317 wimpy headlights

I thought about adding some sheet metal to the front of the hood and putting insome round headlights.

Some mouse ear style mounted on the sides just below the hood would probably look good and work good and be easly adjusted.

If you search on here I remember some guys installing halogen bulbs and also cleaning/polishing the plastic lens, plus sealing the headlight assembly with clear silicon to keep out dirt/dust that grimes up the lens.

Heres a link to some LED's, I put some in mine last year, way better than the stock, but not as good as halogen (but these don't suck much electric)!

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fcompcarbulb.htm

first take a look at the lenses, I was AMAZED at the amount of crap that got inside what appears to be a sealed enviornment.

Cleaning the reflective surface and the back side of the lens made a BIG improvement here.

Not halogens but no drilling either

I've used 6volt bulbs before but you have to leave the lens off they get so hot. They get very bright toooo. that was on a metal reflector, the jds have plastic and might melt so you have to watch them. The LEDS are what I'm going to use due to amp draw on the wireing system. My Bolens has sealed beam lights, 55 watt and there very bright.

A new or polished lens will do wonders. They are still available from Mother Deere. And cleaning the reflective surface behind the bulbs helps a lot too.

not trying to hijack the thread but any pics of these "mickey mouse ears" and mabey some insight on how they are wired? i would like to add some to my 317

Thanks

Vadeere said:

A new or polished lens will do wonders. They are still available from Mother Deere. And cleaning the reflective surface behind the bulbs helps a lot too.

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hahahahahahahahah

I used the air conditioning duct tape the one that is real shinny on the entire area around the bulbs and it made a huge difference. ( I am not the originator of this idea it came from the guys on weekendfreedommachines) but it was a cheap fix I did my 314 and 322.

If you go to the LED thread, one of the funnier lines was, the 318 lights are like having 2 candles on the hood:ROF:ROF I had a 318 and he's about right !!

Johny 317 said:

maybe some insight on how they are wired? i would like to add some to my 317

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I didn't get a chance to do it myself, but my plan was to splice into the headlight harness and T the + connection off to the Aux lights in addition to the main lights. You could easily wire in a second switch after the T but in this manner your main light would need to be on to switch on your aux lights.

If you really wanted to go all out, you can think about adding a second battery, in which case you can T the + connection of the harness off into a relay which sits inbetween the second battery and the lights. With the box frame on the 317 it's not that hard to fab some simple mounts to hold a small secondary batter.

As for mounting them, on my 317 the front grill support had two extra holes on the side of the support towards the top, one on each side. I don't know what was supposed to be in those holes, mine were just blank -- I suspect somebody before me may have drilled them. They seem to provide no structural support but they are perfect mounting holes for aux lights.

No need to add a second battery, the output of the stock regulator is waaaaay more than needed for 2 additional lights. Just splice in with the factory wire harness. Make sure you have a good connection, soldering is always best, and make sure you have good grounds. Ground the block to the frame with a 10 guage wire and terminals. Personally, I would just get a new lens, they're about 30 bucks, and then get 3 new LED bulbs that are direct replacements for the originals. I put new lenses in 2 of my 318s, cleaned the reflestors, and replaced the bulbs with new ones. Plenty bright for me. Its not like I'm going fast enough to out-drive my lites!

Thanks for all the help on my headlights, I am going to look into LED plus cleaning and lense and reflector