Light bar wiring harness headlamp adapter

[Sam Pato]

I went to wire up my el-cheapo lightbar at the weekend using the harness it came with.

All was going to plan till I tried to connect the headlamp adapter to the headlight. Unfortunately the male pins on the headlamp bulb are different to the female pins on the adapter. The other end seems to mate OK - just the connector (with the yellow rubber seal) doesn't fit.

Anyone have a solution?

I'd prefer not to cut into the loom if I can just change a plug on the adapter.

Do MM have a special connector size I can get hold of?

Any advice gratefully received.

Cheers


Sam

[Kelso]

Sam. Get your phone down behind a headlamp connector and take photo of any labelling - at least then you know what you are meant to match. IIRC Wikipedia has some pics of different H connectors.

My NT has "H9" connectors. I tried finding plug n play harness for H9 couple years back - nothing turned up for me. Even tried to get M & F ends to make my own harness - no success there either. Ended up soldering onto wire behind RHS headlamp (more access space than LHS). Brought it out to 2 ends as have 2 sets driving lights. Ran wires through firewall by steering column.
Regards, Kelso

[spot01]

Don't cut into the loom.

Simply use an "add a circuit" plugged into the fuse box. There are a few threads on this - here is one:

https://www2.pajeroclub.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=45931

This is easier & totally reversible if you ever decide to remove the lights.

[Sam Pato]

Thanks for the replies.

I did a bit of google research and it turns out that my plug and play adapter uses a HB3 plug.

As I understand it (and my electronics are sub high school) the connector for H8/H9/H11 is the same pins - just the wattage is different.

So I've sent to China for a couple of plugs and also as a Plan B a pre-wired connector (that I can splice into on my bench).

I paid $9- for the harness which includes about 5m of wiring a switch, a relay and about 8 different plug connectors - so I'm still a happy customer. Just the light bar will be a bit of an ornament for a while (which is what it will be mostly anyway). Hopefully my parts do the trick.

I'm currently trying to justify one of the air-on-board direct fit push switches for $35-. saves me butchering the dash - but that's what I paid for my light bar!

Cheers

Sam

[Amok]

Hey Sam. I'm in the exact same boat. Bought the 4wdsupacentre spotties and wiring harness for around $20 and it doesn't fit my headlight connections.

How did you get on?

[Sam Pato]

The lightbar looks good, however the wiring is still on the workshop floor awaiting the enthusiasm to get it sorted out.

For the connector I bought these off ebay (link is too old to copy - only description)

H8 H9 H11 880 881 HID Bulb Female Connector+Male Xenon Light Xenon Socket+Plug

I cut the ends off the wrong size connector (with the kit) and put these ones on which worked OK.

I then had a look at hooking it all up and realised that all the wiring is way too long. So I took it off again. I had it working but just had the terminals loosely connected and the switch in my hand. During that process I must have fused something because the bulb stopped working. It was Xmas eve so I raced out and bought a new bulb ($50-). Turns out the bulbs are individually fused (!!!!!) - it was just a fuse. Which is good but cost me more than the light bar and loom for the bulb I don't need.

I've got an Air on board switch too which has slightly complicated matters. So I had to work out the connections and this got me to work out how the loom works (which is very simple once you've cut off the heat shrink beneath the relay to work it out)

The upshot is that I've decided that I'm going to have to cut the wiring (because each bit is about a foot too long) and remove some of the redundant wire (most notably the earth from the headlight to the dash switch). My plan is to cut all the wires at the relay remove excess and re-solder at the right length. I'll earth my switch behind the dash.

Hopefully I'll find the motivation this weekend. Life is a journey ... apparently. May be if I thought I'd ever need it I'd be a bit more enthused .

Cheers


Sam

[Sam Pato]

I'm going away at Easter and motivation to sort the car out is building.

Despite having a fair collection of connectors and wires I'm warming to the idea of the add a fuse option. I like the idea of not disturbing the existing connectors too much and potentially letting water into the plugs. So high and dry at the fuse box looks good.

Following the links above it is recommended that an 'add a fuse' type tap is used rather than simple fuse tap. Can anyone advise why it needs to be fused on the switch circuit? There is no fuse in the current loom for this side of the relay.

Also - with the add a fuse - can you still get the fuse box lid on OK?


Cheers


Sam

[Outbound Brown]

Hey Sam. I'm in the exact same boat. Bought the 4wdsupacentre spotties and wiring harness for around $20 and it doesn't fit my headlight connections.

How did you get on?

You need a H9 piggy back adaptor instead of what is provided in the 4wdsupacentre loop kit.
Stedi do one. It was about $10 delivered. The H11 will also work, you will need to remove a little piece of plastic in the middle of the fitting.

[hinsch]

Wiring harness into vehicle

Is there anywhere on the drivers side where you can feed the light bar wiring harness through into the Pajero, there is a rubber grommet for the hood release cable, but that is the only one I could find.
I have already used the rubber grommet on the passenger side for wiring to the rear etc so there is not much room left there.

[entilza72]

You need a H9 piggy back adaptor instead of what is provided in the 4wdsupacentre loop kit.
Stedi do one. It was about $10 delivered. The H11 will also work, you will need to remove a little piece of plastic in the middle of the fitting.

+1 for the Stedi H9 solution. $18 delivered these days.

The white clip connector on the Kings loom is the same as the clip connector Stedi uses for their loom. I bought the Kings loom and the Stedi H9 Piggy Back adapter and can confirm they work together without adjustment. Everything fits nicely, no forcing, no retrofitting.

https://www.stedi.com.au/piggy-back-adapter-h8-h9-h11.html

To answer the other question about how to take the switch harness into the cab, I haven't done it yet but I am intending to use the bonnet release grommet. It has plenty of room and I can easily widen the grommet with a small screwdriver by lifting the "skirt" that is against the bonnet release, not puncturing it. But I am wary of wear from the bonnet release moving each time it is pulled. Should be OK though.

I stayed away from the large wire grommet on the passengers side because 1. It already has a lot of cables through it and I may want to take duel batt cable through there in the future, 2. I didn't want to untape the existing bundle of wires, 3. I didn't want to pierce the grommet on its wall as others have done, 4. I have an aux batt tray in the way which requires removing, and to do that I have to remove the left wheel, pull down the wheel arch lining and remove a nut for one of may brackets to the aux batt tray, among other things.

[KPJero]

Hey Sam. I'm in the exact same boat. Bought the 4wdsupacentre spotties and wiring harness for around $20 and it doesn't fit my headlight connections.

How did you get on?

I was in the same boat from 4wd. Just figure out what kind of bulb your high beam is and get an adapter from ebay. I got one for under $20 delivered. No need to modify the one that comes with 4wdsupacentre's kits