Wow...I wish I had that kinda money...maybe in the summer.

 

Yeah, it is unfortunate that the cost is a bit heavy, but that is what happens when you use quality parts and want outstanding results. And it really wouldn't make any sense at all to go low grade, though I quess you could use prision labor, like China, and save some money. But that doesn't usually work out too well either, humanitarian issues aside, if you are interested in the final results.

It is going to cost some money anyway you approach it.

 

IceSaharks upgrade corrects a real problem with the 944s. The headlight harness on my 83 was made of small gauge wires. I assume this design did not change over the production of the cars. The cars were delivered with sealed beam halogen headlights. I guess that the design was appropriate for the headlight, but the smalll gauge wires that cause a significant voltage drop.

In the last 10 or 15 years, there have been big improvements in automotive lighting. The stock headlight harness is just too small to deliver the current needed to power the improved lighting system.

IcsShark's wiring harness fixes this problem. It is a high quality product that corrects a significant problem with the 944. It is expensive, but well worth the money.

When I decided that my 944 was not worth repairing after a wreck, the first thing I did was to pull the IceShark harness off the car. I put it back to stock with no problem. I plan put the harness on another car.

.

 

Steve, I don't now what Porsche was thinking when they designed the headlight system other than they never expected the car to be driven at night. All the cars were wired the same as your '83 was. Not only the thin wires, they never even put in relays to try and keep current up. They may as well just sold customers candles to wax glue onto the front end.

Remember Rennlister Ribs? He is one of the reasons I decided to make the kits available and he ended up getting kit #1 or #2. His Dad was so worried about the headlights that he wasn't so happy about riding in the car at night. Well, we fixed that.

Glad to hear the harness will live on in another car, that is why I made the wire runs a little long so you would have some spare length to work with if you transferred it.. And if you have an unusual vehicle I can always make extensions that will plug into the headlight sockets and give some more length. Though the harness has been put on the military HumVee and that is about the widest vehicle you are going to normally run into.

 

Bump this so as many guys don't have to search for it. Apparently, it is hard to find if you don't know MTM was the author.

Anyway, guys from Pelican Parts, a sponsor of Rennlist, here it is towards the front for a few hours. I have 20 packages built so you can get them quickly. I'll probably be gone for much of December so now or next year.

 

This is my next upgrade .... did anyone get this for Chrismas????

 

Nice!

 

Yup, over a half dozen guys had thoughtful wives/girlfriends/parents that swore me to secrecy and had packages shipped to their office. So, some happy campers out there.

I've also seen a lot more female 924/44 owners ordering. You don't see them post much on Rennlist or Pelican but they certainly lurk and read alot.

 

is this blinding to the other drivers? How about it being legal and will it pass state/DOT inspection?

 

...don't know about DOT inspection though.

 

No. This is well proven by all sorts of tests and the nearly 500 guys running the package. Including Law Enforcement Officers. NO REPORTED PROBLEMS. The beam has a sharp horizontal cutoff that then flares up to the side of the road for signs and such that looks like ___/ . The cutoff keeps the light on the road and not up into other drivers eyes and the stars.

Nope, in most of the USA. European lighting Code lenses have not been adopted by the USA DOT. A couple States have made them legal but I have never figured out how they get around Federal codes. I guess it is similar to Montana when they more or less threw away the 55 MPH speed limit and adopted the "as conditions warrant". That was as close as you would ever get to the autobahn in the States. The lenses are legal in Canada and most of the rest of the world.

The 100/90 watt H4 halogen bulbs are not legal on the street. But consider those regulations were written before the introduction of H7 and HID arc bulbs. So, no practical problem. In the European-Code lenses.


If they look close they will see it is an E-Code lens. Will they fail you? No one has reported a fail and there are plenty out on the East Coast of the USA where these inspections can get sort of detailed. If worse comes to worst just put the old lenses back in. Only takes 5 minutes to change out.

I'm still trying to convince a UK guy to run 100/90 H4 watt in the kit. The E-Code lens are legal there, mandatory actually, but he is afraid of MOT inspections with the 100/90. As I spent a lot of time in the UK, I keep telling him MOT isn't going to take his lenses apart to look at the bulb. If they did, just stick in some 60/55 watt standards for the inspection.

The bottom line is this is a fine improvement and won't bother other drivers. I wouldn't sell it if it was a problem child. If you doubt me just search for negative comments or problems. The package has been sold for around 4 years now. You are not going to find one negative comment.

Which is pretty remarkable. Usually, you can find someone to **** and moan about anything that they come across.

 

Sounds like a great product then.. I will be ordering when I get the funds. :-) $385 sounds like a great deal.

 

"is this blinding to the other drivers? How about it being legal and will it pass state/DOT inspection?"

Not blinding at all because the sharp cut-off means even with the 90/100 watt bulbs, less light will be hitting oncoming traffic than the stock crappy lights! I've since changed my bulbs over to 80/130 watt ones commonly used by the motorcycle guys. The even low-beam illumination across the entire road surface is simply amazing, I'm using my high-beams much less than before.

However, when I AM using my high-beams, it's usually flying across desert roads in the middle of the night on the way to my jump-zone or to Vegas. I could definitely use more long-range illumination. Got the euro driving-lights that fits in the stock fog-light only spot. With the high-beams on, I can see about 3/4-mile ahead on a straight road, but I'd like to extend that range to a full mile. Iceshark, any chance of retro-fitting a pencil-beam light into either the fog- or driving-lights position? I guess I can go for the full 7" rally lights set-up, but don't want to be too inconspicuous...

 

Danno, first I would toss those 80 watt bike lights and go with the 90/100 I have. They are only $12 a copy. I could also get you some 100 watt for the dipped beam but those don't last too long. I even have one crazy bulb here that is around 170 watts from a Dakkar vehicle. The bulbs were damn bright but were lucky to last the night. The 90's are a good compromise on light v. life. Which is why I chose them for the standard package.

I don't know what to say about your turbo driving lights, other than you are making a joke. . I don't have a replacement for them outside of ripping things apart and going totally aftermarket. Are you sure your lenses are not road rashed?

I can push out over a mile with my headlights and 100 watt in the driving lenses. Tested them again last summer outside of Sturgis, SoDak. Bikers running up and down the road with markers! he, he, he. My first trip to Sturgis was 1969. Everyone cut me a wide berth.

 

I still have 4 of the 90/100w bulbs from your kit. I was willing to sacrifice a little of the low-beams for more high-beam power. While I can see the bott's dots as far out as 1.5-miles, I kinda would like to see brighter illumination at 1 mile out.

"Are you sure your lenses are not road rashed?"

Yeah, I got some 50-mil 3M clear plastic tape to cover them up after I replaced them two years ago. The tape was slightly pock-marked by rock dings, but not badly, and lighting stayed the same after I took the tape off to check.

I think I'm going to try a couple:

1. apply thin fresnel lens to driving-light half of the driving/fog-light combo to focus beam into tighter spot.. Not sure what strength I need, so I may need a couple. Most are of too short focal length though...

2. turn up the VRM to 14.5v compared to the 13.5v I'm using now. This should give me an increase of 15-20% in lumen output. I'm planning on using another VRM downstream to put voltage back to 13.0-13.5v so as to not overpower the battery or electronics.

3. replace driving/fog-light combo with 7" pencil-beam rally lights. Shouldn't be too tough to make a custom light-bucket from fibreglass. Tougher to get a clear cover fitted so it's flush with the bumper-cover surface. Might look too wierd, kinda Subaru like.