Brighter lights all around

[rt66paul]

I don't know if there is a sticky anywhere, but I would love to see a list of brighter bulbs that can be installed in place of stock(without relays and the like) - like a bulb that will fit in the backup lights, but is brighter and if they are legal of not.
I have a 1991 suburban, brighter headlights would be great, but I don't want to put in relays - brighter dash and interior lights and some to go under the running boards to make it easier to get in and out for the ole lady (who hates climbing into the truck).
A list of legal (and too bright to be legal) replacements would be nice.

Also, can a power window motor that is slow get speeded up without replacing?

 

[yevgenievich]

Relays for a window motor, lmc headlights with 9012 bulbs for front

 

[shiftpro]

Sounds like you need LED headlights anyway. This is the only path to brighter lights WITHOUT relays and heavier wiring.
Brighter bulbs will do nothing (like the goggles) without heavier wires and relays.

You can upgrade to H4 bulbs and get brighter units but again, need to step up the wiring and use relays. You can use H4 conversion light housings and LED h4 type bulbs but afaik these bulba are hot and miss regarding light pattern on the road.
I'm talking about the LED sealed beam types.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

Op are your headlights mini squares? You may be able to put in the 1 piece dual bulb set up from a 92 pick up I know my 88 pick up had mini squares and had thought about swapping in the newer one piece but the brakes pissed me off so I sold it

 

[1987 GMC Jimmy]

I can recommend the Silverstar incandescent bulbs as an improvement over stock in the square cluster and probably in everything else that's not the headlights. The square cluster is backlit, which really sees improvement from slightly better bulbs. The gauges in my car are postlit, and I tried the Silverstars with much less improvement. I'm about to the point of throwing LEDs in that one. Anyways, another thing that I think is overlooked is haze on the taillights. I got a headlight restoration kit for fifteen dollars and saved mine. The backup lights were a lot more visible then, and I haven't had to replace the bulbs yet. You should probably see if your park light/turn signal lenses need this treatment, as well. All the local parts stores around me have new sets of square body taillight lenses sitting on their shelves collecting dust so that's another option. Probably around $25 give or take for those. For the headlights, I use the Sylvania Xtrabright sealed beams on my car, and they do really well. I don't have a relay kit, and people will flash their lights at me if I forget to turn them down so I know they're doing their job well. I've heard bad things about the Silverstars in sealed beams in terms of their short lifecycle and just outright burning out, plus I like yellow light myself but as bright as possible. I feel like if I had a relay kit, I'd have it just where I wanted it, but it's almost perfect right now. Headlight adjustment is another thing. If you have a garage door that you can back 25 feet away from, see where your headlights are pointing. If one's pointing out in the woods, you should adjust. Plenty of good videos on YouTube for this. Finally, the relay kit will deliver more juice to the motor, and while I think it's a good upgrade in a general sense, I don't think it fixes the problem. Motors wear out. I finally replaced the last one of three in my Jimmy, and they run up and down very quickly using simply the factory circuit breaker setup. I don't like fooling with door guts, either, but it's something that has to be undertaken once in a while.

 

[shiftpro]

Op are your headlights mini squares? You may be able to put in the 1 piece dual bulb set up from a 92 pick up I know my 88 pick up had mini squares and had thought about swapping in the newer one piece but the brakes pissed me off so I sold it

Mini squares? ... oh '91 yeah right.

 

[Rusty Nail]

Clean the tracks+gears and lube them. Don't use wd-40...
It'll work way gooder then. Figure it's got 30-40 years of road dust on it? The doors vent to the outside, it stands to reason.

Lightbulbs grow dimmer in time. That's a fact. You could simply replace them with fresh ones and see improvement.
I bet that my interior (dash) lights would be brighter given a new headlight switch but I have no proof (yet!)

Silverstars is what you want.
M-R-D good roundeye headlights.
I like headlight visors too but only because THEY WORK.

I OWN a headlight wire upgrade + relay kit but haven't installed it. It's in the kitchen...I lost it for awhile and recently found it. The kits in question draw highlight power from the battery rather than the headlight switch. It's science. Voltage path / resistance and all that type ****.

Very crucial that I, nor my truck, end up looking like just some other ********* ****** with halo kits or led lights. No. Some of us seek more....convential solutions and these are them.
My sidewalls are taller than the curb and my truck is capable of being a truck and doing truck type things..so consider the source.

Don't forget to tip your waitress!

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[1987 GMC Jimmy]

Absolutely on the tracks. I've used silicone and dry lube so it doesn't leave residue and attract dust or get goopy like WD40 would. That's the reason I don't have any desire to go crazy on the headlights, too. I like visibility but not at the cost of blinding oncoming drivers or being a *********. And I don't tip.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[gmachinz]

Headlight switches have a built in balast resistor (that funky white cue-stock chalk looking thing inside) so while you "can" add lights that need to pull more juice to be brighter, you'd do so at the expense of the headlight switch getting warmer and warmer from trying to block extra amperage trying to flow through it.

