Some additional info about Hella brand E-code lamp systems and old Mopar wiring upgrades, first posted several years back in response to a similar question about the installation I was doing at the time on the RR/GTX;
"Hella was/is the OEM lighting/electrical supplier to the European car manufactures. In Europe back in the 70's & 80's, if it had round headlamps, these are the lamps the BMW's would have from the factory. They were illegal for use in the states at the time, (according to the labels on the box, still is, for off-road use only). Although no brighter than some of the high-end lighting you see running on the road today, I guess, back then American drivers couldn't handle them and needed government protection against them. My 03' Astro came with a lighting system similar in design to these, just with a stylized lamp reflector/housing.
The H4 and H1 bulbs are quartz-halogen available ranging from 55-100+ watts. Sealed beams, what 15-20 watts of lighting? The control of the light pattern is more precise with basically two lines, one horizontal and another angling up to the right, light pattern below on the road and shoulder. High beam, it's almost daylight.
Wiring? There are two points of concern with the stock wiring.
1. Voltage drop, I am in the process making a new headlamp harness that ups the wire size to 12 gauge. The lamps will have a dedicated ground as the stock wiring shares the headlamp grounds with all other lighting up front.
2. Current draw, relays will be installed near the starter relay to redirect the higher current away from the other parts of the stock headlight circuit. The bulkhead connectors, fuse block, dash wiring, headlight switch, high/low beam foot switch would all suffer an early demise if this extra current were allowed to pass through them.
I hope to have completed my wiring mod this week-end, for those interested I will post some pictures next week. In the meantime, when I was researching if I could still get these headlamps, I ran across several sites on the internet that had instructions for installations like this. Keyword search "Hella headlamps", you should hit on a ton of info. BTW, best price I found was at Summit Racing, about $54 ea. for the headlamps."----NOTE, that was back in '08, likely more now.
"Well I managed to finish the wiring mod today, here are some pics of the process and end result.
"
Some additional info about Hella brand E-code lamp systems and old Mopar wiring upgrades, first posted several years back in response to a similar question about the installation I was doing at the time on the RR/GTX;
"Hella was/is the OEM lighting/electrical supplier to the European car manufactures. In Europe back in the 70's & 80's, if it had round headlamps, these are the lamps the BMW's would have from the factory. They were illegal for use in the states at the time, (according to the labels on the box, still is, for off-road use only). Although no brighter than some of the high-end lighting you see running on the road today, I guess, back then American drivers couldn't handle them and needed government protection against them. My 03' Astro came with a lighting system similar in design to these, just with a stylized lamp reflector/housing.
The H4 and H1 bulbs are quartz-halogen available ranging from 55-100+ watts. Sealed beams, what 15-20 watts of lighting? The control of the light pattern is more precise with basically two lines, one horizontal and another angling up to the right, light pattern below on the road and shoulder. High beam, it's almost daylight.
Wiring? There are two points of concern with the stock wiring.
1. Voltage drop, I am in the process making a new headlamp harness that ups the wire size to 12 gauge. The lamps will have a dedicated ground as the stock wiring shares the headlamp grounds with all other lighting up front.
2. Current draw, relays will be installed near the starter relay to redirect the higher current away from the other parts of the stock headlight circuit. The bulkhead connectors, fuse block, dash wiring, headlight switch, high/low beam foot switch would all suffer an early demise if this extra current were allowed to pass through them.
I hope to have completed my wiring mod this week-end, for those interested I will post some pictures next week. In the meantime, when I was researching if I could still get these headlamps, I ran across several sites on the internet that had instructions for installations like this. Keyword search "Hella headlamps", you should hit on a ton of info. BTW, best price I found was at Summit Racing, about $54 ea. for the headlamps."----NOTE, that was back in '08, likely more now.
"Well I managed to finish the wiring mod today, here are some pics of the process and end result.
"
