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68 Charger headlight question

Bob Sawyer

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I am finishing up the grill restoration on my 68 Charger and I'm trying to decide which way to go for sealed beam headlights. The restoration of the Charger is pretty much stock all the way and I would like to keep the headlights the same, or at least near the same appearance.
What lights did you go with other than the original sealed beams and kept a somewhat stock look?
 
Halogen sealed beams.
Might I suggest a relay harness upgrade from user @Crackedback
I have one installed my Super Bee and I'm quite happy with it. Very discreet. Takes the load off your bulkhead/interior harness. Your switch only trips the relays.
 
Halogen sealed beams.
Might I suggest a relay harness upgrade from user @Crackedback
I have one installed my Super Bee and I'm quite happy with it. Very discreet. Takes the load off your bulkhead/interior harness. Your switch only trips the relays.

I 100% Agree, the relays also make the headlights much brighter...
 
Does anyone have Crackedback's email or contact info? His inbox is full and I'd like to order a relay kit.
 
I don't know the crackedback kit, but it is pretty straightforward. I ordered my relay kit at the same time I ordered new headlights.
Unless the kit you are talking about is made specific to your car you will get a more stock look by making your own harness, like I did. I just cut the headlight wiring and put the relays under the battery tray. Added a new fused source from the battery and increased the wire size to the headlights. Routed it as stock and applied new tape to the harness.
I ordered relay kit and new H1/H4 from Daniel stern. Huge improvement over my old halogen sealed beam
 
You can buy H4 headlight relay harness off eBay for $45 bucks and Octane also sell good conversion kit.

For me, I went way more complex and highend. It all started when I realized the headlight were only 9 volts going to the headlights. I found 12 volts at the bulk head and 12 volts at the core support, but after that the headlight harness was complete junk. My solution was to use the existing harness to a plug near the core support, then a plug to a proper relay box, then new wires from the relay box to the head lights. I used these plugs to terminate the wiring at the head lights and GLX 12ga wires.

I went with an American Autowire Severe-Duty Relay Panel. It's a rebadged Eaton 8 gang relay panel. The kit includes high quality GXL wires and lots of fancy Metri-Pack 280 connectors. I priced it out and the American wiring kit was cheaper than ordering everything from WayTek, so I bought the kit. The panel is mounted inside of the left fender in front of the wheel. I have easy access to the box fuses and relays if I turn the wheel hard right. Anything more serious requires removing the wheel.

There was an big issue to overcome with my plan. The relay box is ground triggered and the highlight delivers 12v to the headlight via the switch. To correct this, I converted the highlights to ground trigger by cutting the headlight feed wire, making that into a ground, which reversed the circuit. For the bright light indicator bulb, I tapped into the 12v feed to the instrument panel then reverse the circuit so it gets ground from where it use to get power. I used this socket to connect the bulb as the old bulb got ground from the panel. Everything is reversible back to stock because I used 15 amp 12ga bullet connectors at all the splices. And depending how you look at it, the good thing is I can't leave my headlights on because the relay box is triggered by the key-on ignition. Or bad thing that I have to have the key on to turn on the headlights, but when has anyone intentional left the headlights on with the key off?

For the headlights housing, I went two Hella H4 kits for both high and low beam. The housing are all glass, direct replacement for sealed beam using standard H4 bulbs which uses the same plug as sealed beamed units. They look 100% stock from the front, but preform much better. The kit is not DOT approved; it's the European equivalent. The different is DOT low beam lights project a flat beam. The European low beams are flat on the left side and angle up at 30 degrees on the right to light up the side of the road better. They are much better than DOT lights in my not-so humble opinion. I did have to modify the lamp buckets by opening the hole to 3-1/2", but the locating tabs are in the correct locations.
 
I build my kits FOR our mopars. They are not a one size fits all. There are things you DO NOT want to do that many of the lower cost kits do not address. I have a database of lengths for placing relays under the battery tray for a hidden installation. Many that are particular are about appearance, will wrap the kit with factory style friction tape. I install shrink tube on the majority of wire runs and it hides pretty easily within the factory wire runs for a stealthy install.

Here is the thread on the kit
https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/plug-and-play-headlight-relay-kits.166762/

The recommendations from prior customers is the best and highest compliment I can receive. I appreciate the patronage and referrals!

Rob
 
Does anyone have Crackedback's email or contact info? His inbox is full and I'd like to order a relay kit.

Your kits should be done tomorrow and on the way Monday. Thanks for the order!

I need to stay off ladders! Not LOL... UGH
 
I build my kits FOR our mopars. They are not a one size fits all. There are things you DO NOT want to do that many of the lower cost kits do not address. I have a database of lengths for placing relays under the battery tray for a hidden installation. Many that are particular are about appearance, will wrap the kit with factory style friction tape. I install shrink tube on the majority of wire runs and it hides pretty easily within the factory wire runs for a stealthy install.

Here is the thread on the kit
https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/plug-and-play-headlight-relay-kits.166762/

The recommendations from prior customers is the best and highest compliment I can receive. I appreciate the patronage and referrals!

Rob

You have an excellent solution for folks that want to keep a stock look. You need to advertise more. Maybe list on eBay and Amazon?

My solution was to deal with ground trigger coming from the Holley EFI ECU.
 
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