I finished the install of the PE (Pantera Electronics) Headlight/Motor Controller.
While I can't say it was a "3 banana job", it took me the better part of a day to do the majority of the work. When you read the manual, it's a little off-putting, because of the number of steps, but once you dive in, the job is pretty straightforward, and the manual is clear. But it really only becomes clear once you make the commitment to do the install and you get under the dashboard!
The first part of the job was tuning up, checking, and lubricating the stock lift motors. It wasn't clear that mine had been looked at in 45 years. I took the headlamp assemblies out, removed the rear splash shields, and removed the buckets.
It was amazing the pile of screws, nuts, washers and lock washers pulled out of the front! While the POs weren't lubricating the headlight system, I think every time someone went up in there, they dropped a washer or two!
I cleaned up the area, lubricated the nylon bushings and the motor drive gear, and the "sector gear" on the headlight lift rod. As you will recall - I had already replaced the broken plastic gear with a brass one. My motor assembly plate needed a little fine tuning to engage perfectly.
I fabricated a little "sector gear stop" that mounts to the driver side radiator support (thanks, Rick), This simple bracket provides a stop for the buckets when extended, and is intended to reduce headlight shake when driving. Mine is based off this photo, but the execution is slightly different.
Once I was satisfied the stock system was OK, I jumped into the install of the PE HMC.
It's pretty straightforward - modification of the limit switches with jumpers, removing the stock headlight relay, mounting the HMC board, and wiring it up.
I made short 3" extensions from the headlight relay wires to the HMC board, it just made the hookups easier. You can see them in the last picture (below).
Next was a single sense harness (2 wires) to the stock headlight switch. Pretty straightforward, and easy routing.
Finally, a 6 wire harness to/from the passenger side fuse panel. For my own convenience, prior to the install, I had contacted Jon Haas (PE), and requested that he fabricate me the wires needed for this one, and the headlight switch harness. This eased the "prep" effort, I got wires with the correct color code, and I was able to create a very neat harness, with good routing from the drivers side relay panel to the fuse panel.
I had a minor "head-scratching" moment when the wires on the fuse panel that I was looking at didn't match the manual's drawing, but it turned out the wires needed are on the BACK of the stock fuse panel. The fuse panel needed to be removed from it's mount to access the three required wires. A quick call to PE (Jon) pointed me in the right direction, and allayed my concerns.
Once the HMC was connected, there is an extensive checkout procedure in the manual - an excellent plan to ensure that "bonehead" wiring errors won't damage any critical systems. I am proud to say, I passed the wiring test with flying colors!
Honestly - anyone can do this install. You just have to be careful, take your time, and follow the instructions.
I reinstalled the buckets, installed the headlights (new Toyota H4 Semi-Sealed Beams), and I am good to go for improved night driving!
Anyway - a couple of tips for those of you doing this install.....
Buy a bunch of the Yellow .250" wide terminals (for 10-12 AWG wire), both male & female. You use a lot of them throughout the project. You also need the Blue and Red ones as well, but not as many.
I used more terminals because of my extensions from the existing relay wires to the board, but having extensions certainly made the connections easier.
John Haas can build you the the harness from the HMC to the fuse paneI if you want. I felt like it was a good investment, and I didn't have multiple sizes of Gray, Orange and Pink wire.
Once you open things up - figure out how you want to mount the controller board on the relay plate. It goes on with only two attachment screws (For the L Model - the two lower holes), and you will need spacers. What I did was run long machine screws from the backside of the plate, and then used a jamb nut to hold the screw to the plate. Then I used two plastic spacers (they were different lengths because of a bend in the plate).
This is another one of these "Gosh, it's working fine, do I really want to do this?" type projects, but I hope it will take some load of my switches and wiring. One nice thing is the board has a lot of indicators that will help you troubleshoot it if things go wrong with the lighting.
Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment.
