Serehill style harness?

[Mass]

My question is... Is there anyone making a Serehill style plug and play for our jeeps? If not I'd be willing to make a few to sell.

I'm planning on building the complete harness from the ground up with 12 gauge cross-linked polyethylene wire for the load side, waterproof relays, aircraft grade butt connectors and ring terminals, heat shrink, ceramic sockets, etc.

I also think it would be cool to build these to be plug and play where all you would need is super basic tools.

I'm in the process of redoing my temporary headlight relay harness with quality parts. I bought an Ebay harness and really didn't like how cheap it looked so I grafted it together using some good used shelf parts in an effort to get it working. Now I want to redo it the right way with good parts and add a special feature for fog/driving lights.

[johnsonic]

Z&M makes the harness: http://stores.zmjeeps.com/headlight-...h4-conversion/

[nograin]

Rob (screen name crackedback) will make them
and sell kits too. E-mail or PM him if interested.
He's got a prototype for the SJ's.
Here's his ad for the Chryslers.

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/plug-and-play-headlight-relay-kits.216514/

Dan Stern is another source of kits.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html

He also is one of the few in the US who tries to stock Cibie products.
Sometimes he can be a little overboard in applying his point ov view to other people situations in emails and phone calls. ie. I asked for a replacement headlight (Cibie) and in his repsonse goes on about making the sidemarkers blink with the turn signals. Uh. The wagon's fronts already do that, and my car is pre '68 so there are none.

If you just need some individual items, poke around or ask.
I like marine grade wire and I can get it from the local boating places by the foot in a wide selection of colors.
The connectors use 'Packard 56' open barrel terminals accept for the headlights themselves. They use a wider version either of the same style, or the Chrysler/Ford type that look similar to AMP Fast-on terminals.

I'll post up some links tonight if you want.

[Mass]

z&m wants $189? Jeeez! I can't afford that. I sourced all the top shelf parts and came up with ~$40 to make my own.
Looks like selling them is out the window. too much competition lol

I prefer making my own harnesses anyway. I'm ocd with it and love to watch it come together. Why does everyone want an arm and a leg for a simple harness?

Nograin, I love the marine wire for anything outside the engine bay. It's especially perfect for anything running in the frame rails or outside the cab. It's a little pricey but worth it.
I prefer gxl under the hood though due to the higher temperature rating. Prolly wont reach 125C but it seems good to me.

Packard 56 for the headlight side or relay side?

I'm thinking I'll do 10 gauge all the way and redundant relays/breakers for each side. Essentially isolating each side to its own circuit. I like the safety margin in the event of a relay failure or breaker trip. ..Also going to use sta-kon or AMP terminals wherever possible.

Think I should I do a write up on it?

[letank]

Tell us where did you source the parts?
20 years ago I used regular automotive wires and hella headlights relays and 12 gauge wires when I installed the H4 headlights
The ceramic sockets and the thermal are a nice touch


Edit: I bought Rick's Headlight wiring for the 85 a few years ago, and it was such a nice clean design, a real plug and drive.

[8man]

Rick made his harnesses one at a time, when someone wanted one. He used parts similar to what you are suggesting, in his opinion only the best parts. It was truly a plug in system! No electrical experience and you could do it anyway.

I would encourage you to put a picture of one in the homegrown for sale section, at a "more" reasonable price than some of the ones you were told about and see if there is interest. If I hadn't done both of Rick's harnesses I would be.

He also did a great tailgate window harness. We rebuilt the stock Jeep switch for RT so the tailgate switch looks stock as it sits in the dash, but works like the newer rocker switch that he used. Really simple switch rebuild. His harness came with the newer rocker switch which is what I'd recommend. If someone wants the old switch, just rebuild it to work.


Good luck.

[Mass]

How much did Rick sell them for?

I'm sourcing the parts from a few of my favorite places.
globalspec.com
newark.com
mouser.com
possibly Summit racing
Like everything, though. Cost goes down with volume.

Looking at using USA made OMRON (personal favorite) weather proof relays but price may be prohibitive.

I'll be doing a cost comparison spreadsheet on 3 different configurations.

Roughly speaking
1. 12 gauge w/summit or Hella relays
2. 12 gauge left/right full redundancy, summit or Hella relays
3. 10 gauge w/OMRON relays

I had a headlight relay straight up fail a few years ago and thank god the moon was full so I could see the road enough to pull over. I must have PTSD because now I'm weird about the redundancy.
Plus you can run 12 gauge with a HUGE safety margin when you only have 1 headlight and maybe a fog on each circuit.

I have a feeling I can make a high quality harness and sell it for around $80 shipped. Gotta see how it turns out.
Give me a few weeks and I'll have one posted over there for sale. I'll also take pics for a possible write up.

Tailgate and window regulator relays are definitively on the list.

[8man]

Mass, here is the link to Rick's headlight harness. If you read through it, it will explain how he changed what/how he built it over the years and what he charged for it. Good luck.

http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=150172

[levelhead]

I've got a Serehill harness in my 88 GW and would buy a quality harness at that price ($80) for my 77 Wag.

[Mass]

Well I mulled over the numbers and I settled on what harness I'm building. Already ordered the parts and I see why Rick used those $1.50 "Install Bay" relays. The Hella waterproof relay and plug is $28 ..but that's what I decided to use.

I'm using:
Hella 40 amp waterproof relays
delphi connectors for relay and ceramic plugs
Molex and 3M splices/ring terminals
EATON circuit breaker
12 gauge GXL wire
and proper amount of electrical tape, heat shrink, and wire loom

This will truly be a terminal to terminal build.

Also looks like if I decide to sell this harness It'll be $90 shipped

I'll post pics when I get it built. Might be a few weeks

[mark]

I'm interested in one.

[JeepsAndGuns]

I built one for my YJ and have thought about building one for my cherokee. However my biggest problem is finding a quality headlight connector. I have found the ceramic ones, and bought a couple, but the metal terminals in them were super thin and cheap. So bad, they would not even stay on the bulb.
What bulb sockets is everyone here using?

[JPSwapMohn]

I would also be interested in quality headlight and tailgate window harnesses.

[Mass]

Sounds like there's definitely enough interest to make them to sell.
Jeepsandguns, that was another problem I had with the cheap harnesses. Cheap everything.
I'm ordering TE connectivity brand aka (AMP) brand terminals from mouser to go in the ceramic sockets. Like I said earlier, terminal to terminal build. There isn't going to be a butt splice on everything. No weak links so to speak.

[nograin]

Rick's design involved splices and it sound slike what you are planning is different. More like what Rob makes and Dan Stern shows on his website. That's basically what I made for my car, except made that one permanent, not plug in.
FWIW, in the end I settled on marine in-line fuses directly off the alternator. One for high, one for low. They go to relay plugs that attached to the inner fender. The relays plug in so its easy to swap one out if it fails. For the headlight connectors, IIRC I reused the original ones because the parts store ones seemed junky.

Supplies.
Waytek Wire seems to carry better quality items in general.
I recently bought some terminals and small items from Eastern Beaver Motorsports. I noticed they offer 3 prong headlight connectors and plugs that are pretty compact. In fact one of the items I bought from them were 5/16 wide Packard 58 style terminals. Most of their products are Japanese made of decent quality. Worth checking out. Shipping took about 2 weeks.

Susquehana Motorsports may have Bosch relays. I havent looked in a while.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, Dan Stern and I think Rob both stock and sell better quality connectors and relays. If you just need a few and dont want to hunt, that's probably the easiest route.