73-87chevytrucks.com

73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks => Electrical => Topic started by: 83LWB convert on December 09, 2012, 02:17:20 pm

Title: 83 truck with 91 Front end
Post by: 83LWB convert on December 09, 2012, 02:17:20 pm
I have a 83 Custom Deluxe that i have put a 89-91 Suburban front end on.  The lighting doesn't work on the same plug so I need to splice everything in.  Has anyone on here ever done that, was it easy, anything I need to be looking out for?  I was also curious if it is as simple as same color wires to each other, or were the wires differnt from year to year?  Any help would be appreciated.
Title: Re: 83 truck with 91 Front end
Post by: VileZambonie on December 09, 2012, 03:39:13 pm
http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php/topic,15719.msg122968.html#msg122968
Title: Re: 83 truck with 91 Front end
Post by: square81 on December 09, 2012, 04:44:46 pm
Yeah I did that swap this past summer. I actually used two harnesses to make one. I used the suburban harness for the lights and used a harness from an 85 with quad headlights from the cab to the burban harness. The colours matched up, but I would get a couple of diagrams and go over it. Still pretty straight forward.
Title: Re: 83 truck with 91 Front end
Post by: pholliday1 on December 09, 2012, 06:44:43 pm
In stock configuration the headlight voltage goes into the cab and then to the light switch then to the head lights. Which results in a small loss of voltage.when I did my frontend swap I ran power directly from battery (fused) to two relays(high beam and low) and used the wires coming from the cab as control voltage for the relays. The end result is very bright lights.with almost a foot of lift and 40 inch rubber I was looking for every candle watt I could get. That setup may be a little complicated but at the end of the day which ever way you decide to go ,just rember the basics, good connections,solid grounds a little dielectric grease goes a long way.
Title: Re: 83 truck with 91 Front end
Post by: Captkaos on December 13, 2012, 01:17:33 pm
If converting, I would run relays as Pholliday1 stated...
Title: Re: 83 truck with 91 Front end
Post by: 83LWB convert on December 14, 2012, 08:13:53 pm
In stock configuration the headlight voltage goes into the cab and then to the light switch then to the head lights. Which results in a small loss of voltage.when I did my frontend swap I ran power directly from battery (fused) to two relays(high beam and low) and used the wires coming from the cab as control voltage for the relays. The end result is very bright lights.with almost a foot of lift and 40 inch rubber I was looking for every candle watt I could get. That setup may be a little complicated but at the end of the day which ever way you decide to go ,just rember the basics, good connections,solid grounds a little dielectric grease goes a long way.

I'm not great with wiring and electronics, so I hate to sound dumb, but could somebody break that down a little more.  What parts would I need to get to make that work.  I appreciate all your help.
Title: Re: 83 truck with 91 Front end
Post by: VileZambonie on December 16, 2012, 10:34:35 am
You should probably just hook it up as explained and when you are ready purchase a headlamp relay kit like the one painless sells if you want them brighter.

The idea is less voltage drop makes the headlights brighter so sending high current directly to the headlights and controlling it with low current through headlamp relays will help.
Title: Re: 83 truck with 91 Front end
Post by: 83LWB convert on December 16, 2012, 08:32:25 pm
That makes sense.  I'll have to try that and I'll let you guys know how it goes.  Thanks for the breakdown.  Wiring is about the only thing I don't like doing myself so I appreciate all the help I can get from you guys.