These nifty underhood lites were standard equipment on Chevy trucks in the 90s, I remember seeing one on a friend's '88. The earlier versions didn't have the suction cup - apparently that was added later when Chevy went to an aluminum hood (Did they? I read it on the Internet, it must be so!). They can be obtained from junkyards or eBay - I was able to purchase this one NOS for $10. Its not any brighter than the stock one would have been, but its new, its far more flexible in its usage, and its in a much better location than the original. An LED "bulb" is on order for it, it should be a lot brighter. Zorba's Jeep
New Underhood Lite.
Original lite had been flooded, was corroded, wasn't in a good location, and was pretty crappy all around.
Setup to solder new pigtail onto stock wiring.
Heat shrinked the soldered wires.
Bottom of the new lite, NOS Chevy truck underhood lite. Some guys grind these
bosses down flat, but I figured leaving them would space the lite off of the
hood for a bit of isolation from sun heat - but I did have to drill them out
slightly to quarter inch.
New wiring put into loom and routed. Pocket knife there to prevent over-penetration
while drilling a mounting hole in the hood brace.
Installed. I'll never work on this Jeep in this orientation again - sunburn!
Through bolted on top through existing hole, with a self tapping
screw on the bottom. Plenty of Rust-Oleum "Red lead" primer used!
Here's the beauty of this light - 18 feet of wire on a little reel. Actual
lite has a magnetic back to stick to steel surfaces...
... as well as a suction cup for glass or aluminum!
Shown with lite on (in daytime) all the way on the back end.
Also on the back end: using suction cup.
Engine bay by nite, lite back in its little docking bay.Hopefully, it will stand up to the considerable underhood heat found in Jeeps in general, and Jeeps in Florida in particular - I have particular doubts about the longevity of the suction cup especially. The wire loom going to the OEM lite was brittle and crumbling, Jeeps are noted for being hard on underhood plastic. We'll see!
Even though I checked everything as best I could beforehand, I still wasn't sure if I had located the new lite in a location that didn't hit the intake tube when the hood was closed. Modern technology to the rescue! I put my Polaroid "Action Cam" under the hood to find out - the lite fits "just right" as can be seen in this 18 second video:
Let's not over inflate the tires!Read on for the next part!
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