A fair few of the aftermarket headlamps don't have any provision for aiming them....... those are a pain to get properly adjusted, gotta shuffle shims around, as they are never 'good' right out of the box.

 

I used a mix of NOS and replacement Sport housings. Built a relay harness using 12ga multi-strand stripped from an old saw cord. Very nice, heavy, Hella relays. I run a 9007 NightHawk hi-lo and a 100w Hella 9004 hi beam using heavy wire gauge ceramic lamp connectors. Cost effective, outstanding performance. My only beech is the Taiwanese housing seems to have a slightly different pattern from the NOS.
Aim them on your neighbors stucco wall on an empty lot, or the side of your local Walmart, and forget about the terror of 'illegal' light output. These aren't scattershot LEDs or cobbled together chineese 'projectors' with some random beam pattern.
Also, remember, your hi beams will be on only when doing about 70. So unless you are standing still for a couple hours forget the fairy tale of overheating.
I'll be home over the holidays. If you aren't in a flying hurry, I have pics and part sources I can post for you.

 

There are several HID housings for the second gens, Both just plain reflector style and true hid projectors. Problem i see is they never say who made the projectors in them. I like the idea of retrofit projectors, Then you know what housings and bulbs are in there. Retrofits you need to separate the housings from the lens then install the projectors. You need clear lens housings to do this then choose a projector that you like. A lot of the projectors have plastic housings that heat up distort and the reflective material inside fades. I'm looking at aluminum housing ones for bi xenon.

 

Man if you had some info you could share I’d love it. I don’t mind the wait.

 

here are the ones I have been looking at. They have lots of positive comments on the mopar man page and the d2s projectors are the same that was strongly recommended for my previous 4Runner.

 

Hey everyone. I’ve been up with my newborn late recently which has given me a lot of time to read about these trucks and think about my own. Before I had this truck, I had a 3rd gen 4Runner. They have a pretty active forum and like here we’re very helpful when I had a question. One thing I thoroughly enjoyed was they had a post of what they called “cookie cutter builds”. Here’s a link for reference. https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/197591-absaloms-cookie-cutter-4runner-builds-new-updated.html

Basically if you were starting out it was suggestions on what to fix or replace and what to do it with based on your ultimate goal. I understand there’s a lot of variation with different models but has anyone tried to compile a lot of information like this before? Would it be something worthwhile to compile?

Some things I see as common suggestions are the check ball delete, plenum gasket replacement, headlight relays, some sort of front end rebuild kit and cure for death wobble along.I’m

 

I like the cookie cutter idea. After working on mine since the beginning of the year when I bought it, a lot centers around the aesthetic side of things.

Front bumper cap/top replacement if cut up, flopping, or damaged; or color restoration (aka back to black)
Lower grey plastic replacement if broken/flapping around
Air dam visual restoration (back to black), addition (if missing, our trucks look really good with them), or replacement
Fog lamp plastic insert replacements if damaged or have other colors (mine had spray paint misted on parts of it)
Obviously any chrome bumper element front or rear if bent or damaged.
Ok, should have put this first: get the truck's paint to one color and one finish (gloss clear, satin, etc). :lol:

For the interior, and especially for the '98-01/02s, replace the dash top fully. LMC truck (in any provided OEM color) worked great for me.
Replacement of broken instrument bezel. LMC truck again here, but note that it, like pretty much everyone else's, is made for with the '99+ headlight cutout in mind. Those of us blessed with the '98's pull **** headlight switch have a much smaller opening, and there will be a gap. I presently have some 1/4" weatherstripping taking up the gap, but want to 3D print a better solution for myself (and anyone else!).

For a quieter ride, it'd be a few things.
Dynamat and open cell foam in the doors
3/8" surgical tubing (not cheap, gahhhh) run through the big opening in the cab-mounted weather stripping (remove stripping, lay straight, get about 15' of tubing, run fish tape through the stripping, secure tube to tape, pull tubing through. Use lots of lithium grease to lubricate as you go, including the holes in the stripping. Kind of a bear, and you really have to shut the door, but it's a very noticeable improvement. 1/4" tubing would be a LOT easier IMO.

 

Sport Headlight conversion, bought 2 NOS passenger housings, no longer available, along with a TYC aftermarket driver's side. Replaced the housings I took off of my 2000 Sport 1500. Had to cut the fender of my '95 to fit them.

30A Hella relays, now made by the People's Puppets of China, sad. Note that the coil wires of the Hellas are the same size as the LOAD wires of the EBay/Scamazon shilled cheap relays. Load wires for the Hellas, 12ga. with a weather tight connection.
The ceramic headlight connectors also 12ga.wired. What is the point of the Amazon shilled ceramic headlight connectors if they use 20ga. wires? I threw them away, went with Innova.




12ga. grounds, one on each end of the harness. Battery ground on driver's side. Only difficult part sorting out and splicing in the switch wires to power the relays. Ended up wrapping the the harness in cloth tape. If you wanted, you could also power the 'low' beam on the 9004, I capped it off. Pattern would be scattered as the 9004 center light is 'hi' only
Shrink/solder connectors are excellent for this kind of work. Amazon comes through for this one.


Hella 9004 100W high beam.
GE 9007 Nighthawk Platinum high/low, no longer made, but still around. Now marketed under Tungsram/GE. Best I have found. No light sucking 'blue' stupidity. Bought couple different Sylvania, Osram +50 in the past. No compare. Somewhat short life, like most high output bulbs, only drawback. I bought 20 NHPs, dirt cheap on closeout. Run them in my '95 and '03.
Hella parts: RallyLights.com or maybe Scamazon.
Solder/shrink connectors: Amazon
Ceramic 9007/9004 connectors: Innova Design, HeadLightPlugs.com, InnovaDD.com

 

I love hella bulbs, especially the high wattage. I am running 4 of the high wattage bulbs in sport lights with relays. I do have them properly aimed and have never been flashed by oncoming traffic. I would say the high wattage bulbs have the output of the highest output normal wattage bulbs (like the sylvania silverstart ultra) with better life and a lot cheaper. Light is a little more on the yellow/white side but I prefer that, especially in adverse weather. The high wattage in sport housings has excellent light in the ditches where it is most needed. I have the hella extreme yellow bulbs in my fog lights of my 2010 charger, great in snow/fog.

 

I definitely just read through this whole thread and took notes as I am also working on rebuilding a grandpa truck