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Depo Euro Headlamp Fix
A year ago, I bought a pair of Depo Euro Headlamps for my 1984 300D. My son complained that the left lamp was weak and yellowish. I swapped in a new halogen H4 bulb, but no difference. I found the voltage difference at the bulb was ~6 V, with most of the drop on the ground return side. The problem turned out to be on the backside of Depo's 6-pin connector. I found they had just crimped the pins against a ring terminal on each wire, then covered with apparently a glue-gun to secure the cables. I first tried soldering the rings to the pins, after picking off the glue. An ohmmeter measured OK, but later the problem returned. It appeared the solder didn't wet the pins, so they might be aluminum, as shown in the photo (after soldering).
I knew the same male 6-pin connector is used for the aft lamps in the trunk. Luckily I had a spare lamp bar so took the connector from that and made a steel bracket to secure it, as shown, using the lamp-bar channel metal. If you haven't played with M-B connectors, they are kind of nice since they have big pins which are easy to re-work. The wires slide thru a cross-hole and are soldered in place, so easy to re-use the pins. Of course, if changing both sides of the wiring, you could use any connector like the Metri-pak used in most cars since the 1990's. I get full 12 V at the 3-pin headlamp connector now and the left is as bright as the right lamp. As I recall, the right headlamp was different and had 57 "spade" terminals on the other side of the round pins. Indeed, I had trouble with those slipping off from the outset so soldered them together (brass-tin on both sides, so easy). Depo needs to hire smarter designers.
Before storing the OE connector away, I played with it a bit. I found I could insert a 12 awg stranded wire in the pin cavity, which was fairly tight, then solder and it felt secure. But, the solder still didn't appear to stick to the pin surface, so might not be robust. If those pins are aluminum, perhaps a better attachment would be to use a self-tapping sheet-metal screw, which fits the inner hole, to clamp the ring terminal tight against the pin. I would also use silicone grease so no future corrosion. That would have been easier than my repair, plus not have to scrounge a male connector.
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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans
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