Headlight harness upgrade

[dcoop46]

Can someone tell me the differences on the headlight wiring harness from Black Dragon vs MSA?  Has to be something for that much difference in price.  Would like to upgrade but am curious on comparison.  Thanks any help.

[S30Driver]

Dave's harness sold thru MSA is a very high quality upgrade,  the other - not so much.

This is one of those times, you get what you pay for.

[dcoop46]

Thanks for confirming my thoughts.  Sometimes you just pay the price.  Thanks, I'll be doing this soon.

[SteveJ]

To give more details, Dave's (MSA's) kit is plug and play for the 240Z. It uses the same connectors. I've yet to see anybody complaining about it.

I bought the Blackdragon Auto kit. It wasn't worth the money. Also, it used non-standard relays. If one goes bad, good luck finding a drop-in replacement.

[dcoop46]

Thanks, Steve.  I follow your work jobs closely.

 

Don

[Darrel]

David Irwins plug and play harnesses are the best around. Make sure to get the parking light harness too, as that is the one that usually melts the fuse block.

 

I dealt with David directly. I do have a funny story. After putting the headlight harness in, I didn't see a difference. I pulled up to a wall and switched from bright to dim and back again. One headlight was on brights, the other was on low beam. When Dave put it together he switched the wires on the left side. Simple fix by swapping the wires around and as good as new. Told Dave after I fixed it and he was really apologetic. Thanked me for not throwing a fit about it. I just thought it was funny. The thousands he has made up, I'm sure there might be a few that had the wires crossed.

 

Headlight harness- all under the hood work

Parking light harness-- one wire fished through the firewall and snaked though the dash to the steering column bolts.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Darrel

[rcb280z]

Yep, can't say enough about the 2 harness upgrades. Dave made mine custom for my 77 280. Love them. BTW, I installed them about 4 years ago.

[SteveJ]

David Irwins plug and play harnesses are the best around. Make sure to get the parking light harness too, as that is the one that usually melts the fuse block.

A great way to prevent that from happening is to install LED bulbs for the parking lights. My 260Z draws just over 1 A with just the parking lights on now. It also gives you a opportunity to examine the bulb sockets and look for corrosion in them.

[Jarvo2]

Agree the Irwin/MSA harness is the best, but for those wanting to build their own....

 

http://jarvas240z.blogspot.com/2014/07/headlight-wiring-harness-with-relays.html

[dcoop46]

Thanks for the info guys.

[ktm]

A great way to prevent that from happening is to install LED bulbs for the parking lights. My 260Z draws just over 1 A with just the parking lights on now. It also gives you a opportunity to examine the bulb sockets and look for corrosion in them.

 

I agree 100%.  Then again, if you are not worried about 100% authenticity, you can buy replacement side marker lights from a Thailand vendor (and reuse your lenses and SS trim pieces) to "upgrade" the old wiring and base housing.  Doing this combined with the LED upgrade is quite nice.

[Chickenman]

I found another supplier for high quality Head-lite Relay upgrades. The nice part is that these are Plug and Play for any vehicle. I'm thinking of getting these for my 1976 280Z. MSA doesn't supply 280Z kits.

 

http://www.ceautoelectricsupply.com/h4headlightrelaykits.html