Mine are the standard S1 flattened buckets. I remember that when I corresponded with Stern I stressed that they had to fit the S1 buckets.
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So you ended up using relays also? I bought some and they’re in a box with the lamps waiting for installation. I just need to order wire to do it. Where did you end up hiding them? I’d like to stick them in the bonnet since there is plenty of space and it would require the shortest lengths of high current wire.
But I’m stuck trying to figure out how to route two new wires past the baffle. I’m kind of averse to drilling another hole. I’m currently thinking I may be able to squeeze them through the same grommet the left headlight pigtail comes out?
Erica
You only need to route one wire and the best way to do that is using the spare Y/R (foglight) wire in the bonnet plug. It is not heavy enough but easliy desoldered and replaced with a thicker wire. I wrote up the instructions for the complete installation here:
All wiring/relays/fuses are in the front bonnet. All you need is a high capacity wire from pin 6 on the bonnet plug to the B+ (big brown wire) terminal on the alternator.
David
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David,
Yes I’ve considered this. Here’s my issue. Probably 4 times now I’ve alternately lost either high or low beams. Thankfully never both at the same time. The problem has always been the bonnet plug. Even though I’ve replaced it, and I keep spreading the pin halves apart to the point where it’s difficult to insert, eventually I’ll flick it on and get no head lights. My theory is that the pins are soft enough that they lose their tension from the high current. I don’t understand why such a robust appearing plug, is actually so flaky, but it is, and the original one was as well. If I change to a single wire, I’ll protect my switches, but lose my redundancy at the weakest link making it less reliable.
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Perhaps an odd outlier, but my OE, 1963 bonnet plug, never removed, never gave an issue.
Never…ever? It probably welded itself in. My original one only winked out once. The replacement at least 3X maybe more I’m forgetting.
In my memory, never.
I resisted the temptation to ever mess with it, out of fear I’d screw up its good juju!
David, I am a harsh critic of badly-written and unclear instructions, be they online or in paper form, so I must honestly tell you something…
There is NOTHING to criticize about this!
One of the VERY best set of instructions Ive ever seen!!
Erica,
I ran a 14 gage wire directly from the battery connection at the voltage regulator into the bonnet, with a bullet connector for removing the bonnet. I simply pushed the wire through the grommet for the headlamp wire so no new hole had to be drilled. I also put an inline fuse where it is accessible beneath the heater fan. A few wire ties keep everything mostly out of sight.
The relays are mounted to a bracket beneath the left sugar scoop. All of the wiring to the lights is new. I bought wiring with the correct color codes from British Wiring so the next owner won’t refer to me as a DPO.
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Good deal, I’ll do this. I’ll probably try to find a reasonable small weatherproof molex and hide it under the picture frame so the bonnet can still be removed. If I mount some wire clips to the bonnet baffle it will look reasonably correct.
Not that anyone would do this…
Main power to a bus bar in the relay box. Three of the relays are ignition switched - which itself is relay switched from 2 more relays behind the glove box. Two of these relays are “live” at the 30 terminal which are the lights and horn. I am a bad, bad previous owner as even the battery is swapped to the other side. I did this some time ago and even I forgot how some of it is supposed to work. The bus bar power runs unvexed from the solenoid across the back of the instrument panel (Abraham Lincoln - “Unvexed to the sea…”.
I’ve never had a problem with the bonnet plugs on either E-type I’ve owned. I’ve often wondered though why Jaguar didn’t put some kind of positive locking device on the harness end to keep it from falling out of the socket. I’ve never had that happen either, but I suspect it has happened to others in the past.
I considered running the wire through the connector but I didn’t want to get into opening up my plug since AFAIK it’s original to the car. The bonnet from my car is apparently from an early 3.8, as it had horns in it at one time. I used the horn mounting bracket on the left side to mount the relays. The installation could have been tidier, but I wanted to leave some extra length on the wires when I cut them.
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I’m pleased to report that new Cibie Z-beam H4 headlamps fit just fine in my S1 slanted buckets with no mods necessary
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You’re gonna love the lights. Drove home at midnight last week and i wasn’t driving beyond the beams.
Nice headlights, Erica.
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So far I’ve just been working on the left side because I had to fix the bonnet plug wiring, but it gave me a good chance to test the relative performance of the Cibie/Osram combination with the PL700/generic halogen combination. It’s like comparing the Close Encounters alien walking down the ramp with the candle lit scenes in Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Huge difference.
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Now just for clarity, are you saying the Cibie/Osrams are brighter? 
A “skosh”. …
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Ah, two gills + a furlong. Got it.
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