[Brian]

i was fortunate enough to get ahold of one of dan's last headlamp harnesses.

he was a very gifted guy when it came to wiring!

it's all in now and works great.



i wanted to let you all know that his sister is trying to sell the remaining few harnesses that she has left.

she's going to shut down shop in the next few weeks.



if anyone's interested, i'd get ahold of her soon.



the basic idea behind his harness was to use relays powered by the alternator to power the lights. the original headlamp plug just turns the relay on and off.

you do have to modify the original lamp seals, but it's not biggie.



perhaps i should start another thread for this, but does anyone have experience aiming the headlights on these cars? i think mine are fine, but i wanted to check.



the owners manual and shop guide are no help.

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[flash]

i do the garage door thing



i generally use a tape measure and set the low beams about 1/2" - 1" lower than the center of the light at 3', depending on ride height, and about 1/4" - 1/2" inward on each



the fog lights i set up to be a bit lower and wider



did the kit come with a different regulator?

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[josephsc]

Due to high demand since Dan passed away, Travis at Rennbay has started to manufacture similar wiring harnesses with relays. I haven't seen Travis's kit, so I can't speak to the quality. But the Rennbay kit appears to be only the headlight harness -- Dan's kit also included

* extra grounding wire

* Cibie E-code headlamps (available elsewhere)

* Narva H4 bulbs (90w/90w???)

and (in response to flash's question)

* adjustable voltage regulator (Transpo IB373a)

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[Brian]

i tried the aiming against the garage door trick.

got them even if nothing else. just not sure exactly how high they should be.

also not sure on the lateral adjustment. i tried to get rid of any dark spot on the door so that they overlapped just enough.

it's not scientific - maybe that's all that's necessary?

i should have aimed the lowers with the driving lights - i aimed them with the high's on. thanks for the tip. i'll try it again tonight. it wasn't my 'brightest' idea. (oh, that's bad!)



the reason i bought dan's harness is that i bought his battery cables last summer and they were great. figured i'd get my hands on anything else he came up with, too. the original batt cables - i bought the supp hdlt gnd and the adj vot reg at that time. the combination of everything has really helped.



the original battery cables were a total disaster when i pulled them out. sheathing was totally missing in spots. and with no fuses anywhere...

it'd be worth replacing if you haven't already.



i think 9xauto also sells a headlight harness. from what i could tell, they have a whole conversion kit to xenon bulbs as well. if i had seen it before i did this project, i would have looked into it more!



if you look at the original wiring for the headlights, you'll wonder what they were thinking! it's very light gauge stuff.

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[Brian]

flash, i don't think i answered you're question very well...

betsy did have the regulators, additional ground, and bulbs left.

she had lenses for the 944, but i think they're different than ours.

i didn't buy his bulbs, but opted for the silver star ones. his are much less. probably should have trusted his judgement.



hope that helps.

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[flash]

thanks



i don't know the spec on the lights, and here in california, we don't have headlight inspections, so i can pretty much do what i want there for aiming - this has worked out pretty well for me



drive it and see what you think - it may take a couple of adjustments

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[Brian]

i found an aiming post on .net.

i think it's exactly what flash was saying, only it recommended being 25' from a wall to do any adjustments.

not too much out there on aiming driving lights. tire rack had a page that talked about having them point straight ahead and perhaps even drop a couple inches over 25'. as long as they don't point up, they said it'd be okay.

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[flash]

yeah - 25" will give you a pretty good idea of what you will be looking at, but it is pretty hard to fine tune, becaue you really can't see the enter of the light



i sort of use that as a check of my setting - then i drive it - then i tweak it



the idea of fog lights is to pick up the edges of the road, not to cast a beam forward



driving lights are intended to exisiting light and basically want to be in the same pattern as low beam lights



we sort of have to compromise, and so i choose the fog position

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[Bart]

[quote name='Brian' date='Mar 13 2006, 10:57 AM']i wanted to let you all know that his sister is trying to sell the remaining few harnesses that she has left.

she's going to shut down shop in the next few weeks.



if anyone's interested, i'd get ahold of her soon.

[right][post="17288"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]



Do you know how to contact her?

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[Norskiepete]

might be good to have stashed away. How much are they?

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[GuardsRedCoupe]

[quote name='Bart' date='Mar 14 2006, 02:37 PM']Do you know how to contact her?

[right][post="17341"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]

From Rennlist:



"Iceshark's sister, Betsy, here. We have a few of his kits left, so if anyone is interested, contact me. We also have the Narva lightbulbs. We're trying to get rid of these last few things so we can move on. I can be reached at: wraydan@msn.com."





[quote name='Norskiepete' date='Mar 14 2006, 08:06 PM']might be good to have stashed away.  How much are they?

[right][post="17362"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]

I think they were in the $3xx range if my memory serves me correctly.

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[Brian]

there are lots of options with dan's cables.

when i originally bought his battery cable set, i also bought the volt reg and supp gnd. the total for all that was around $300 +/-.

then the headlamp harness was $185.

if you want his headlamp harness, you'll want his supp ground cable and regulator. it all goes together.



he had some bulbs for around $10 and lenses for a 944. i heard one guy who went to a higher wattage bulb since the new wiring was better. i stuck with the original 55/60w.



it's expensive. no doubt. but i can't imagine a higher quality product.



you do have to slightly modify your existing lamp seals/connectors if you go this way. his connectors are the standard female three prong bulb connectors. the original 968 connector is incorporated into a seal. it's no biggie to modify, but if you're particular about remaining stock, this isn't the way to go. you will also want to do a really small cut, splice, and solder job on three wires (the old lamp wires going into his new relays).



i also recently noticed that 9xauto has a harness and a kit to convert to true xenon. can't speak to the quality. interesting proposition.



personally, i haven't driven at night yet with the new harness. (thank you longer daylight season approaching!!!!). can't speak to the difference. i will say that before, when i turned my lights on, the voltage would drop on the gauge in the ip. now, it doesn't even flinch. i'm sure the lights still draw the same power (probably more since the wire doesn't restrict them) but it doesn't affect the rest of the car. beauty of the relays, i suppose.



if you want this product, get ahold of betsy soon. i don't think she's really enjoying cleaning out her brother's stuff and would like to turn the page to move on with other things.



also, if you do get the cables and get stuck on the install, i'd be happy to offer any experience. just email me.

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