(Note: this writeup describes how to perform this conversion on 2005, 2006, and 2007 KJs. Not owning a pre-2005 model, it's not possible for me to say whether or not this particular upgrade will work on earlier years. By all means give it a shot if you have an early model, but someone who is familiar with those vehicles will need to assist with the conversion if it isn't possible to perform it as described here.)For the last two-and-a-half years or so, I've had an on-again, off-again project taking place to convert the KJ's headlights to 7" sealed-beam-compatible LEDs. This turned out to be the week where it was finally (mostly) finished, and, having done this in a different way to how I've seen these conversions carried out elsewhere, figured it would be worth documenting it for anyone else who may be thinking along similar lines.
Note that this is pretty much a rough cut of the desired end result, but is close enough to complete to be able to show how it all goes together. There was a lot of figuring things out as I went, so if you see fasteners of odd lengths, redundant holes, or other signs of trial and error, they can be disregarded.
Also, this is less of a how-to and more of a what-I-did writeup. There are a number of ways to accomplish this conversion, and even using the same method on different vehicles will likely require some degree of adaptation per vehicle. Because of this, exact measurements won't be given in most cases. Having said that, it should be pretty easy to figure out what needs to happen to suit your particular case.
And If you just want to know why I went this route rather than using a different method, scroll past the installation instructions and you'll find that information there.
With that said, the main goals for the installation were:
- Ability to use any off-the-shelf 7-inch sealed beam-compatible lights
- Improved headlight output with adjustability to prevent blinding oncoming traffic
- No changes that would make swapping back to the stock headlights difficult or unfeasible
- Not using the stock headlights (or parts of them) for the conversion
- Decent aesthetics
Parts used for the conversion:
- LED Headlamps (7" sealed-beam-compatible)
- Headlamp trim rings
- JL Wrangler adapter rings (that link goes to a particular supplier; I did not buy from them and the same adapter brackets can be found for less elsewhere)
- M6x1.0 fasteners (socket-cap screws were used; feel free to change as appropriate but stick with M6x1.0 threads if reusing factory headlight mounting locations)
- Nylon spacers (6mm ID, 10mm / 15mm / 20mm / 25mm length)
- A couple of tabs made from 3mm x 20mm x 50mm aluminium flat stock
- Sharpie, silver paint pen, screwdrivers, wrenches, Allen keys, drill, etc.
Please read though the entire process before starting the conversion. While switching back to the stock headlamps at any time during the process is possible (meaning that this can be done over multiple days if necessary), better to have a familiarity with the process before diving right in.
- Bend the tabs on the JL adapter brackets as flat as possible using a vise, press, anvil, etc. On the medium-length tab, make a 90-degree bend along the fold line towards the back of the bracket. Everything doesn't need to be 100% perfectly flat; this is a case where 'good enough' is just fine.
- Remove the grille, stock headlights, and fog lights (if present) and cut a roughly 5mm wide slot in the plastic at the bottom of the headlight aperture on both sides of the grille support right above the foglight aperture. Expect to adjust the length of the slot as you go through the remaining steps.
- Note that the JL adapter brackets have either an 'R' or 'L' stamped into the long tab; this refers to the right or left side of the vehicle as viewed head-on. Slide the long tab into the slot made in the previous step (enlarge the slot as necessary), and orient the bent tab so that the bent part hovers above the headlight aperture at roughly the 10 o'clock (right) or 2 o'clock (left) position.
- Now attach the LED headlamp to the JL adapter bracket. Orient the JL adapter bracket so that the light is as centered as possible in the headlamp aperture. Once that's done, mark the spot on the inside of the headlight aperture that corresponds to the hole drilled into the bent tab on the JL adapter rings.
- On the spot that was just marked, drill a 6mm hole. Using the appropriate length of M6x1.0 screw, mount the bent tab through here using the pre-drilled hole in the bent tab. Going from the outside in, the order of how everything was stacked was screw, washer, bent tab, nylon spacer, headlight aperture, nylock nut. Tighten everything to the point where it's solidly-mounted but the JL adapter ring has some freedom of movement.
- Re-orient the adapter ring so that everything is centered and level. At this point, the long tab at the bottom of the ring can be mounted. Reusing the factory headlight mounting point (which itself is threaded for M6x1.0) or drilling new mounting holes in the grille support are both valid approaches. The important part is that the ring stays centered and level. Be sure to account for the increase in diameter that trim rings will add if you're planning on using them. Additionally, if keeping the factory foglights, the part of the long tab covering the foglight aperture will need to be removed.
- Make the aluminium mounting tabs. These were roughly 50mm / 2"-ish long in my case. Drill a 6mm hole at each end in the centre of the material, being certain to leave enough material around the holes that they'll have no trouble staying mounted in the long term.
- Attach one end of the mounting tab to the factory mount point at around the 11 o'clock (right) or 1 o'clock (left) position using an M6x1.0 fastener. On the other end, attach to the tab through one of the holes in the short tab on the JL adapter ring; space the two apart with a nylon spacer of the appropriate length. From the outside in, the stacking order should be screw, washer, short tab on adapter ring, nylon spacer, grille support.
- Repeat all of the above on the other side.
- Using the grille for reference, center and level the headlamps relative to each other. When looking at the front end of the Jeep, the lights shouldn't appear cross-eyed, one higher than the other, one further towards the outside, etc. They should also be rotated in such a way that their beam pattern will create a level cut-off pattern once everything is complete.
- Make the final adjustments to the lights' beam pattern, and attach trim rings if you have them. Put the grille back on. Enjoy
With all of that out of the way, it probably wouldn't hurt to detail why this method was chosen over the others. Note that I am by no means knocking anyone else's work with any of what may be said - the amount of time, effort, and money that goes into doing a project like this is something I very much understand and have respect for, regardless of the approach taken.
This conversion method essentially came about by accident. One night, Amazon's algorithm decided to add the JL Wrangler adapter rings into the 'you might also be interested in...' section of the page I happened to be viewing. This intrigued me, because I had been looking into various methods of having rings cut that would use the stock headlamp mount points, and every quote that came back was utterly ridiculous even in quantity. Somewhere in the region of $24 later, these ones were on their way.
By this time, quite a bit of experimentation with other methods had already been done - headlamp disassembly and reusing the bucket, cutting strips of aluminium to provide a backing frame for standard 7" sealed-beam headlight mounts, the aforementioned cutting of plug & play rings, and a few others that very quickly turned out to be very obviously less-than-optimal. And while just installing LED bulbs into the stock headlight housings worked, it didn't work nearly as well as would be preferred.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the end result. There's still some minor tidying to do, mostly around getting the mounting depth of the two lights equal, which will require some minor re-bending one of the mounting tabs. It's close enough, however, that if it has to wait until the weather is more cooperative in the Spring, it's not a big deal.
One of the items left to address is that no cover or backing material with which to create a fill-in for the open space between the bottom of the grille and the LED headlamps has been worked out yet. Current thoughts are that a hacked-up rubber floormat could work nicely, but it also couldn't really be done until everything else was in its final place. That may also be something that happens in the Springtime.
Regarding the nylon spacers: they were used rather than ones in steel or aluminium to allow for cutting them down to an appropriate length where needed. They will be replaced with spacers made of a more durable material at some point, but given that this was very much a case of figuring things out as I went, being able to easily adjust and/or mix and match their lengths easily was very helpful.
Anyway, best of luck to anyone attempting this upgrade. Having put around 500 miles on it so far (with about 350 of those being night miles), my biased opinion is that it's certainly worth the effort.
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