Hey all.

Im getting ready to do some heavy wiring mods to my 86 TA. This has the older style, relay set up for the pop up headlights. I have an 87 with working lights, freshly rebuilt motors, and new pop up frame assemblies. Ide like to use these in the 86.

I know the basic gist of doing this is to remove all of the wiring from the 86. Then I have to move the control module, wiring and assemblies from the 87 over to the 86.

What Im curious..is if anyone has actually done the swap. And if so...any pointers or things I need to watch out for? Can all the wiring be taken care of in the engine bay? Or do I need to go inside to the headlight switch for anything... Im hoping to avoid that.

I shot Lon a message about it, since he is pretty up to snuff on the headlight systems. I know he's a busy dude though...so I thought Ide ask her. See what you guys have to say.

Thanks!!

J.

 

Gonna give this one bump. Im pretty confident that I can figure it out. And Im also pretty confident that its been done before. So no biggie if there isnt much feedback. Just looking for some reinforcement

If no one gets back to me, maybe Ill post up a thread on doing the swap over sicne I cant seem to find much about the particulars.

J.

 

I will keep my eye on this thread also, I gotta do a 91 --> 85 swap soon too

 

Im thinking that its going to be pretty simple. What Im hoping is...the output from the switch is the same. Meaning...it sends a signal to the relays and makes everything work on the 86. And it sends a signal to the control module on the 87+ and the module handles it from there.

In other words, Im hoping that all I need is a couple trigger signals from the switch and just splice them up with the control box. I think the high/low control part is separate, but I cant be positive. I only had a few wire bundles left in my engine bay after my swap, and I was pretty sure they were for front lights and horns.

Ill keep ya posted. Soon as I get some good weather to play with it, Ill start playing.

J.

 

Made some progress on my headlight "upgrade". I have my wiring figured out. Im just swapping the entire harness over from my 87. Since I already have the wiring harness modified for the LS1 set up.

But I have the headlight assemblies ready to go. Basically just consisted of putting the newer style motors on the older style framework. Its all the same stuff. So now all I have to do is plug them in and they're good to go.

None of these pics are special. But I havent seen any comparing the parts. So here they are for craps and giggles...



















Put the older motors on the newer spare assemblies I have...just incase someone wants them as a whole assembly. The motors I took off the 86 worked fine, so there is no need to chuck them. I figured Ide try to separate the light/relay system from the rest of the harness too.


J.

 

Nice work. I haven't got to mine yet... started driving my parts car as a DD for awhile. I have to admit tho, I like the older style lights, they are alot bigger than the newer ones

 

Just a small update... I moved the wiring harness from my 87 over to the 86. Thats from the bulkhead connector forward. The 87 was a TPI car...

Anyway, the harness has a lot of things deleted since the LS1 swap didnt really need much. It basically consists of the wiper, wiper module, headlight, headlight motors/control module, fog light, front marker lights, horns...and a couple other things maybe.

I hooked up power to the harness, and viola! The lights work 100%! The go up and down, turn on, do everything like they were in the 87. And I have to say... After listening/seeing those 86 headlights go up and down for the past few months, Im glad I did this. The newer motors are SO much quieter and smoother. You can hardly hear them, and they go up and down very smooth and dont thud or thunk. They are also a lot easier to put up/down manually in my opinion.... Im very glad it worked out like this and was so easy.

All you other guys would just need to strip the headlight harness/module from a donor harness, and work it into your bulk head wiring. OR just swap the entire harness if its compatable. Either way isnt too difficult.

Anyway..just my little update.

J.