Brighter headlights on Gen-1 explorer

[green4WDmonster]

AH, now you tell me....lol

thanks, i'll go fix the issue once it stops raining here.

 

[XxxMonoxideChild]

just tried this. didnt even take me 10 minute's. and i just swapped the wiring around in the plug itself. bought the bulbs off ebay for like $6 shipped. made a massive difference! thanks so much for the idea.

 

[jaykar]

Just recieved my headlite housings from direct for
$35 ea and can't believe how cloudy the originals
were

Going to do the 9004 to 9007XV change this weekend.

Thanks to all who contributed.

Later

 

[jaykar]

Installed the new housing and upgraded to 9007s
and the difference is like nite and day.

Was not exactly piece of cake on changing out the
old housing and installing new ones. without cracking
plastic pieces.

Cleaned up grille,Paint faded, taped up and repainted
semi gloss black. Replaced old AT front cooler hoses.
which were leaking and had front grille denser pretty
much clogged behind cooler. Looks like new front end

Would post pics but can't, whats up with that.
Do you have to be an elite member

Anyway thanks for info and part numbers

later

 

[deathbypsi]

Any reason this would not work on my 90 Bronco2?

 

[MrWizard]

Should work just fine on a Bronco II. They also use 9004 bulbs.

 

[solitary ogre]

i was wondering if anyone has tried one of those lense polishing kits you can buy for about $15 (walmart) that include 3 different grits of fine wet/dry sand paper and polish?
do they work or just a gimmick?

i ran 130/90 bulbs (60/55 is max. allowed in Canada) in my '88 bll and melted the switch in the steering collum so i wired in a floor switch the same as the older "f" series trucks. then the stock wiring wasn't heavy enough so i ended up putting in relays. i would constantly burn out my low beams from the rough ride on gravel roads, so i put day time running lights on it to save the low beams.
i dislike the daytime running lights (dimmed high beams) on my '91 explorer (especially that crappy plastic switch on the parking brake that grounds the relay for them) so i'll be wiring in day time running lights for it as well. i seem to end up with a birds nest of wires and relays under the hood and dash of any vehicle i've ever owned.
thanks for all the great info on this site. i sit and read for hours. this is better than what has been on tv lately.....lol

 

[deathbypsi]

I did the bulb swap and repined my stock plugs to work with the 9007 bulbs a week ago,I also bought that kit you speak of and believe it or not it did a pretty good job taking the yellow off my old lens. The lights on my B2 work great now.

 

[Four0Sport]

ive used meguiars plastX clear plastic polish and it worked great! easy to use too.. i brought back a 10 yr old headlight to almost new condition to match a brand new headlight lense on the other side of my 97.

 

[solitary ogre]

i did the swap to 9007 sylvania ultras tonight. i'm impressed so far with a short test drive up a dark road. the real test will be sunday morning at 5:00 am in wind, rain & snow while driving up to Whistler for biathalon training.
it would have been easier to remove the battery to cut those alignment tabs off on the right side but i managed by using a special angled knife used for scoring acrylic sheet. they break off easy. i chose to cut the wires and put in male/female connectors so i can easily swap in the stock bulbs if i burn one out. (more junk for my storage compartment)
there was only a small amount of adjustment downwards. i will carry a socket with me to make any adjustments on sunday when i get loaded up with 4 air cadets and their ski gear.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Just a pic showing the difference.

 

[Four0Sport]

wonder if it would be easier to just snip out sections of the bulb base of the 9007 instead of grinding off the tabs in the headlight housing? any ideas?

 

[solitary ogre]

i didn't have any trouble taking off the tabs. it was almost as if the plastic was brittle. getting new slots correctly indexed on the new bulbs would be much more difficult. i got both the right side tabs off in less than a minute without removing the battery. it was tight but do-able.
i drove again in heavy snow last night and my visibility was fantastic. i can tell i need to turn them down a bit more 'cause when i get a load in they will be hard on the eyes of oncoming traffic.
why wait 'til spring.......do it now.

merry new years.

 

[Pdwight]

I just did this with my 94 Limited , what a difference. I bought a set of bulbs from the folks who sell the adapters and they knock off 5 bucks for the adapter. Total cost was 36 bucks and change and that included shipping. The lights look so much better now.

Thanks
Dwight

 

[mechjames]

I had installed a cheap HID kit which worked great in town for brightness, but once you go out on a highway trip where there's no streetlights, unless you aim them upward (and that bothers other drivers) they're pretty well not good, since most kits (unless you spend the money to go bi-xenon) are useless, and are for bright looks in the city only.

I only did that because I couldn't find any decent 9004 bulbs that were bright enough or that burn out quick.

I just completed this tutorial and now my daylights are back (i didn't care much about that anyway, but if a cop is smart and knows the year of my truck I MIGHT have gotten a ticket) and now I can use my highbeams on the highway at night, and see far ahead, instead of really bright close up.

Great tutorial Mr. Wizard!

 

[jd4242]

I have a solid purple,red/black in the middle and solid black wire.on mine the purple is the highs and the red/black is the lows.

 

[Roadrunner777]

I'll add my appreciation for this thread. I finished this procedure plus new headlight modules and I can't wait for it to get dark to check it out. If you change out the headlight modules, they are about 30-40 per side. Be sure to keep the old ones and old hardware until you are satisfied. My new ones had the wrong screw clips on top, easy swap out since I didn't toss the old ones yet.

Thanks again!

 

[Dora The 4x4'a]

very cool and free mod! if i had not replaced my buckets with all clear and new bulbs already a few years back (and was not totally happy with them) i would do this mod. if one blows out tho i will probably jump on the bandwagon! cool insider trick.

 

[SoNic67]

The best trick is to clean the fogged lenses with a 17$ headlight lens restoration set (and a drill).
That will not bother other drivers (like cheap HID sets) and pass the technical inspection, unlike other "tricks". 9007 conversion is possiblein theory, but in some places might not be legal.
I did a lens restoring on all my cars, but I have pictures only from one of them (first done):

 

[Naasau]

Just so I don't have to post up pics and say things twice, I did the 9007 swap and a relay harness at the same time, and though I missed out on some better comparative pics due to my own clumsiness, I thought that I should at least reference the work I did here as well.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2892385&posted=1#post2892385

MrWizard, Thank you!