any of the 7" round headlights, like Jeep or Harley Davidson, will work. I've got projectors on mine and love them. Get one of the upgraded headlight wiring harnesses from LMC or other supplier. Your old wiring is most likely impeding power. Those harnesses are vehicle specific, cheap, and they're plug & play. The harness is a must imo.
Thread Starter
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 155
Likes: 7
Yeah, any of the 7" round headlights, like Jeep or Harley Davidson, will work. I've got projectors on mine and love them. Get one of the upgraded headlight wiring harnesses from LMC or other supplier. Your old wiring is most likely impeding power. Those harnesses are vehicle specific, cheap, and they're plug & play. The harness is a must imo.
Laughing Gas
Joined: Sep 2018
Posts: 1,223
Likes: 119
You will want to make sure they are DOT approved or you can receive a ticket. Even worse, you could be lumped in with the mall crawler jeeps that blind people with cheap headlights that do not light up the road well but do blind oncoming traffic...
Fleet Owner
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 26,007
Likes: 575
From: Brentwood,CA
The Morimoto 2.0 led lights are some of the nicest in the category and have a very defined cut off and DOT approval. I have them on my 68.
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Mountain Pass
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where are good places to buy the halos
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Grumpy goat
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 3,058
Likes: 594
When you get the upgrade harness, you may be surprised by how simple it is. I giggled, because I already had everything I needed to make it myself, it'd had just never occurred to me to make one. But for the price, I was just as happy buying it. Since then, I assembled my own harness for my 2001 Dodge truck.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 1,626
Likes: 78
From: NE Texas
77ford250 - did the painless harness duplicate the factory harness? Or does it have separate headlight relays added? If the latter, you are good to go.
The original harness ran the main headlight current through the headlight switch, dimmer switch, and if there is any extra resistance in the switches or wires, the headlights do not get full current or shine as brightly. The LMC-type harnesses add relays so the headlight current is only used to trip an added relay, through which full battery power is fed to the lights. Hopefully you understand how a relay works; if not, think of a relay as two switches, one for lots of power and one for little power, hooked together so that little current is needed on the smaller switch to trip the larger switch with lots of power. Like your starter solenoid works, right? Alternatively you can make your own relay harness, costs about $15 and there are multiple forum posts on how to do it. Me, I found a small fuse box on Amazon. I bridged across all the inputs and ran an 8 gauge feed to the battery, giving me 5 fused outputs which are run to relays for low beam headlights, high beam headlights, horn, and an alarm system so I still have an open spare.
The original harness ran the main headlight current through the headlight switch, dimmer switch, and if there is any extra resistance in the switches or wires, the headlights do not get full current or shine as brightly. The LMC-type harnesses add relays so the headlight current is only used to trip an added relay, through which full battery power is fed to the lights. Hopefully you understand how a relay works; if not, think of a relay as two switches, one for lots of power and one for little power, hooked together so that little current is needed on the smaller switch to trip the larger switch with lots of power. Like your starter solenoid works, right? Alternatively you can make your own relay harness, costs about $15 and there are multiple forum posts on how to do it. Me, I found a small fuse box on Amazon. I bridged across all the inputs and ran an 8 gauge feed to the battery, giving me 5 fused outputs which are run to relays for low beam headlights, high beam headlights, horn, and an alarm system so I still have an open spare.
Thread Starter
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 155
Likes: 7
If the Painless wiring harness routes power to the headlights the same way as the OEM harness, I'd upgrade. The advantage to the upgrade harness, is that it draws power directly from the battery. That harness has it's own two relays, Lo & Hi beam. When I first installed mine, I still had incandescent headlights. Those headlights went from dim yellow to bright white after the harness install.
Grumpy goat
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 3,058
Likes: 594
Thread Starter
|
Mountain Pass
Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 155
Likes: 7
77ford250 - did the painless harness duplicate the factory harness? Or does it have separate headlight relays added? If the latter, you are good to go.
The original harness ran the main headlight current through the headlight switch, dimmer switch, and if there is any extra resistance in the switches or wires, the headlights do not get full current or shine as brightly. The LMC-type harnesses add relays so the headlight current is only used to trip an added relay, through which full battery power is fed to the lights. Hopefully you understand how a relay works; if not, think of a relay as two switches, one for lots of power and one for little power, hooked together so that little current is needed on the smaller switch to trip the larger switch with lots of power. Like your starter solenoid works, right? Alternatively you can make your own relay harness, costs about $15 and there are multiple forum posts on how to do it. Me, I found a small fuse box on Amazon. I bridged across all the inputs and ran an 8 gauge feed to the battery, giving me 5 fused outputs which are run to relays for low beam headlights, high beam headlights, horn, and an alarm system so I still have an open spare.
The original harness ran the main headlight current through the headlight switch, dimmer switch, and if there is any extra resistance in the switches or wires, the headlights do not get full current or shine as brightly. The LMC-type harnesses add relays so the headlight current is only used to trip an added relay, through which full battery power is fed to the lights. Hopefully you understand how a relay works; if not, think of a relay as two switches, one for lots of power and one for little power, hooked together so that little current is needed on the smaller switch to trip the larger switch with lots of power. Like your starter solenoid works, right? Alternatively you can make your own relay harness, costs about $15 and there are multiple forum posts on how to do it. Me, I found a small fuse box on Amazon. I bridged across all the inputs and ran an 8 gauge feed to the battery, giving me 5 fused outputs which are run to relays for low beam headlights, high beam headlights, horn, and an alarm system so I still have an open spare.
These are my fuses on the painless wiring diagram if that answers your question
Grumpy goat
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 3,058
Likes: 594
You'll be impressed with the improvement you get from the upgrade harness. For giggles, install the harness before you install the LED lights. Compare your incandescent headlights before and after. That $40 goes a long way.