'03 GMC Sierra 2wd build... Liv.
- Thread starter rho
- Start date
rho
Lost again
Drilled a couple holes in the roof... and lots of clear RTV, some Stainless 10-32 button head screws and nylocks inside.
Also masked and scuffed the paint on the roof and bracket faying surfaces. Silicone under the bracket feet, in the holes for the fasters, under the washers and bolt/nut, then cleaned off excess. If I had rubber gasket material that would have been preferred but I had this RTV on hand and its industrial stuff so it has good bonding and UV properties.
Here's a rough in-process shot of it all before I started bonding and torquing stuff together.
Definitely, but not to be confused with blue bands. However, none of the good 9012 or 9011 bulbs have any blue at all.
rho
Lost again
Right on. It needs new high beam bulbs so I'll give this a shot on that soon. Did yall have to do any upgrades to the wire harness at all?
rho
Lost again
Fantastic. The connectors on ours looked pretty good when we replaced the housings, but the contacts are recessed far enough in the connector that it makes it a challenge to inspect them for any surface corrosion or anything else that'd cause the resistance to be higher than expected.
Email Daniel Stern. He can provide a QUALITY wiring harness with relays that will allow the high & low beams to be on at the same time. It will eliminate the voltage drop and give the bulbs max power.
dastern@torque.net
HARN-RIKHB34H custom-built harness for two 9005 and two 9006 lamps that safely keeps low beams lit when high beams are on, for systems not originally so wired : $199
(I would have recommended the OEM Denali projector lamps as they are more focused and allow the use of the 9005 (or upgrade to the 9011/HIR1) in the low beams as well as the high beams.)
Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply
Cibie, Hella, Marchal, Carello stockists. E-code headlamps, fog lamps, driving lamp, bulbs, and full technical support and assistance
www.danielsternlighting.com
dastern@torque.net
HARN-RIKHB34H custom-built harness for two 9005 and two 9006 lamps that safely keeps low beams lit when high beams are on, for systems not originally so wired : $199
(I would have recommended the OEM Denali projector lamps as they are more focused and allow the use of the 9005 (or upgrade to the 9011/HIR1) in the low beams as well as the high beams.)
85_Ranger4x4
Well-known member
We had a customer's similar aged GMC 1500 catch on fire outside our show room window a few years ago. Smoke from under the hood and we could see fire thru the front DS headlight. Hit it with the fire extinguisher by our front door, he pulled the fuse and went on his way with his newly smoked headlight.
And that concludes my experiance with that style of Chevy pickup.
I want to put my headlights on relays, my era of Ford is bad about light switches. And nothing like that gets any better with age...
And that concludes my experiance with that style of Chevy pickup.
I want to put my headlights on relays, my era of Ford is bad about light switches. And nothing like that gets any better with age...
rho
Lost again
I've thought about getting a turnkey solution for a headlight harness for the truck, I might if I decide to go with the projector housings and higher wattage bulbs. I pulled the engine fusebox on ours apart a while back to get an idea of what it had for switched power and what size contacts i needed to get if i wanted to add circuits to it and the high/low beams are on relays on these trucks, They have the auto headlights and all that stuff so they're all driven with relays and whatnot.
The main benefits for a new harness that I see would be getting new sockets for the bulbs, having wiring for high/low beams n stuff, but the BIG one would be being able to run larger gauge wire between the contacts in the connectors to the new relays.
But... From my experience, that isn't the main factor for headlights burning up but corrosion on the contacts that the bulb mates leading to increased resistance and more heat until something fails.
Anyways, I'm about to go tear into the front end on the Sierra! Here's to hoping for the best on that project, haha!
The main benefits for a new harness that I see would be getting new sockets for the bulbs, having wiring for high/low beams n stuff, but the BIG one would be being able to run larger gauge wire between the contacts in the connectors to the new relays.
But... From my experience, that isn't the main factor for headlights burning up but corrosion on the contacts that the bulb mates leading to increased resistance and more heat until something fails.
Anyways, I'm about to go tear into the front end on the Sierra! Here's to hoping for the best on that project, haha!
Last edited:
85_Ranger4x4
Well-known member
That truck was pretty beat, it hadn't had a good life. If it hadn't decided to go hot in front of our show room window while we talked to the guy in front of it there probably wouldn't have been anything to fix.
rho
Lost again
Thats a good question... There is a good chance that we'll be doing something along those lines in the next two years. But between my wifes driving habits and her right foot, it might be sooner that that.
I had the front of it totally apart this weekend a few times to do some fit checks on some coilovers I have (spoiler, they didn't work out.) which led me to designing a shock tower that integrates with the coil bucket that is on there already.... hopefully I'll have that fully fleshed out and welded up sometime in the next few weeks. Once that is done the coil bucket will be modified, the tower installed, coilovers in and then the hunt will be on for some better upper arms that fix the ball joint angle...
One of the things I found with this 2WD IFS is that the lower control arms and ball joints actually allow for a huge amount of motion while keeping the lower ball joint angles in check. The upper control arms are the big limiting factor for downward motion considering how high they're mounted in relation to the spacing at the frame and at the spindle.
When I was doing fit checks and playing with stuff this weekend I ended up finding the point were I was binding in the joint, so I had to go with the stock springs/shocks again.
I have a few things I need to look at and to play around with to see if I can get to a point were we have 10 or 11 inches of wheel travel in the front. Right now we have about 8 inches of travel from full droop to the bump stops which isn't bad considering the stock uppers that are still on it.
I also got the new spindles in and set up, as well as getting the factory droop stops off and getting it prepped for limit straps. We're undecided if we'll keep the swaybar off on the front or not. It has a massive sway bar from the factory so we might also look at a smaller diameter one to keep the body roll in check and allow for more movement.
Currently with the springs/shocks/wider track it drives shockingly well considering the terrible stock springs, crappy shocks and no sway bar. Speed bumps basically don't exist anymore for this truck.