Adding LEDs would be a better route for you if you are anti-relay with the sealed beam housings.

 

[75gmck25]

I used the relay kit from LMC truck, and it was not very difficult to install. However, it did have bright yellow wiring, so I added black wire loom around all of the wiring so that it didn't look so out of place in the engine compartment.

I was able to mount the relays on the radiator support, right next to the battery, and then connect the power to the lights from there. The way the kit works is that it uses 3-wire plugs to put it inline with your existing headlight plugs, so you do not have to cut the stock wiring at the headlights. I could literally put it back to stock by just unplugging the intermediate wiring and plugging stock wiring back into the headlight.

Bruce

 

[Affende]

I used the relay kit from LMC truck, and it was not very difficult to install. However, it did have bright yellow wiring, so I added black wire loom around all of the wiring so that it didn't look so out of place in the engine compartment.

I was able to mount the relays on the radiator support, right next to the battery, and then connect the power to the lights from there. The way the kit works is that it uses 3-wire plugs to put it inline with your existing headlight plugs, so you do not have to cut the stock wiring at the headlights. I could literally put it back to stock by just unplugging the intermediate wiring and plugging stock wiring back into the headlight.

Bruce

I ordered two of those kits. one for my 83 and one for my 84. I promptly returned them. Judging by the language and the feel of those harnesses, LMC didnt pay more tan $0.75 for the whole damn thing plus the boat ride. No thanks.

As far as no relays for the OP, the only thing i can think of would be to move to LEDs.

 

[Crispy]

I ordered two of those kits. one for my 83 and one for my 84. I promptly returned them. Judging by the language and the feel of those harnesses, LMC didnt pay more tan $0.75 for the whole damn thing plus the boat ride. No thanks.

As far as no relays for the OP, the only thing i can think of would be to move to LEDs.

We've had some pretty involved discussions about the LMC Harness and without stirring up the pot I'd like to say that while they seem cheaply sourced they do work to provide proper voltage to your headlights. I have the kit with the sealed beam conversion lights and regular 9006 bulbs and the output is GREAT.

To the OP, my feeling is that if you want brighter lights you need to wire up a relay. It was mentioned above that lights do dim over a while and thats spot on. The bulbs can last quite a long time but slowly turn yellow. For reverse lights I put in LEDs that were plug and play and they look good but having tinted windows cuts visibility. I have a set of LED flood lights that I'm going to mount next to the hitch receiver as aux. back up lights.

As for "not legal" lights, the only illegal lights are HIDs and you would have to swap out your headlight housings to get them on. I would also recommend adding a relay if you do run HIDs. They have a high initial draw and running it through your oem wiring causes a strain.

I've used flexible 5mm waterproof strips to light up my license plate on my Trans Am for years now with good results. You can get them off of ebay in multiple lengths and use them under the dash and under the running boards as you see fit. Once I again I suggest a relay with the wiring to extend the life of the product since they are cheapo imported lights and are sensitive to voltage fluctuations that would be seen if wired to an existing circuit.

 

[da_raabi]

I don't know if there is a sticky anywhere, but I would love to see a list of brighter bulbs that can be installed in place of stock(without relays and the like) - like a bulb that will fit in the backup lights, but is brighter and if they are legal of not.
I have a 1991 suburban, brighter headlights would be great, but I don't want to put in relays - brighter dash and interior lights and some to go under the running boards to make it easier to get in and out for the ole lady (who hates climbing into the truck).
A list of legal (and too bright to be legal) replacements would be nice.

Also, can a power window motor that is slow get speeded up without replacing?

As you can see from all of the responses here, relays are the way to go for almost everything electrical in these trucks. Whether its lights or windows, relays will help. These old switches pretty much always place a load on the system that, in some cases, can be greater than whatever you are trying to power. I personally used the LMC relay harness and was very happy with the results. I installed it EXACTLY the same way as 75gmck25 and have had great success. The kit has been installed for three years with ZERO problems. Probably took me 15 minutes to install because I was trying to be OEM with it.

So I am curious. What is your issue with using relays? Do you just not want to play with the wiring?

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Relays and wiring to them can be confusing for a while. I didn’t figure it out until a few years ago even though I “understood” how it worked I still had to look at a simple relay diagram to figure it out and I still glance every now and then.

And a headlight harness kit takes a lot of strain off your headlight switch. That switch gets really hot in the factory form which causes it to melt and cause light issues which is what you don’t want cruising down the highway in the middle of the night. Just do it the right way and be done with it.

 

[87silveradok20]

Does anyone know where to get the conversion housings for the 89-91 style grill other than lmc? I want to put them on my truck but lmc is the only place I’ve found and on my 87 I found there were many places that sold a similar product for cheaper.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk