It's getting dark here in North (currently it's pitch black and it's just midnight) and I wasn't happy at all with the stock (old) lights, for many reasons.
1) Only 2 bulbs burning at any time.
2) Whole current to feed them goes through the old fuses, dimmer relay and switch, resulting a huge voltage drop.
3) Inner (high beams) obviously aged to replacement candidates (Outers replaced with H4, only low beam connected)
So fix 1) with 4 new 5 3/4" H4 lights (Hella in this case), parking lights on outer ones ( Lights without parking lights á 30e from local parts store and lights with parking lights from a web shop, á 50e with delivery). Solves 3) also.
2) is a harder nut and I've used whole weekend on that. Unfortunately I forgot to measure the voltage at bulbs before I started but improvement nr1 was to clean the dimmer switch contacts (under steering wheel) with contact spray. It helped so much that reddish lights brightened to yellow.
Improvement nr2 is to use the old wiring just as driving voltage for relays and I've done most of that (one side) but then I hit a snag.
The light complex has 4 wires coming in and those are supposedly (according to the wiring diagram) parking light +12V (grey), high beam +12V (white), low beam +12V (yellow) and common ground (brown).
At least on the right side it seems that the brown wire isn't really connected to anything (anymore?) as I sometime manage to get a parking light lit with it and sometimes not. Also: If I have the main lights connected to same ground wire, none of them will burn. If I use my own ground connection, no problems with main lights but parking light is not working.
Diagrams claim that brown wire is connected directly to ground ... possibly rusted or mostly broken? That would explain why main light current (2*H4, about 10A) isn't going through but parking light (being only 4 watts) sometimes work.
What is more frustrating the lights were working OK (just very dim) when I started, augh.
On the positive side: I got a preview about the new lights (only one side) and those look very. very bright white even without engine running so I bet I was missing more than 2 volts. (I'll take a pic once I get it working so you can see the difference in brightness: It's huge.)
No major problems on hardware side, only almost all the small screws that hold the chrome ring (which holds the lights attached to the base) were rusted solid so I had to drill them out.
I think I have grounding problem now, it just smells like it.
I'll retun to this tomorrow after work.
As a byproduct: If someone wants used and old, but still usable, high beams for free (delivery negotiable, some parts as swap?), throw a PM to me. Slight rust outside and slightly sandblasted glass but better than nothing. Rubber included.